Hard-drive data is organized on the disk in a large circular grid with each grid point being called a "block" or "sector" (read more about hard-drive blocks here). The tool will read the directory tree and the drive type, and then copy files so they are in the exact same directory structure and have the exact attributes (permissions, ownership, and so on) as the current ones.īlock-level cloning copies data by bypassing any interpretation of the logical filesystem structure and copying the drive's internal block-level organization. This means the tool attempts to build the new drive's data structure by reading the logical filesystem on the source drive. These two methods are file-level cloning and block-level cloning.įile-level cloning is when the cloning tool copies data from one drive to another one on a file-by-file basis, regardless of where the data for the file is physically located on the drive. When cloning, there are two methods used that may cause some confusion for people who are unfamiliar with the cloning process. While people more commonly use cloning to make functional backups of their boot drives, cloning can also be used for copying secondary data drives or putting an installation DVD on a faster medium. Clones, on the other hand, do allow for immediate booting to the backup, and therefore are quite appealing as an option.Ĭloning is when you basically make a mirror copy of one drive on another one, so the two drives are the same in both function and content. While Time Machine and similar backup schemes can create fully restorable backups of your system, the backups themselves are not bootable, so in order to use them as such you must restore them to an available hard-drive partition, which can take a number of hours to complete. Then click “I Paid” to remove the banner/ads from Carbon Copy Cloner (which would appear during backups otherwise).When discussing options for backing up or migrating data to new Macs, we frequently mention cloning as a way to do this.In the window that appears, choose a method of payment as well as how much you want to donate.Just got to the Help menu in Carbon Copy Cloner and select “Donate to Bombich Software”.If you plan on using this app, consider making a donation to Mike Bombich (for developing it as freeware).
If you are using a FireWire external hard-drive, hold down Option when you boot up your Mac and you will be able to run Mac OS X from the drive.Save any changes you make when you’re done. Now, you just need to set a time to run the backup.Click the “Save Task” button on the bottom to save these backup settings.
Check “Archive modified and deleted items” if you want the same files on both disks, but want to archive deleted files.Check “Delete items that don’t exist on the source” if you want the same files on both disks at all times.Under the Cloning Options menu, choose “Incremental backup of selected items”.
I stopped using Time Machine because it was taking up too much disk space on my external hard drive due to the way it was made to work. Thankfully, when Apple released Mac OS X Leopard, they included Time Machine, which backs up your files automatically. It’s actually something many people are fairly lazy about or they just don’t think that they will lose their data. Backing Up Your Mac With Carbon Copy Clonerįor many computer users, backing up your information should not be something to forget.