# A substitute/replacement for Apple's Time Machine



## C.R. Rivera (Nov 16, 2019)

Hello all,

I have a late 2012 Imac and have noticed in the last few days that TM is either running very very slow or not even completing a job. A check on the net revealed that a number of others might have had the same issue.

Might anyone suggest other choices that will serve in the same role, that is incremental backups. I am also curious about what choices might also work as a recovery disk just like the TM option gives you with "Control-R".

Much appreciate it as the net seems full of contradictory information.

Cheers and thanks

Carlos


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## gsilbers (Nov 16, 2019)

Everyone uses carbon copy ccc
But I like chronosync since it’s easier to use.

im sure time machine is well liked out there but I couldn’t get into it so couldn’t tell about the workflow alternatives.


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## W Ackerman (Nov 16, 2019)

The only time I ever needed to recover something from TimeMachine, it cruelly crashed on me and trashed my data. I use SuperDuper for weekly full backups. But for backup of my critical files, I rely on Synology hardware and software across my production and personal network (PCs and Macs). There is definitely an investment in time to understand the power of the solution, but it has gotten far easier to use over the past several releases. I also use it for my surveillance system and for my music and video collection. 

For backup I use this:





__





Preserve your digital assets | Synology Inc.


Secure all your precious data from PC, laptop to portable devices, keeping all your backups in one place, safe and sound.




www.synology.com


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## whinecellar (Nov 16, 2019)

Another vote for Superduper. Stupid easy to make bootable bit-for-bit clones, and it has saved my bacon several times over the years. No brainer. It even preserves most software authorizations depending on method.


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## Dewdman42 (Nov 16, 2019)

I like and use CCC for full system backup. It runs nightly and backs up to a spare hdd as well as over ip to a mounted network drive

i don’t like time machine for full system backup. I do also allow time machine to backup the system but only use it to restore particular files that maybe got deleted or corrupted for some reason so I can go back in time to a day where the right version of the file can be restored.


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## C.R. Rivera (Nov 16, 2019)

Thanks for the suggestions. I just wanted to clarify a question: With TM you can restore any previous saved data/OSX, so I am trying to do the same thing with any replacement. Will CCC and/or Superduper achieve that or are they just "backup" of files only?

Thanks,

CRR


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## Wunderhorn (Nov 16, 2019)

CCC and SuperDuper are both great. The biggest advantage is that you data is not mangled into a proprietary format that you can manually access. This is the main reason why I do *not* use time machine.

The incremental backups and being able to restore things from a certain timeline is a nice idea but in actuality I would not want it as it introduces complicated mechanisms... something else that can potentially break and can get you into trouble. I use CCC (and I have used SuperDuper as well) - no magic time button but bulletproof!


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## gdoubleyou (Nov 16, 2019)

Long time CCC user no problems.


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## Sarah Mancuso (Nov 16, 2019)

I use Carbon Copy Cloner for local backups, I have it run nightly to keep a bootable backup of my main drives. It's served me well for years.

I also have a CrashPlan Pro subscription for cloud backup, which allows me to do the whole "get me the version of this file from January of last year" without having to deal with Time Machine, and with the added peace of mind that comes with knowing my data is safe even if my computer catches on fire.

Another benefit of the cloud subscription is that it backs up continuously throughout the day, too, not just overnight. I started using it after a sudden hard drive failure resulted in the loss of a project file that was created on the same day the drive failed.


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## jcrosby (Nov 16, 2019)

CCC.... Always hated TM frankly as anything TM could do, CCC has always done much better...

Daily backups? No problem... prefer to backup willy-nilly? no worries, You decide even if not the best practice...

Not to mention that restoring from a CCC drive is a lot more straight forward, (and actually usable in the worst case-scenario; like drive failure...) you can boot from that drive then clone to a target from that drive...


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## C.R. Rivera (Nov 22, 2019)

I did get both Superduper and the trial for CCC. I am trying the latter now and did start the boot process. I will have to get a USB3 drive in the hopes of speeding things up. However, can you overwrite the Mac internal with the data from the external USB? I seem to get an error about creating/copying the Mac restore folder from my Imac.


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