Best workflow for backing up external hard drive to another external hard drive

Question

Level 4

1,001 points

Best workflow for backing up external hard drive to another external hard drive

I have a 2019 MacBook Pro that’s extremely low on disk storage, and I’ve had to move my iTunes (music and all other media), Photos Library and Lightroom photos all to an external drive. I’m using a Samsung T7 1gb drive and it’s about halfway full, but I’ve been pleased with its speed and performance.

My concern is the danger involved with carrying my laptop around with this drive connected—the cable has already been chewed on by a cat (not badly) and Samsung support told me they don’t sell replacements. So I want to get a second hard drive, likely the same brand, and back it up. (I do use Backblaze for off-site backups but I’d like a local backup as well.) And then find some software that’ll automatically keep the second external hard drive up-to-date with the first one.

Is this the best way to create redundancy at this point? I know I should look into a RAID storage solution, but that’s a whole new world to me and I do move around with my laptop from time to time and need access to my files.

I considered flash storage to eliminate the external drive’s cable (it’s already a pain to carry around a laptop with one drive dangling off it, so having two will be double annoying), but read it’s less robust and much slower.

MacBook Pro (2017 – 2020)

Posted on Apr 26, 2023 7:57 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Grant Bennet-Alder

Level 10

133,393 points

Apr 26, 2023 9:39 AM in response to hiddenmuse

"On the cloud" is great for sharing photos, but is not a viable backup solution for everything you have. The stuff is not under your control, and is subject to sloppy handling, arbitrary changes in policy, theft, data loss [are they making frequent backups using best practices?], and bankruptcy of the company that holds it. It can easily take three days to restore it at ordinary Internet speeds.

If you do not have a recent local, disk-based backup, your computer is like a ticking Time bomb. You are only one disk failure, one crazy software, or one "oops" away from losing EVERYTHING! Drives do not last forever. It is not a question of IF it will fail, only WHEN it will fail. In addition, you never know when crazy software or Pilot Error throws away far more than you intended.

If you are using another direct-to-disk backup method that you prefer, and you currently have a recent disk-based backup, that is great. If not, you should consider using Built-in Time Machine. Take steps to acquire an external drive as soon as possible. If you buy one, a drive 2 to 3 times or larger than your boot drive is preferable for long term trouble-free operation. Do not pay extra for a drive that is fast. (You can get by for a while with a "found" smaller drive if necessary, but it will eventually become annoying).

Attach your external drive and use

System preferences > Time machine ...

... to turn on Time Machine and specify what drive to store your Backups on. It may ask to initialize the new drive, and that is as expected.

Time machine works quietly and automatically in the background, without interrupting your regular work, and only saves the incremental changes (after the first full backup). Time machine backs up every connected drive that is in a Mac compatible format. it can not back up Windows format drives.

Time Machine's "claim to fame" is that it is the backup that gets done, because it does not ruin performance of the rest of the computer while doing its backup operations. You do not have to set aside a "Special Time" when you only do backups. When you need it, your Time machine Backup is much more likely to be there.

How to use Time Machine to Backup or Restore your Mac:

Back up your Mac with Time Machine - Apple Support

Reply

Answer 2

hiddenmuse Author

Level 4

1,001 points

Apr 26, 2023 9:49 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Are you saying that I should use Time Machine to back up my MBP as well as my external SSD instead of using software like Clonezilla to keep the second external drive up to date with the first one?

I used to use Time Machine years ago when I was using a Time Capsule as a router, but dropped it as a backup solution once I switched to another router that didn't have storage built in. I like Backblaze because I always want off-site storage, but agree I need a second, local option.

Reply

Answer 3

Apr 26, 2023 10:24 AM in response to hiddenmuse

The problem with almost every other solution is the complexity and time required to "just do backups" means they don't get done often enough.

When you have a failure and need that backup, Time machine is far more likely to be there.

Reply

Answer 4

hiddenmuse Author

Level 4

1,001 points

Apr 26, 2023 10:31 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Ok thanks, I'll look into using it again for my machine as well as external drive. (And in case you aren't familiar with it, Backblaze is a fully-fledged off-site backup program that runs automatically in the background on a schedule you set up. It's not cloud sharing for photos like iCloud or Google Photos, etc., are.)

Reply

Answer 5

Apr 26, 2023 1:05 PM in response to hiddenmuse

I heard what BackBlaze marketing is saying. It was not enough to make me sign up.

The other perspective, which tried to articulate above, is that 'on the web' is not suitable for 'everything you own' regardless of what service you use.

Reply

Best workflow for backing up external hard drive to another external hard drive

Similar questions