Overview

The best way to backup your Mac is to create a replica of your hard drive (i.e. a clone) each night. That way you can completely restore your hard drive using the clone, if your main drive fails. Below are the steps for creating the backup workflow that I use.

Hardware

You should consider using a FireWire drive for cloning because in the event that your main disk fails you can use a FireWire clone to boot your Mac. Results with USB are not as reliable. If you’re looking for a recommendation, I use an OWC Mercury Elite-AL FireWire 320 GB drive as my main backup mechanism.

Software

If you run Mac OS X you should use SuperDuper! as your backup software. It is the best program around for making faithful copies of your files and their associated metadata. Here’s more information.

Steps (Mac OS X)

  1. Purchase, download and install SuperDuper!
  2. Plug in your FireWire drive
  3. Open Disk Utility
  4. Select the FireWire disk
    (disks are primary, volumes are indented)
  5. Select the Partition tab
  6. Choose volume scheme
    (e.g. two for backup, one for scratch space)
  7. Select volumes and set size
    (backup volumes should be the same size as your main disk)
  8. Type a name for each volume
    (e.g. Backup A, Backup B, Scratch)
  9. Click Options and select GUID for Intel or Apple for PowerPCs
  10. Click Partition
    (this will erase your disk and start over)
  11. Open SuperDuper!
  12. Select MacIntosh HD as your Copy option
  13. Select [backup volume] as your To option
  14. Select Backup - All Files as your Using option
  15. Click Options then select Smart Update [backup volume] from MacIntosh HD as your During Copy option
  16. Click Schedule
  17. Set preferred backup schedule
  18. Quit running applications and click Copy Now
    (this will make the first clone of your main disk—don’t interrupt the process)
  19. When SuperDuper! finishes open System Prefs → Energy Saver
  20. Click Schedule
  21. Set your Mac to wake a minute before SuperDuper!’s start time
  22. Each night, quit your apps and sleep your Mac
    (SuperDuper! will not run if you Log Out or Shut Down)