How to create BackUp of Your system/machine by Cloning

Today, creating backup of data has become a very common issue of concern. Because most of the people aren't aware of its process and details to backup data. So, you need to know first how to take back up of your system by cloning hard drive. 

 

Here, I wouldn't go into its significance and reasons of why it is essential to backup your data and clone your Mac disk.

But I will give you expert's methods and products that you can use to create clone backup of your drive and hence protect your data from any future disaster. Here, I will discuss this information for both MS Windows and Apple's Mac machines.

But, First of all, I will define "concept of cloning and backups” .

Cloning refers to an exact replica of your hard drive, onto a second internal or external hard drive. These clones are bootable means in case of drive failure and crash you can boot your system using clone copy of your drive.

 

I have heard many people arguing that cloning isn't actually a method of backing up. Although it is true upto some extent but not completely. It is a great way of taking backup as it gives you bootable backups or clones. There are so many benefits of having bootable backup and some them are mentioned here-

1.You can test applications before actually installing them into your Mac drive.

2.One Can perform troubleshooting and move Mac to SSD or some other external drive without the need of reinstallation.

3.You can boot your Mac in unfavorable situations and also need not to reinstall apps while migrating them onto some external drive. 

 

Now, after finishing cloning process, you should make sure whether it done correctly or not. In order to check this you have to give a try to booting your Mac using clone drive that whether it is bootable or not! It means, you could be able to start your machine up from that clone of your drive in exactly the same way as you normally start with your primary Mac drive.

There are several benefits of having bootable backups one important is it gives you assurity for the protection and security of data and OS. For example: If your drive get failed to boot or crash you could have to wait for several hours to even weeks until it get fixed and your data is restored. But , if you have bootable clone of your drive you could back to business in a minute or two by booting up Mac with your clone drive.

Now, if you want to replace your drive with the new one, meanwhile you can continue your work and everything will be exactly the way it was.

Second but most essential benefit of Cloning your drive in this way also saves your money and time by keeping away recovery softwares for Mac. For replacement of drive you can simply take primary Mac drive out and put your new drive at its place.

Cloning of Mac OS X will take hardly 5-10 minutes in comparison to spend hours in purchasing data recovery software and OS X dvd.

Fortunately, in Mac OS X there are several options to create bootable clone of drive then Windows. But, it's difficult to choose the most suitable one according to our backup requirements.

After a good research, I have found a couple of Mac cloning apps that can duplicate your drive.

First talk a little about Windows cloning/backup utilities which creates exact cloned copies. Like: XXClone. This is a free cloning program which does a great job. I also used it mysself. The only problem with this application is that it is compatible only with Windows XP not with Windows Vista or Windows 7. You can easily find this program by Googling "XXClone".

I have another good option for Windows users that work well with all versions of Windows, it is Seagate DiscWizard. Discwizard is also free software from Seagate's website. One can find its download link by Googling "Seagate DiscWizard download".

But, in case of Segate Disc Wizard, the minor problem is -- it require at least one of your drives ( source drive or destination drive) to be either a Seagate brand drive or Maxtor brand drive.

But, there's a good chance you will found one of them as your main internal drive of your PC Because, these brand drives are popular,extremely common and easy to find in any local computer store. Only the availability of one of these two completes its running requirement.

I've been using Maxtor and recently downloaded Seagate DiscWizard. It seems to have no issues as long as one of your drive is Seagate or Maxtor.

Now, lets come to Mac operating system clone applications. When considering Apple Mac applications of backup and cloning people are found to be a bit confused about selection of softwares. Actually the problem lies in having less number of quality products. I have found three good softwares for Mac:- CCC, Stellar Drive Clone, SuperDuper etc. Although there are many Mac cloning software like chronosync, get backup but I figure out those three best after reading many user reviews.

All three are good products but I've been using Stellar Drive Clone as my main cloning/backup program because a big percentage of experts have recommended this software as best. So, it is what I will recommend to my clients! CCC and superduper work in the similiar way, but Stellar Drive Clone is little different in its amazing features.

Unlike Seagatewizard on the PC, Stelar Drive Clone does not require any specific brand of drive. Infact, its 2.5version supports SSD(Solid State Drive). Unlike XXClone on the PC -- Stellar Drive Clone is compatible with allmost all versions of Mac from 10.3 to 10.8.3 Mountain lion. It supports both Intel, PowerPC(G3 or later) but CCC current version will not support your Mac if it is several years old. 

 

Time taken by CCC is large in comparison to Stellar Drive Clone. Although it depends upon the quantity of data you have taken for backed up but CCC consumes comparatively very large time while taking first backup. 

 

A good thing with Stellar Drive Clone is you can continue your work while it performing clone/backup process. But CCC gives irritating pop up ads that interuupt in your work.

But you can start it and walk away, so it's not as bad as it sounds. This should be done at least once a month, maybe more frequently if you plan to make a lot of changes to the computer, like installing new software, or updating your system with a major update to Windows or the Mac OS.

Basically Stellar Drive Clone can give you the best of cloning and imaging and ensures your datta safety. It enables you to create Mac disk image that you can restore in case of hard drive failure.

Stellar Drive Clone supports SSD and also to window file formats like ExFat, FAT32, MBR Partition scheme. One can take backup of windows data partition on Mac drive. So, it can take backup of your multiboot Mac including windows data.

How to choose Best Mac Backup Software | Hard Drive Cloning

Today, there are lots of articles written highlighting the importance of Mac backup and hard drive cloning concepts.These things are meant to make you aware about your data safety against loss. Infact, 31st of April is observed as - 'World Backup Day'.

This day is another call to remind us about backup's importance for keeping our data safe no matter in which situations it might undergo. 

 

After watching out these practices of article writing etc., I have decided to do something in the same. And then I wrote down an article for Mac users, that explores every important detail related to backup and cloning process.

In this article, I will bring you some great ideas and criteria in order to choose best Mac backup and cloning software. But, before we go further in this topic, you need to know the significance of Mac hard drive cloning.

I am trying to make my readers aware of creating clone of their Mac disk so that they become more attentive for taking regular backups of their vital data.

It is good if you already have backup of your drive as having any kind of backup of your data is better than none. 

 

Here, I am telling you how can you create foolproof and reliable backups. Although everyone’s choice is different according to their requirements. Therefore, I have list of recommended third party backup and cloning tools.

Apple's Utility To BackUp Your Mac Disk:

Mac has inbuilt utility known as Disk Utility that can create image of your Mac disk which you can restore when needed. It is also used for repairing and verifying disk permissions.

Image is an exact copy of your Mac disk that can be restored further if needed. Clone and image can be differentiated in a manner that image created is in compressed form while clone of your drive is referred as exact copy of your drive or volume.

One great backup application of Apple's Mac is 'Time Machine'. If you love to backup your entire drive using Time Machine, its good idea as it fascilitate you to restore your backup later to its original state. This itself state that Time machine has feature of scheduling and incremental backups.

Why Time Machine should not be considered as the only backup tool?

Although Time machine seems to be perfect backup tool for your Mac but experts advice not to depend completely on Time Machine.

I know TM approach for backup Mac data definitely reduce risks of data loss to minimum. This demonstrates that there's nothing wrong with TM backups. Its incremental backups are valuable, but it's not the only thing that we should totally rely upon. This means there are some more important aspects to be considered that TM couldn't perform. 

 

Time Machine runs as a background process, silently in your Mac, which is its another good feature that we found in a good backup tool. But, in order to protect your data completely and for creating bootable backups you must have some reliable backup and cloning software. 

 

I have also heard and read horror stories in forums where Time Machine has failed in updating itself. This is another reason of having another backup tool (Third party tool) if you really value your data.

Problems with TM:

• If your Time capsule (backup device that works wirelessly with Time machine in your OS X) gets failed to power up , one can't access his backup data. So, you need to have time capsule in order to access your data.

• Time Machine takes a long time while restoring your disk. TM can take several hours to days depending on the quantity of data you backed up.

• This is not the only problem but you can’t do anything else on your Mac while restoring.

So, I always recommend a second backup type i.e a bootable duplicate copy. Bootable duplicate is a complete copy of your startup disk on some external hard drive, with all default Mac apps in such a way that you can start your Mac with this duplicate bootable copy or Clone of your disk.

Hard drive Cloning Concepts and reasons why to clone your Mac drive:

Cloning of your data and OS X is essential in situationes like drive crash,failure because one can back to his work by booting his Mac using cloned disk. Clones are said to be bootable backups. But, before get into the essential details of creating bootable clone of Mac disk, lets talk some prominent reasons and benefits of doing this .

• Cloning gives a functional backup of your entire Mac disk:

By performing cloning on your Mac hard drive, you are actually creating an exact copy or backup of your entire drive, this includes system files,users files and all default apps. Since this is an exact copy of your Mac hard drive, you can even boot with your Clone. Just plug it in your Mac and keep the 'option' key pressed during boot-up and select the clone drive to boot from.

• Cloning is useful in testing applications and also trouble shooting issues

The Clone of your drive can be useful for testing new applications or software updates before actually installing them into your machine.

Also, in case of any problem, you can check whether the problem is in software or hardware by booting it up using clone.

• Replacement of primary hard drive

In case of a Hard Drive failure/crash or corruption, you could be disable to work for hours or even weeks before your primary drive get fixed and data restored. Instead, if you have bootable clone of your Mac, you could be back in business immediately by simply plugging your clone drive.

Best Mac backup software that makes bootable backup easy:
 

Although most of Mac users are well aware of the importance of backup and clone of their drive but it's true that many people are complacent and have trust on their hardware. These people should not forget that hardware technology is not responsible for your data protection. According to google study on rates of hard drive failure, it released that 3% of hard drives get failed within three months of usage. So, if you depend on your hardware you are creating the risk of losing everything - music, photos, projects, ppt and confidential documents. Everything!

So, if you haven't backed up your Mac yet, your data will be in danger zone. Just supppose what will happen if your drive is one of that 3% .

So, the mantra for every Mac user should be:

Back up Mac and clone mac drive!

You should not forget that without a reliable backup plan, each day you are theselves giving chances that all your precious data could be lost.

Now, its time to talk about some great Mac backup and cloning utilities. Below I have mentioned review of two best backup/cloning Mac software after testing a selection of backup and cloning utilities for the ease of use, reliability, interface design,value for money and assessing any extra options. You can decide by reading through these reviews that which application you should opt for according to your requirements?

A good backup and cloning application is the one that does its job quietly, quickly, effectively and reliably.

So, just go through the following reviews and find your best Mac backup/cloning software.

When I seached for the same, I have came across these applications: Carbon Copy Cloner and Stellar Drive Clone to clone mac hard drive.

Features	Stellar Drive Clone: Cloning,imaging and backup software.	Carbon Copy Cloner: Cloning and backup software.(give Incremental bcakups)
Ease of use	Easy to undersatnd interface, quickly works and allows you to do your work while cloning.	Interactive interface, fast working but interuupt your working by giving lots of pop ups while cloning in progress.
Aspects	It can create bootable clone of your disk and bootable image too that you can restore further.	It can create bootable clone and you can synchronize and schedule your backups.
Price	$39	$39.95
Extra option	It supports SSD(Solid State Drive) and can create clone of your window data on your Mac.	It can't create backup of windows partition on Mac and doesn't support SSD.

From these two cloning software for Mac, Stellar Drive Clone is the better solution.

Hard Drive Partitioning Software for Mac

Saving all the data at a single location on the hard drive not only messes up the storage, but also produces ambiguity whenever you rename a file and it is found as existing already. Moreover, it is not in user’s favour to store data with system files, as it can be unsafe for both system files and the data. Therefore, to avoid such issues and to improve data storage scheme significantly, operating systems allow the users to partition the hard drives into several partitions of similar and dissimilar sizes. In addition to hard drive partitioning, Mac OS X facilitates modifying, erasing, deleting, and other disk related activities to be performed using a single functional unit termed as Disk Utility. Let us go through Disk Utility and follow the process to split up the Mac drive into desired number of partitions easily.

As the very first step, you need to click Go menu in the desktop menu bar and choose Applications in the context menu. Among the Applications, look for the utilities folder. Open utilities folder and launch Disk Utility. 

Now, select the hard drive (In case of multiple hard drives, you can recognize the source drive with its name, which is similar to that of its manufacturer) in the left pane of the Disk Utility window, and simultaneously go to the partition tab in the right pane. If the entire drive is a single partition, you need to hold its boundary in the graphical view and drag the partition upward to shrink it. Else, resize the other existing partitions to free up the space. Now, you can see the unallocated space below these partitions.

 Select the free space and choose the number of partitions to create from the Volume Scheme drop-down list. Rename, choose a file format, and specify the size for every partition individually. After everything is done, click Apply to save the changes.

Well, Instead of using Disk Utility to split up the Mac drive into desired number of partitions, lots of Mac users like to go with Mac partitioning software, thereby reporting Disk Utility as confusing and hard to deal with. Partitioning Mac drive using any external software is in favor of the users only if they have the proper knowledge of the software. In spite of Disk Utility, you can certainly opt for a good partition software to split up the Mac drive into different volumes, but make sure it is developed by authorized developers. Download and use free/trial versions of partitioning software for Mac from the Internet, and upgrade to a full version of the one which results the best.

Alternatively, you can consult with software professionals before purchasing any Mac partitioning software.

Clone Mac Drive using Stellar Drive Clone

Cloning a Mac hard drive not only ensures that the hard is backed up, but that you can use the clone of the hard drive as an alternative to the current boot drive anytime. However, the process requires another hard drive to be attached to the Mac machine in order to save the clone successfully. 

Disk Utility in Mac OS X facilitates cloning the complete Mac hard drive, but the users are often seen complaining Disk Utility is hard to work with. Then why to toil for something that is known for not resulting productively? In such situations, the user certainly wishes for a software that can work the way he wants. After all, nobody wants to lose his essential data. 

Although cloning the complete Mac hard drive is sophisticated and time-consuming, but with Stellar Drive Clone software the process of cloning Mac drive becomes much simplified and productive. Apart from cloning the complete hard drive, this software also facilitates imaging the complete hard drive as well as the individual volumes, creating a bootable DVD using current boot volume, restoring a volume, and much more. Most importantly, user does not have to sit around until the process is completed successfully. Let us go through the steps involved in the process of hard drive cloning using Stellar Drive Clone:

Attach an external hard drive with either equal or greater size as compared to the current boot drive, and let the system detect it.

• Launch Stellar Drive Clone.
• On the home screen, select the Clone module in the left pane. On the right, choose the option ‘Clone Drive’.
• Choose your current boot drive as the source drive in the Select Source window.
• Select the external hard drive as the target drive in the Select Destination window.
• Click Continue to start the process.
  
  

  

  
  

Note 1: A dialog box appears asking you to choose the cloning option. For efficient use of disk space, select ‘Resize volume(s) on destination drive’. 

Note 2: Before the process to clone your Mac is started, Stellar Drive Clone software formats the destination drive. Make sure the destination drive does not contain your essential data.

Once the cloning is finished, boot from the clone drive to check whether the process was completed successfully. If you are able to boot from the clone drive, cloning was successful. Now, you can use the clone drive as an alternative to your current boot drive.

In addition, Stellar Drive Clone supports HFS, HFS+, FAT, and exFAT based Mac volumes. Therefore, you can also clone a USB flash drive (i.e. Pen drive). The software also works efficiently on volumes with Master Boot Record as the Partition Map Scheme.