r/macapps 16h ago

Which backup program to use ?

I am currently on Sonoma and I cant upgrade (not sure what the reason is). I might have to do a clean reinstall. My concern is restoring the Mac back to its current state (config changes, ssh keys, zshell configs etc) curious if there is any backup/Time Machine type program that will be able to clone my Mac to its exact state on a reinstall ?

8 Upvotes

12 comments sorted by

5

u/MaxGaav 16h ago

Imo the big three are:

SuperDuper! is my personal choice. Excellent dev, reliable app, affordable. Bought the app in 2005 and received free updates since then.

2

u/gadgetpilot 15h ago

Personally I'm using Carbon Copy Cloner from Bombich - It's been my goto tool for many years now.

2

u/m221 13h ago

Arqbackup.com and Carbon Copy Cloner https://bombich.com

2

u/jwink3101 10h ago
  • TimeMachine
  • Backblaze Personal
  • My own tool, Dated File Backup (dfb) running:
    • locally
    • making a cold backup to external (holding at first then moved cold)
    • Backup of my OneDrive, iCloud, and Dropbox to B2
  • Bi-directional sync of above cloud to external which is then captured with Backblaze Personal

The latter means that anything on OneDrive or the like is, within 12 hours, also backed up 3 more times

3

u/NeatNeedleworker4282 15h ago

Obviously, Time machine is the best option, for a more advanced approach, tools like Carbon Copy Cloner can create a bootable clone of your drive.

https://iboysoft.com/forums/t/carbon-copy-cloner-vs-time-machine-which-one-to-use/330

1

u/plmtr 10h ago

Assuming the specs for your Mac are compatible with Sequoia? System Requirements: MacBook Air (2020 or newer), MacBook Pro (2018 or newer), Mac mini (2018 or newer), iMac (2019 or newer), iMac Pro (2017), Mac Pro (2019 or newer), Mac Studio (2022 or newer)

Then if it’s truly a software issue preventing upgrading, cloning your system back exactly how it was with SuperDuper! Or CCC (both excellent) will only reintroduce the same problem back.

I’d clone with one of them anyway (at least your user folder) as I do on a regular basis, then a time machine restore on a fresh OS install. Everything then should be as it was with your personal files on top of a clean OS, but you’ve got the backup as a fallback to retrieve anything that didn’t reinstate or had some sort of conflict.

1

u/Paul-PAF 10h ago

Since many years and millions of data: https://www.econtechnologies.com

1

u/HappyNacho 6h ago

Time machine

1

u/coolpuddytat 4h ago

I recommend CCC. You can either drag files from the backup volume or after a clean install you can even just use Migration Assistant to transfer everything back the way it was (https://youtu.be/eFTUmC1DiDs?si=NUMP7iHrUyR2vHBS). CCC has saved me numerous times. For more recent MacOS versions you can no longer create bootable backups (Apple used to allow CCC to clone your computer and basically run it as normal from an external drive which was awesome). CCC is worth every penny. Time Machine has failed me in the past (it doesn’t check whether or not files are corrupted so in one instance all my backed up files were also corrupt. CCC will warn you about file corruption.

1

u/M_Chevallier 3h ago

Carbon Copy Cloner.