Hi Gary, I have a Mac Pro with one of the bays used for TM. If my MBP is on the same network as the MP, can I set it up for TM backups? BTW, I am using FileVault on the MBP.
I’d also like to clone the contents of my MBP using one of the HDD partitions on the MP. I have an ethernet CAT6 handy, could I use that connect them together and simply use Carbon Cloner or SuperDuper? Would that be faster than FW800? BTW, do you prefer Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper?
Thanks!
— TM
I do something similar. One bay in my Mac Pro is a 2TB Time Machine drive. I have several computers on the network (iMacs and MBP) backup using TM to that drive over my network. The initial backup is painful, but since I don't use any of them for heavy video work the incremental backups are handled easily.
But for cloning I wouldn't use the network. Too slow. FW is OK, but I would suggest an external FW or USB2 (more common) drive as it would be much easier than setting up a partition, doing target mode, etc.
I love both Super Duper and Carbon Copy Cloner. I ended up using SD for my regular cloned backups, but only because I had to choose one. I could switch to CCC with no problem.
So simply go on my MBP turn on TM and it will find the TM HDD on MP?
Instead of buying an external HDD for clone backups, I was thinking of connecting an CAT6 ethernet cord from MBP to MP. At that point wouldn't the MP see the MBP as an mounted drive etc so I could clone, cut & paste?
In any case, FileVault on MBP will be no problem in terms of clone backups? I am doing a clone backup because I heard FileVault is relatively easy to be corrupted and brick my SSD in the MBP.
No. You have to connect to your MP and open up that drive so it is available in the Finder on your MBP. Then you can choose it as a TM drive.
CAT6 is used for networking. So you would just be networking the two machines together with an adhoc network. But you already have them connected via network, so there isn't much point. Network speeds are slower than USB2/FW -- at least in theory.
I've never tried to clone a FileVault-protected drive. But as long as SD or CCC can read the files, it shouldn't matter. Do they mention FV on their sites?
The MP is not seeing the MBP and vice versa. Looks like I need to turn something on. What do I turn on? I don't want to turn on something that would be bad security-wise.
Just read info about FileVault and both SD and CCC would have problem while logged "inside" the FV account. One user said/wrote to do clone backups by logging onto another account on the Mac that isn't FV protected, and that was his work-around. If I took that clone and put in on another Mac, would it be bootable? Would the FV account be intact?
You need to enable File Sharing in the System preferences.
FileVault only protects the user account. A user account isn't "bootable" -- it isn't the whole drive, just the account. But is creating a bootable backup your intention? Sounds like you just want to back up your data.
Of course another issue is why you would be using extreme security like FileVault but then back it up to a non-secure clone? Why do you use FileValut?
Using FV on MBP in case it gets stolen, lost etc when I take it out in airports, Starbucks etc. It would be nice to have a bootable clone, that way I could simply buy another MBP and just move the bootable clone over and I would be back in business very fast.
Another idea if bootable is not doable is to use iDisk with FV. If MBP stolen the local copy of iDisk files would be FV protected but I would have a copy in the cloud. Using DropBox there's a local copy, I think iDisk also provides a local copy?? Local copy useful when there's no Internet around. Already have MobileMe with iDisk so I have 20GB storage, but with Dropbox only get 2GB unless I pay their monthly fee.
A bootable clone is nice, yes. But if you have a TM backup, you could just do a restore from there and be back in business fast too.