Backup a USB 3TB drive to another 3TB USB drive

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Bananabob

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#257386 30-Sep-2019 11:00

I need some help to get this job done.

I want to backup a 3TB USB drive to another 3TB USB drive and then do a regular backup each night.

I have looked at using Time Machine but this appears to back up all files on the system - not just the USB drive.

If I was doing this on Linux I would just use rsync and a cronjob. Is there an Apple equivalent and if so where would I find the terminal app on the Apple? I really have very limited knowledge of Apple.

Or can it be done with Time Machine?

timmmay

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#2327048 30-Sep-2019 11:02

You could consider CloudBerry Backup, which has a Mac version. It supports incremental backups.

Remember fire / theft / virus can destroy data on two disks that are in the same location as easily as one disk. Getting one disk offsite and offline is important if it's a backup.

Bananabob

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#2327051 30-Sep-2019 11:07

timmmay:

You could consider CloudBerry Backup, which has a Mac version. It supports incremental backups.

Remember fire / theft / virus can destroy data on two disks that are in the same location as easily as one disk. Getting one disk offsite and offline is important if it's a backup.

Thanks for your answer.

Off site backup already exists in that the USB drive is a collection of offsite files. What I want to protect against is disk corruption. If the fire/theft/virus occurs we can rebuild from the off site data - but it would be a longer job.

gbwelly

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#2327052 30-Sep-2019 11:08

Terminal is located in the Utilities folder. You can configure a cronjob and use rsync as you would on Linux if you want.

Bananabob

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#2327054 30-Sep-2019 11:11

gbwelly:

Terminal is located in the Utilities folder. You can configure a cronjob and use rsync as you would on Linux if you want.

Thanks - I thought that would be the case and it is what I know so this may be the best solution, all I had to do was find the terminal.

gehenna

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#2327065 30-Sep-2019 11:28

Would SuperDuper! fill this need? I used to use it for scheduled cloning of my Mac to an external drive. Not sure if it also does just files and folders. It's great for cloning though.

sir1963

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#2328760 3-Oct-2019 09:00

Bananabob:

I need some help to get this job done.

I want to backup a 3TB USB drive to another 3TB USB drive and then do a regular backup each night.

I have looked at using Time Machine but this appears to back up all files on the system - not just the USB drive.

If I was doing this on Linux I would just use rsync and a cronjob. Is there an Apple equivalent and if so where would I find the terminal app on the Apple? I really have very limited knowledge of Apple.

Or can it be done with Time Machine?

Get carbon Copy Cloner, it will do what you want.

Its also one of the best utilities if you want to clone your boot disk to another drive and preserve all those permissions that Apple has

Been using it for years for disk cloning.