CNET Editors' review
Carbon Copy Cloner is a simple, donation-ware utility for cloning entire drives, performing incremental backups, and scheduling ongoing backups. This app has a long track record as one of the most useful and reliable disk utilities available, and its interface and features (especially for scheduling) have only gotten better. Its also kept up with the Mac OS, adding support for HFS+ filesystem compression. Other recent updates have integrated support and documentation into the app better, speeded up recovery of files from damaged volumes, and ensured that Carbon Copy Cloner excludes the Time Machine database.
Carbon Copy Cloner makes it very easy to quickly clone a hard drive (i.e., duplicate every single file on the drive, even at the block level), or you can indicate which files and folders should be copied--and you can also direct it to only copy files that have changed since the last backup. Carbon Copy Cloner can help you schedule regular backups, too, according to any schedule you set, and it can also work with iPods and remote Macs. Carbon Copy Cloner may have a fairly narrow feature set (for example, you can't back up directly to optical disks), but it provides a lot of well-executed functionality at a low price.
Publisher's Description
From Mike Bombich:
Carbon Copy Cloner is the key to a successful backup plan. When left to a human, the task often gets tacked on to the end of a very long list of other things to do. When you eventually have a catastrophe, the data is simply gone. You know that feeling -- you just lost six years of family photos. Your kids being born, their first birthdays, their first everything. The answer to this is consistent and regular backups, placed on a schedule and handled automatically by your computer.
CCC 3 features a new interface designed to make the cloning and backup procedure more intuitive and more responsive. Users have better control over what gets backed up, and are provided with detailed information about the progress of their backup. In addition to general backup, CCC can also clone one hard drive to another, copying every single block or file to create an exact replica of your source hard drive. CCC's block-level copy offers the absolute best fidelity in the industry.
What's new in this version:
- Made several changes to the preset configurations. Both the wording and some of the settings have been changed in response to user feedback and typical usage scenarios.
- New feature: CCC now provides support for archiving and cloning the Lion Recovery HD partition. Choose "Disk Center" from CCC's Window menu to find this functionality.
- New feature: Scheduled tasks can now be configured to wake or boot the system when the task is scheduled to run.
- New feature... See all new features
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All versions:
4.7 starsout of 277 votes
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Current version:
5.0 starsout of 3 votes
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My rating:
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Results 1-3 of 3
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"clean, fast, dependable"
Version: Carbon Copy Cloner 3.4.4
Pros
Totally accurate copy of the whole system, bootable & everything. Options to archive changed files in subsequent operations; to automatically "prune" to a user-specified maximum size; to not delete other root items (not on source); very clean understandable interface. Can also set to run automatically at specified intervals.
Cons
None I can think of.
Summary
Good, fast backup utility which, unlike time-machine, produces an exact, readable and bootable, copy.
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"Best backup Software ever!"
Version: Carbon Copy Cloner 3.4.4
Pros
Easily clones your hard drive to and external drive which is bootable.
Best feature is that the cloning can run in the background. Typically I run CC about 10 minutes before I am finished using the computer each day. Works like a charm; I can continue working while CC back up my hard drive.Cons
I don't know of anything I dislike about the program.
Summary
I recommend everybody use CC. If I have a problem with my hard drive I can boot into my CC clone on an external HD and repair it (much easier than booting off the CD). If I need to reformat my main HD and re-install the OS ad all files CC's cloned backup is the way to go.
Time machine is the way to go when you encounter a problem with a file or a program and need to replace the file or program Time Machine makes it easy to replace the file or program and even revert to an earlier version.
I recommend both CC and Time Machine for backups. CC is best when a HD needs repairing since you can boot off the CC clone and either repair the disk with disk utility and if disk utility cannot repair the disk use the CC and the external OS clone to reinstall all your files on your main disk.
Time Machine is best when one file/folder/program is corrupted or for some reason is not functioning. Time Machine makes it easy to go back to an earlier verson which will work. -
"Best backup software"
Version: Carbon Copy Cloner 3.4.4
Pros
Accurate, fast and reliable
Cons
None- except the update has turned the CCC icon invisible in the Applications folder.
Summary
Tried others, but love CCC. It's easy and it does what it says it does, without fuss or error. I don't know what the recommended shareware payment is, but it's not enough.
Results 1-3 of 3
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