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cgm707

macrumors regular
Original poster
Dec 24, 2009
106
2
I am using the trial version of Carbon Copy Cloner to see if I want to buy it. Time Machine is a pain. How long does the first backup of my laptop (MacBook Air) take? I am using my Airport Time Capsule for my backup location. Any suggested tutorials for this app?

Thanks for any help.
 

h9826790

macrumors P6
Apr 3, 2014
16,616
8,548
Hong Kong
I am using the trial version of Carbon Copy Cloner to see if I want to buy it. Time Machine is a pain. How long does the first backup of my laptop (MacBook Air) take? I am using my Airport Time Capsule for my backup location. Any suggested tutorials for this app?

Thanks for any help.

The apps UI is pretty much self explained (unless you want to use the advance functions).

Just add a new task, choose your source, destination, and schedule. Then you are good to go.

However, if you use Time Capsule as the destination, don't expect any good performance. It seems the transfer speed is capped at around 30MB/s. Since no idea how much data you have, therefore, it's impossible to estimate how long it takes for the initial backup. But you may divide your total data size (in MB) by 25. That should be the estimated time in second.

e.g. If you have 100GB data to backup. Than 100GB is about 100000MB. Divided by 25 is about 4000. And 4000 seconds is about 1.1 hour. Therefore, I expect the initial backup may take around 70minutes.

In general, Time Machine is good for recovering files. But CCC is good for whole system recovery.
 
Last edited:

cgm707

macrumors regular
Original poster
Dec 24, 2009
106
2
The apps UI is pretty much self explained (unless you want to use the advance functions).

Just add a new task, choose your source, destination, and schedule. Then you are good to go.

However, if you use Time Capsule as the destination, don't expect any good performance. It seems the transfer speed is capped at around 30MB/s. Since no idea how much data you have, therefore, it's impossible to estimate how long it takes for the initial backup. But may can divide your total data size (in MB) by 25. That should be the estimated time in second.

e.g. If you have 100GB data to backup. Than 100GB is about 100000MB. Divided by 25 is about 4000. And 4000 seconds is about 1.1 hour. Therefore, I expect the initial backup may take around 70minutes.

In general, Time Machine is good for recovering files. But CCC is good for whole system recovery.
THANKS VERY MUCH FOR YOUR HELPFUL RESPONSE.
 

dianeoforegon

macrumors 6502a
Apr 26, 2011
907
137
Oregon
Using CCC after the first backup, it will smart backup only the changes. This takes very little time unless you did something really big during the day like download a movie.

CCC was on sale 40% off for Cyber Monday. You might check to see if that is still available.
 

Naaaaak

macrumors 6502a
Mar 26, 2010
637
2,068
I use a combination of Time Machine and CCC.

Time Machine to a remote drive.
CCC to a fast USB 3.0 drive (with SSD-grade memory).

Both initial backups take a while, but subsequent backups tend to be pretty fast.
 
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