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Using Carbon Copy Cloner to backup selected items on your computer and to synchronize disks |
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When you want to copy a selection of files to another drive or disk image, you use the "Incremental backup of selected items" option in CCC. This is a really easy way to make a backup of just the files that are important to you, which can be particularly important if your target drive is tight on space. This option also offers a speed advantage -- only the files that have changed will be copied to the target drive. For day to day incremental backups, this is the ideal method for backing up your data and your boot volume.
Configuring what items should be copied (or not)
When you choose a disk in the source menu, and the "Incremental backup of selected items" option is selected, the "Items to be copied" table populates with the contents of that volume. Each file and folder has a checkbox next to it -- unchecking a checkbox indicates that you do not want that item copied to your backup drive. You will also notice that each folder has a disclosure triangle, just like in the Finder. Click on the disclosure triangle to reveal the contents of a folder, then you can continue deselecting items to be copied, if desired. CCC will not allow you to navigate beyond the folders for which you have permission to view. Additionally, if you deselect an item that is required for Mac OS X to boot, CCC will indicate that the target volume will not be bootable. Your target volume will be bootable as long as it meets the bootability requirements and you select to copy all required system files.
Bootability verification
CCC determines whether your target volume will be bootable and indicates this beneath the "Cloning Options" section. To qualify as "bootable", the following requirements must be met:
- The target volume cannot be a disk image -- you cannot boot your Macintosh from a disk image.
- The source and target volumes must be local volumes -- CCC cannot determine the bootability of a remote volume.
- If the Macintosh is a PowerPC Macintosh, the target device must be an internal volume or on a Firewire hard drive. Intel Macintoshes can boot from either an internal volume, a Firewire hard drive, or a USB hard drive.
- The files and folders required by Mac OS X must be present on the source volume. These include: /Library, /System, /Users, /bin, /etc, /mach_kernel, /private, /sbin, /tmp, /usr, and /var.
- The files and folders that are required by Mac OS X must be selected to be copied to the target volume (applicable only to the "Incremental backup of selected items" cloning method).
What is the "Gear" menu for?
The popup menu next to the source menu that has a gear icon is a contextual filters menu. That menu is enabled when you have selected a local volume or disk image in the source menu. In short, filters are created automatically for you when you deselect items in the "Items to be copied" table. You can edit filters and save customized filters for future use, as well as add file type filters and custom rules. Filters are explained in more detail in this section of CCC Help.
Options to the "Incremental backup of selected items" method
By default, the "Incremental backup of selected items" method will copy the selected items to your target drive, copying only the items that have changed and leaving in place any files on the target that do not exist on the source. Essentially, the two drives are merged onto the target. Often when you back up your data, however, you also want to delete items on the backup that have been deleted on your source hard drive. Select the "Delete files that don't exist on the source" option if you would like items that have been deleted on the source to be deleted from the target.
In the event that you accidentally delete a file and don't notice until after your scheduled backup has occurred, you are typically out of luck -- the file is deleted from your backup (when using the "Delete items that don't exist on the source" option). With the "Archive modified and deleted" option, deleted items are not deleted from the backup, rather they are moved to a time-stamped folder at the root level of your backup volume. Should you ever need to recover a long-ago deleted file, or simply the version of a file before last week's major revision, simply navigate to the root level of your backup volume and find the folder named with the date that the backup occurred.
What happens to data already on the target drive?
If you already have data on your target drive, the "Incremental backup of selected items" method will only delete those items if:
- You have selected the "Delete files that don't exist on the source" option and
- The file does not exist on the source
If a file exists on the source and target at the same path (e.g. /Users/bob/Desktop/file.txt and /Volumes/Backup/Users/bob/Desktop/file.txt), then the file on the target volume will be overwritten if it is older than the file on the source. Otherwise it will be left untouched.
How do I restore files backed up using the "Incremental backup of selected items" method?
If you need to restore just a file or handful of files, simply browse the backup drive in the Finder and copy those items back to your original drive to restore them. If you need to restore many files using CCC, select the drive that you backed up to as the source, select your original drive as the target, then proceed as you did when you originally backed up your drive. Carefully consider the "Delete files that don't exist on the source" option; if there are other important files on the volume you're restoring to, you don't want to accidentally erase them. Also, you may deselect the root of a volume in the "Items to be copied" table, then re-select only a few items to limit what items are restored. Note that you cannot select the boot drive as the target, you will need to boot from another drive if you need to restore directly to your boot drive.
What else can I do with the "Incremental backup of selected items" method?
In addition to backing up your data or synchronizing one volume to another, CCC also allows you to back up selected files to a disk image and to back up selected files to another computer on your network.
Learn more about backing up to disk image
Learn more about backing up to a subfolder on a hard drive
Learn more about backing up to a remote host
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