Back-up from one External Drive to another.

28 Dec 2020 15:12:23

Roy Rainford

For my MacBook Pro I have an external drive containing folders with selections of images and documents (650 GB on the drive) which I want to duplicate on a new external drive, as extra safety. (Belts & Braces).
Is the process of duplicating simply to have both external drive icons on the MBP desktop and drag & drop one icon to the other or should it be done via SuperDuper? I want to retain the same folder arrangement on both drives.

Re: Back-up from one External Drive to another.

28 Dec 2020 15:29:28

Douglas Cheney

Connect both drives to the MacBook and drag the files over

Re: Back-up from one External Drive to another.

28 Dec 2020 16:10:54

Roy Rainford

Thanks Doug. Do I have to drag the files over individually? Will the total transfer not be done by drag & drop of the drive icons?

Re: Back-up from one External Drive to another.

28 Dec 2020 17:19:27

Douglas Cheney

I would drag each individual folder over

Re: Back-up from one External Drive to another.

29 Dec 2020 12:18:06

Derek Wright

If there is a fault in the data on the first copy you will transmit the fault to the second backup drive.

If you have omitted to copy some data from your master drive you will never have a backup of the uncopied data - so my practice is to have 100% copies of all data both program and data on all back up drives. This should then give you the ability to boot off either of the backup drives (subject to the vagaries of the new operating systems)

If you use Carbon Copy Cloner rather SuperDuper you can run the two sets of backups at the same time.

Re: Back-up from one External Drive to another.

29 Dec 2020 13:30:17

Roy Rainford

Thank you Derek. "Food for Thought" there! In this case I am just copying a selection of images and documents from my iMac, as an archival store before disposing of the iMac. These externals are not intended as bootable drives. I have another external drive which is a 100% copy of the MBP HD and bootable.