CCC Taking To long?

Tech Support
1

I’m starting to run into an issue with my backup strategy that is frustrating and looking for ideas.

Current system
Main Computer-iMac Intel (21.5-inch, Late 2013)
Time machine running to 3 different disks, 2 external hard drives and 1 RAID server. (Normally only 2 disks but one is trying to die on me so I’ve got a backup to my backup running)
Carbon Copy Cloner doing an automatic bootable backup daily to an external drive and also a full backup of my partition on the RAID that holds my picture files. Weekly find and replace corrupted files in this task.
Monthly bootable and picture file backup to a rotating set of 2 external drives. 1 is always offsite, 1 is here but in a fire proof media rated safe not near my desk.

Laptop-MacBook Air 4.2 (13 inch - Mid 2011)
Time machine backups when on to both an external hard drive and back to my main computer.
Monthly bootable backups using CCC with find and replace corrupted files to a rotating set of 2 hard drives again 1 is off site and one is in a fire proof safe.

Now the Problem
What’s happening is the weekly backup with the testing for corrupted files on the main computer takes 18-20 hours to complete on my main computer.

Ditto for the monthly bootable with testing for corrupted files on my laptop.

Even the nightly bootable backups are taking several hours each night.

I shut down my computers every night because we are solar powered. I want to reduce use during times we are using grid power. Sometimes the backups haven’t completed before I head to bed and want to shut my machines down. This forces me to either leave them running, or cancel that backup.

If I cancel then it starts up again next morning and reduces my performance on my computer while it’s running.

I’ve been through the hassle of a total failure of both disk drives and computer systems and the many hours it took to re-create stuff because of inadequate backups but I’m getting to the point of wondering whether the safety is worth it.

My original goal was to be able to get back running with everything but the last hour or so worth of work on a new computer within 48 hours. That is the time it would take to order a new computer with overnight shipping. We are hundreds of miles away from any Apple store although there is now a place to buy Apple products only 75 miles away so I could potentially reduce that to 24 hours if its during the week. They are closed on weekends.

I’m curious what other people are doing and what your time to return to operational status is from your backups assuming total hardware failure.

I am sure part of the issue is that my main computer is old enough to be a bit slow using USB drives for my backups, I have lots of data (Main computer is 939GB) and tend to open and change hundreds of files a day but still…

2

For me:
Daily backups of my iMac’s 1tb HD to an external drive tend to average about 20 minutes. Backups of 3.5tb of data from my networked Drobo to an external drive on my iMac run 3-4 hours. Backups of my 1.5 tb iTunes library on the Drobo only take a couple of minutes if nothing’s changed (I think the big variable here is the number of files rather than the amount of data). Of course, if I’ve changed a bunch of stuff or added a bunch of new files to be backed up it will take longer. All of these are to external spinning disks attached via USB 3.

What settings are you using in CCC? Have you tried unchecking the “find and replace corrupted files” option?

3

Would it be worth using some kind of cloud sync service?

Depending on your circumstances (and size of business) it may be worth investing in some on-premise or off-site cloud solution. A good option may be something such as Nextcloud this would enable you to be fully synced and can be hosted on site (if required). You could take a snapshot of the server if it was hosted on a VM (and this could be scripted) ensuring that you always have a backup.

If a Mac dies :frowning: , you just point the desktop client to the server and eveything syncs again :slight_smile: .

This is quite a technical setup but most people here are technically minded, right ? :wink:

PS - Nextcloud has apps for iOS/macOS and a Windows client.

4

If I leave the replace corrupted files unchecked it usually completes the daily tasks before I shut down. However, my concern is how much benefit I am buying with that and what happens if I drop it completely.

5

Cloud is not an option due to security issues. I don’t trust ANY cloud server with my private personal data. Not to mention that until we get our fiber optic Internet link to our house we have a pretty slow connection to the net although we are the fastest in our valley of those not on the new Elevate service. Right now we’re on a wireless Internet service. Once Elevate comes to us we’ll have 1gig both up and down and might reconsider if I am comfortable with the security. Would have to be fully encrypted both directions at a minimum.

Most of the machines in the house are running Linux. No windows systems at all, in fact no Microsoft software at all.

6

I have separate tasks to run the “replace currupted files” once a week, not a part of my nightly backup.

7

I am only doing testing of the files weekly.

24%20AM

Here is the info on the last 4 backups. The one that took 18 hours is the one that tests the files. The others are what I’m trying to do nightly.

Yes, all my hard rives are plugged directly into the Mac USB ports, not into a hub.

In addition to the size of the changes, I’m curious as to what could possibly be causing my backups to have around 27K files changed each day. I boot my machine, start upSafari, mail, calendar, Omnifocus and DEVONThink. Other apps I use daily include Scrivener and Firefox. Why so many changed files?

8

Some additional information, my internal drive is 1TB and pretty close to full, only about 60GB space left on it. But I still don’t get why it’s taking so long.

9

Hmm, the developer of CCC is super helpful and if I remember correctly might even have a support community. Give that a visit as either he or someone else might have some insight. Odd behavior certainly and most likely not normal.

10

Reporting back, there is some issue where the check files function was running all the time even though the preferences said only weekly. Setting to never check the files. running a full sequence, setting back to weekly and running a full sequence seems to have gotten the daily stuff working ok now. Developer said given the volume of files being backed up daily (near 30K) the time was not excessive.

1 Like
11

Glad to hear, so it’s resolved @OogieM? The developer is a great guy.