Question about a backup solution

[jamike]

I am trying to figure out the best way to back up my Macbook. Is it theoretically possible to back up the whole 'Home' folder and in case of a hdd crash, just replace the default/blank Home folder with my original one and be exactly where I was in terms of system settings/applications/documents?

If this is not possible, I was thinking about using Carbon Copy Cloner to copy my entire hdd. My external hdd is a ATA interface and thus I wouldn't be able to use it if my macbook hdd crashes (it's SATA). How would I go about moving the image from the ATA hdd to a new hdd?

Thanks for help.

 

[fryke]

1.) Backing up the home folder (etc.)
That certainly works and is what I've been doing for years. You back up the entire home folder plus stuff in "Applications Support" folders outside of the home folder as well as stuff in /Applications. Some apps might still require a reinstall for serialisation purposes, but most things should simply work. The restoring part is a tad more difficult, though. Being logged into the account, you shouldn't simply overwrite the whole directory. Instead, I'd copy the stuff back by hand.

2.) CCC
Simple: Don't use an image, but rather clone to the external volume directly, so it is bootable in effect. If your internal harddrive crashes (i.e. dies) you need a new harddrive. Boot from the external clone and run CCC from there to mirror it to the new internal drive.