Maybe this will help you decide victor in Acronis/Macrium debate (revisited)

cereberus said:

For some users, Time Machine doesn’t cut it, because it won’t allow creating bootable backups

What if your OS drive failed - would you need to use clean install, and then use time machine to install all backups?

Does it need to always be on?

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Exactly this. If the OS failed you would have to reinstall the base OS and then restore from Time machine.
You can set it to manual back up only and have that back up on an external drive otherwise it takes a massive amount of space on an internal drive. These snapshots can be deleted using the mac terminal but as the article says it cannot create a bootable restore solution to get you back up and running on it's own

MisterEd said:

Acronis True Image had been slowly getting better until they made a big mistake by incorporating security with Active Protection. It made the program slow and bloated. They also seemed to care more about the security part than spending the time to fix problems with the backup function.

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This is one of multiple reasons why I only use the bootable Rescue Media ISO file (direct download link below), and use it with Ventoy to boot straight into this ISO file. So the program does not need to be installed, and so there's even less bloat than Macrium Reflect... you don't even have to mount or extract this ISO file to make it work with Ventoy. And it's a free download. Only 689MB in size. David vs Goliath actually comes to mind.

cereberus said:

So it acts like differential backups rather than incremental backups - not very space efficient depending on how many you do?

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Um no, it acts like incremental backups. Everytime Time Machine runs, it calculates what has changed since the last time it backed up and it backs up that data. I've been backing up a Mac with a 256GB SSD for years onto an external 1TB USB drive, and I've never once had to clean up space on the 1TB drive.

CornishRattler said:

Exactly this. If the OS failed you would have to reinstall the base OS and then restore from Time machine.

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That's not correct.

You can take the mac, pull out the hard drive, put in a brand new empty hard drive. Then, depending upon your mac model, you either boot into recovery with command+option+r (older Intel models), or hold down the power button (new M1/M2 apple chips). The recovery system comes down via the internet and the system will launch the system recovery tool . From there, you can opt to 1). Recover from your Time Machine Backup. 2). Reinstall the latest supported MacOS for your model 3). Run Disk Utility.

You do not have to reinstall the MacOS and then kick off the Time Machine backup.

cereberus said:

What if your OS drive failed - would you need to use clean install, and then use time machine to install all backups?

Does it need to always be on?


Am I interpreting this correctly? I would really be interested in knowing how it works?

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As stated in my previous post, if your drive fails, you can boot to the internet recovery mode on a mac and directly restore your time machine backup onto the device. No install media, or installation of the base OS required.

After reading most of this topic, I don't even know why I'm wasting my time posting here.
I'm old, grumpy and no-one listens to me anyway.
I was developing Data Backup scenarios for persons, Corporations, and even Banks, before Windows, and LONG before either of the two programs, the object of this topic, were ever even dreamed of.

Since 1997, my Backup/Restore program of choice has been "Ghost". I was working in a small PC Shop where we used Ghost to clone old and small HD's to new and Larger HD's. I've always liked simple and well written software. Ghost filled the bill. And, Ghost never failed!

Over the decades, I've tried (or at least looked at), many other so-called backup programs, including the two that are the subject of this thread. And, from the standpoint of a Computer Professional, I've found them all seriously "Wanting".
To be safe and effective, a Backup/Restore program Must Not reside on the system being backed up.
Because, it's rendered inert when that system is corrupted, damaged, or missing. Like when the PC in question has been stolen.
That happened to me, years ago, when I came home from work one day, and found I'd been robbed, and my entire computer system was GONE. My PC was easily replaced but what about my years accumulation of data files? Well, that was safely backed up on CD's that were safely hidden away, along with Ghost, on Floppy Disk, and CD. Within a day, I had my system totally restored and back in operation.

And, back when doing a Defrag of ones HD was the thing to do, I found that I could do A Ghost Backup followed immediately by a Ghost Restore, for the perfect Defrag.

Ok, I've said my say, and I'm done here. Time for my weekly Ghost backup.

Y'all have a great day now, Y'hear? And, Happy Mother's Day.

TechnoMage2021 said:

Over the decades, I've tried (or at least looked at), many other so-called backup programs, including the two that are the subject of this thread. And, from the standpoint of a Computer Professional, I've found them all seriously "Wanting".
To be safe and effective, a Backup/Restore program Must Not reside on the system being backed up.

Because, it's rendered inert when that system is corrupted, damaged, or missing. Like when the PC in question has been stolen.

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Well, you can install something like Acronis or Macrium on the host system, but with a USB recovery media you can boot from, you can execute a backup and a recovery from the USB key, so it's not reliant on the system being functional.

TechnoMage2021 said:

That happened to me, years ago, when I came home from work one day, and found I'd been robbed, and my entire computer system was GONE. My PC was easily replaced but what about my years accumulation of data files? Well, that was safely backed up on CD's that were safely hidden away, along with Ghost, on Floppy Disk, and CD. Within a day, I had my system totally restored and back in operation.

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Yeah, that's why I try to keep a copy of my backups offsite. When I worked in an office and had my own desk, I would keep one of my backup drives there. However, since Covid, we have floating desks and I share a desk with somebody, so I don't have the ability to leave it there anymore. So, it's a little less convenient, but I keep an offsite backup elsewhere. My sisters house burned down, so backups in her home did no good.

I also used to use Ghost, but that was way back on a job that I had in 1997 through 2008. I've also used Veritas NetBackup, EMC's backup (cannot remember the name), Veeam, and now Rubrick. These enterprise solutions however are way more than I need at home. Macrium, Acronis, Paragon Backup and Restore and Apple Time Machine have worked well for my home needs.

pparks1 said:

As stated in my previous post, if your drive fails, you can boot to the internet recovery mode on a mac and directly restore your time machine backup onto the device. No install media, or installation of the base OS required.

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You are still reinstalling the OS, Time Machine does not back up the OS to get you back from a bootable option, however and whatever order you have to to do it...OS reinstall = internet recovery

CornishRattler said:

You are still reinstalling the OS, Time Machine does not back up the OS to get you back from a bootable option, however and whatever order you have to to do it...OS reinstall = internet recovery

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I don't think this is right. Here is a guide, there are 2 options. 1 restores from the recovery console and it puts it back 100% the way it was. My understanding is that this restores the OS, and everything as it was the day you made that backup. The 2nd option shows how to reinstall the OS manually, and then invoke migration assistant to recover your apps and data files.