Time Machine vs cloning tools (re: Mac backups 10.5+)

While Leopard (10.5) comes with Time Machine and is a great tool for automatically backing up your data, there are other options you may hear of, cloning applications which clone your hard drive, ie., Carbon Copy Cloner, Super Duper, etc. You may also hear of off-site web-based solutions.

The attached audio file is a five minute explanation describing the differences including the pros and cons. This clip is taken from the MacCast podcast 2008.5.11.

The main points to take away from the file, 1) no matter which you do, do at least one, 2) Time Machine allows you to go back in history to earlier versions of files but should your computer fail, your backup drive is not bootable, you'll have to re-install OSX on another drive and use Migration Assistant to move all of your data over, 3) cloning tools can give you a bootable backup and can be restored simply by cloning it to a new drive; but since you likely won't have enough disk space on your backup drive you'll only have one copy of your computer and won't be able to go back in history to various dates - - just the most recent copy, 4) off-site backups protect you from a fire or theft.