Startup Disk Recovery and Repair

I'm baffled by the procedure followed.

If your main HD is borked with adequate backup, then you don't repair the HD. Instead, you verify the HD's integrity, and then just clone your last clone back onto the blanked HD, and then boot into the HD and TimeMachine restore back on top of the clone.

(Assuming a second OS X device and Firewire ports, of course.)

@Chucky Good point, although in this case the clone was two days old and also somewhat untrustworthy, so he’s taking a risk either way. To me, the conclusion is that you need to be able to verify that no important files are missing or damaged. So they should be cataloged and checksummed under a good version control system, EagleFiler, or perhaps IntegrityChecker.

"although in this case the clone was two days old and also somewhat untrustworthy, so he’s taking a risk either way"

I'm still baffled. Assuming a good TimeMachine backup, the shelf life of the clone shouldn't come into play.

You restore the clone with the MBP pro slaved in Target Mode, so your clone is left untouched and unharmed by your recovery efforts. Then you boot up the MBP into the second admin account you've had set up all this time for just this very moment, and TimeMachine back to right where you were before things went bad. Restart, and you're back in your normal user account right where you left off.

All this does a second OS X device and FW ports, which the user may not have had access to...

"To me, the conclusion is that you need to be able to verify that no important files are missing or damaged. So they should be cataloged and checksummed under a good version control system, EagleFiler, or perhaps IntegrityChecker."

While well-behaved individual apps like EagleFiler are a nice second firewall to have, I can't imagine the lack of preparation that would produce the world of hurt one would need to be in to make something like IntegrityChecker useful in one's recovery.

@Chucky You’re probably right, although personally I’m not sure that I trust Time Machine for full restores.

"although personally I’m not sure that I trust Time Machine for full restores."

Well, that's what the slightly stale clone is there for in the first place. In a worst case scenario where TimeMachine refuses to act as advertised, you only lose a few days of work to go back to the last clone.

Personally, I clone once a week, and let TimeMachine backup every four hours, since the TimeMachine backup process is so much slighter on resource usage than letting Mike Bombich's fine software do its brute force task.

If I were willing to tolerate the resource hit, I'd have CCC run every 4 hours, since I also don't fully trust TimeMachine for a full restore. But I'm happy with the redundancy I'm getting, and am willing to be where I'd be if my hard drive went blooey tomorrow. (Knock on aluminum...) Proper backup decisions are all about rational tradeoffs.

And as long as we're talking backup, why won't Amazon or Newegg start stocking Hudzees? There's got to be a market for the things beyond just me. But a 10 pack is a bit many for my needs, and buying them at the individual per-Hud (Long Live The Hud!) price just seems stupid.

I mean, bare drive docks sell like hotcakes, so why aren't Hudzees flooding the market too?

@Chucky I dunno. I use DriveBoxes from WiebeTech.

"I use DriveBoxes from WiebeTech."

Excellent to know. I was unaware of the product. I want 3, and Wiebe will deliver me 3 for $29, which is $5 less than Hudzee's resellers will.

But I'm an extreme price stickler on the accessories. No reason a big reseller like Amazon or Newegg someone can't deliver me such a bundle for $25 or $20. (Hell, I held out an extra 6 months waiting to get a good 5ghz access point for under the magic $50 delivered price point (and I'm now loving that Netgear WNHDE111), and I got my bare drive dock for free in a nice HD combo deal, so I'll obstinately wait til cases fall another 15% before I enter the market. Acquiring an proper whole rig on a budget depends on firm price discipline, even on the minor items.)

Why don't the resellers see that 3 is the magic number on these babies? Everyone wants to sell either ten or one. But one is always too few, and ten is too many for anyone just managing a single installation.

And just judging by the pictures, the build in pad in the Hudzee might be worth a slight premium...

Why the hell doesn't Tom's Hardware run a comparative review of bare storage cases. These things are crucial to any sane backup workflow. Attention must be paid!