MacBook Pro Full backup

Ojustaboo

Hi, I have an M1 MacBook Pro and have all my instrument data/sound files stored on an external 4TB thunderbolt drive.

I backed up everything with the Macs Time Machine.

Last weekend I needed to restore everything (obviously have a separate backup of later documents/projects etc).

When I used to be on Windows, I used True Image to do an image backup of all my drives, which I did by booting from a USB flash drive. If I needed to restore everything to a freshly installed state, I did an image restore, and EVERYTHING was back exactly as it was when I made the backup.

The Macs Time Maschine happily allowed me to backup both my internal and external drives in one go.

But, when I reformatted my Mac (and reformatted my 4TB drive) and ran Time Machine, I had to restore each disk separately, no real biggie, I just restored the external, then restored the internal.

However, every single NI product said it needed repairing. I didn't check my other products, I probably should have, but anyway at that point, I simply reformatted again and reinstalled everything from scratch.

To be honest, on my fast broadband, redownloading all my NI, Arturia and Steinberg stuff, takes less than a day and once I've set it off and deselected the few I don't want installed, I can just leave it alone to do it's stuff. I have my Omnisphere install files so don't need to download those.

What takes all the time is setting everything up how I want, disabling usage data reporting (which is often in a different place for each product), setting everything up to use the directories I want to use on my external disks etc, remembering what preferences I had set with Cubase, setting up my Elgato Stream Deck to work with Cubase etc etc etc.

OK, it's not that I need to reload my Mac that often, if ever, I only had to do it this time because I was playing with system files and screwed up. (and it was only because I presumed I had a working backup, that I didn't try to fix my mistake and decided to simply kick off a restore instead) .

But it would be nice knowing I had a backup where if I did ever have to reformat, I can simply kick off a restore and once done have everything as it is right now.

Obviously I'd still have to install any updates etc but at least all my preferences would be set.

I'm writing an essay again, I'll shut up.

Any advice greatly received.

TLDR:

What's the best system image style backup for the Mac (not Time Machine)

mikegit

I'm also grappling with these issues now after postponing a macOS update (still on Monterey) for almost two years due to Native Access "needs repair" errors (250 plugins) reported during an update attempt.

As I was trying to calculate how many days it would take to "repair" 250+ plugins I decided to check the plugins reported as needing repair by NA. The majority are working to this day, the rest fail with compatibility errors reported but the software continues to function. Even Absynth words stand-alone but don't expect that to last.

Other incompatible products requiring updating to at least Ventura (but NOT to Sequoia) are forcing me to finally attempt to catch up. Following a year and a half of struggles with Native Access I'm looking for good news and an answer to your questing about the best system image software for the Mac. I do have Carbon Copy Cloner but I suspect Time Machine is the only way to perform a functional file system install from backups on Silicone Macs.