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So, crashplan themselves say it can't and shouldn't be done, because of hard links and how TM works... But can't it, really?! Isn't there any way around it?

Reason I want to use CrashPlan is because it does everything else I need - except easy recovery, which TimeMachine provides.

PS: "Nope, it can't be done" and a very detailed answer on why, or "do it with rsync" or something are both ok here.

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  • Note that the crash-plan issue in the link you provide is only for local time-machine backups. It does not apply if the backup is a sparse-bundle file.
    – Fake Name
    Feb 18, 2013 at 13:31

3 Answers 3

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Backups are important, right? So I'd tend to take Crashplan at their word, rather than try and prove them wrong.

However, if I were going to try and use Crashplan with TimeMachine, I'd look into backing up time machine to a sparse image, and then using crashplan to backup the sparse image. TimeMachine automatically backs up to a sparse image when doing backups to a network location. The sparse image itself is just directory containing basic files, these are used to provide the filesystem features, like hard links, that TimeMachine requires.

Whatever you do, remember to test the backup and restore process before you put any faith in it.

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  • That sounds like a nice idea. I'll try it soon enough.
    – cregox
    Sep 5, 2012 at 12:41
  • Actually, naaah... I now think the nicest part here is advising against doing it with crashplan or whatever other 3rd part! :-)
    – cregox
    Sep 18, 2013 at 19:20
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  1. Do not attempt to prove crashplan wrong. Many bad things can happen.

  2. Use the new Time Machine (since Mountain Lion) instead.

  3. Problem solved.

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For backing up my Time Machine volume, I use SuperDuper!, which correctly handles hard links on folders. I already saved my Time Machine data using the backup in place of the original Time Machine disk.

With Mountain Lion, I plan to use the multiple Time Machine disks feature.

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  • sounds like it wouldn't do incremental and, thus, making it a bad solution for day to day (unlike crashplan or timemachine).
    – cregox
    Sep 5, 2012 at 12:41
  • @Cawas SuperDuper! indeed has an incremental backup capability - the app refers to it as "Smart Update".
    – Dan J
    Sep 5, 2012 at 18:31
  • @DanJ kinda late reply, that makes this kinda valid! Also, mouviciel your answer was definitely more complete than mine... And maybe SuperDuper! even works fine with TM. But now I think it's just not worth the risk. Just update should be the focus here.
    – cregox
    Sep 18, 2013 at 19:21

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