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What is the equivalent software for Acronis True Image or Norton Ghost on a Mac?

I really need to know the equivalent software at the two levels:

  1. Disk imaging that allows one to restore the entire bootable system, along with the applications quickly.

  2. Allow for incremental image creation with scheduling options. In this case one base image is created initially and subsequent deltas are then created with backup schedule.

I have been using Acronis TI for several years to create block-level disk images of my Win 7 (and prior windows) successfully. I have been able to restore my windows system within minutes of crashes.

I am using a Macbook Pro now and before I upgrade to Mavericks, I'd like to create a disk image of my MBP HD, so that if something goes wrong, I can easily recover from it in a snap.

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There are a number of utilities that will capture a Mac's disk image from a live system. CCC is one of them and works well, SuperDuper is another which also works well. But to get many of the features that would be equivalent to Ghost or Acronis... I am not sure as my needs at work are pretty simple as I only have a few Macs.

I hear that FileWave has a solution but I have no experience with it, but it might be worth investigating.

The folks at afp548.com have an active community of Mac SysAdmins and they cover a number of workflows that allow you to image large numbers of Macs in similar ways as Ghost and Acronis. It might be worth your while to check that out.

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  • Carbon Copy Cloner and SuperDuper are both excellent suggestions, especially in instances where only a few Macs are concerned. If you're looking at large scale deployment I would encourage you to check out DeployStudio and or OS X Server's System Image Utility. Personally I just use Disk Utility while booted to an external hard drive. – Mr Rabbit Oct 23 '13 at 20:13
  • This is only one computer, not a big enterprise. – Zee Kay Oct 23 '13 at 20:50
  • Steve: if I want to create a Ghost type disk image of my MBP, should I just Clone it to a disk image file (dmg)? If yes, then if I restore from this DMG, will I get all my MBP in the same state in which I took the image, including the bootable partitions etc.? Note that I have not further partitioned my MBP, just the factory config. Thanks Zoaib – Zee Kay Oct 23 '13 at 20:55
  • If it is just one Mac then CCC or SuperDuper, heck I think you can even clone a drive with Disk Utility. I used to backup before an O/S upgrade but these days I don't have any critical workflows that depend on my Macs so I just bite the bullet and install in place. – Steve Chambers Oct 24 '13 at 20:50
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I would recommend a slightly different path to recovering in a "snap" rather than seeking to emulate the Windows / PC manner of rolling back from a drive or software failure.

OS X can boot from the external drive, so I typically wipe an external drive and then install the OS cleanly. When it first boots, I migrate my data and applications from my current system onto the external drive. This tests directly whether the new OS will run with your data without touching your data.

Yes you might want to have a backup process, but this lets you run the install and poke at things before you have to commit.

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While a big fan of CCC and SuperDuper, I've grown to like QRecall as well. I set it to create incremental disk images, and it works with minimal supervision.

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http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/99290-bootcd-for-intel-macs-with-symantec-ghost/

Here is a bootdvd that you can download to start the real Ghostprogram.

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