Originally Posted By: artie505
Originally Posted By: grelber
It now has 3 partitions for various backups, including bootable clones, Recovery HD, and other stuff.

As written, that doesn't sound correct.
You need one partition for Time Machine and another for your bootable clone. You don't need a partition for Recovery HD, because when you clone your HD to the external, CCC will ask if you want it to create a Recovery HD, and if you go for it, it will carve a new, invisible partition out of the one on which the clone lives.

I'm using the resuscitated HD for CCC clones only (and maybe some other sort of data storage, since the free space is there). TM backup is now relegated to the replacement HD I got the minute [another exaggeration] the original tanked.
My computer guru assures me that the 3-way configuration leaves nothing to chance and is the way he's been doing HD-cloning with CCC for years. You are probably also right, but I'm going with his recommendations, if for no other reasons than he was able to resuscitate the backup HD and help me restore my Lion in 2013 when I had to have the iMac's internal HD replaced.