[X4U] Re: Using external HDD

[Randy B.Singer]

Cornett said:

>> >  how do I create a boot volume mirror?
>> By using one of several utilities which clone boot volumes. Carbon Copy
>> Cloner is a popular one, but you can also use Disk Utility -- see
>> <http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=152350>
>May I suggest, that all do save lotz of time, heartache, etc.
>by taking the time to go thru these few pages, saving them
>to HD, bookmarking them for return later(whatever it takes),
>from well 'rounded Mac Guru Randy B. Singer at:
><http://www.macattorney.com/tutorial.html>
>and altho the focus is not on tigger specificially, it most
>certainly does on OSX purty much across the board, and
>I'm sure will be found most helpful by most. imnsho
>Then, there's always the ever downloadable "Take Contol.."
>series of $5(iirc) .pdf books to consider.


Thank you for the kind words, Bill, but the page that you referenced only 
really covers Jaguar (OS X 10.2).

My Jaguar page (OS X 10.3) is at:
http://www.macattorney.com/panther.html 

But I don't have a Tiger page up yet, and neither of the above pages 
cover backing up, so they don't answer dZ's question.

To specifically answer dZ's question, there are three very popular ways 
to create a bootable clone of your hard drive, two of which are more or 
less free, and a bunch more if you are willing to spend some money.

1) There is Carbon Copy Cloner (free):
http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html
CCC is not yet fully compatible with Tiger, but there is a simple 
work-around posted at:
http://forums.bombich.com/viewtopic.php?t=5264 

2) In the Disk Utility application that comes with OS X 
(~/Applications/Utilities) the "Restore" tab  (under OS X 10.3 and 10.4, 
but not 10.2) allows you to create a bootable clone of your drive to 
another drive.  

<http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20031030154346917>

http://pinkmutant.com/articles/trouble101.html

http://www.hmug.org/man/8/asr.php

The only  options are to erase, or to leave alone the data on the 
destination disk, and to do a checksum integrity test of the data being 
copied.  

However, this feature does not offer syncronization of files, to update 
your clone once you have created it. (As the similar Carbon Copy Cloner 
does with PSYNC.)

Note that the fields in Restore can be dragged and dropped into.

3) Many folks rave about Super Duper ($20), as it is both effective, 
inexpensive, and easy to use.
<http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html>

There are a large number of other backup programs for OS X.  I would be 
happy to send anyone who wants it a list.




Randy B. Singer
Co-Author of: The Macintosh Bible (4th, 5th and 6th editions)

Routine OS X Maintenance and Generic Troubleshooting
http://www.macattorney.com/ts.html