[G4] CD back-up

[Tracker at aol.com]

In a message dated 1/11/03 3:09:06 AM, wappling at tampabay.RR.com writes:

<< I want advice how best to copy my hard disk >>

First, do you have the installation CDs for your computer?

If you do, then you do not need to copy your hard disk in toto. You only need 
to copy your HOME folder in OS-X. All the rest of the data can be 
re-installed from your installation CDs and then you replace the new Home 
folder with your backed up copy.

All your personal preferences and information are contained in your Home 
folder and that is much smaller than the system software installation.

If you don't have the OS installation CDs for your machine, go down town 
right now and buy a set so you will have them. I guarantee that you WILL need 
them some day.

Second, as long as you have the combo drive and can write to CD-RW discs, use 
them instead of plain CD-R discs. You can re-use the CD-RWs about a thousand 
times before they die as long as you don't let them get scratched on the 
recording surface.

By using CD-RW discs, you can back up your Home folder over and over on the 
same CD and just name them by the date when you create them. You can easily 
tell the newest copy and use any one that you want if you want to go backward 
in time.

Third, the software program "Carbon Copy Cloner" is designed to allow you to 
copy an OS-X installation with all its invisible files from one hard drive to 
another. It isn't a back up program at all unless you have a second hard 
drive installed in your computer and have decided to use it for your back up 
files.

Using a second hard drive and CCC will give you an exact copy of your 
original OS installation that you can use to boot from and replace the files 
on your original drive by using CCC again. That saves you all the time that 
doing an OS installation from the CDs takes.