HT1553: Mac OS X v10.5, v10.6: How to back up and restore your files

Learn about Mac OS X v10.5, v10.6: How to back up and restore your files
mmkardart

Q: Backing up to a NTFS External Hard Drive (I have Paragon NTFS)


Dear Apple experts,

 

I have a Macbook Pro OS X 10.6.8 and a 1.5 TB Hard Drive (USB 2.0), to which I'd like to create a backup disk image.


  • the 1.5 TB Hard Drive already has about 300 GB of data on it and is formatted NTFS
  • Macbook has Paragon NTFS on it, allowing it to write to the hard drive

 

I've researched and have read HT1553: Mac OS X v10.5, v10.6: How to back up and restore your files

"http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1553?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US"

 

I had a few ideas:

1. Partitioning the drive into 2 and formatting: 50% is NTFS and 50% is OS Extended.

  • Can this can be done via Disk Utility?
  • Can it be done without having to format, potentially losing all existing data on the external hard drive?

2. Buying another drive and formatting it to OS Extended

3. Simply creating a backup disk image to the hard drive without partitioning and formatting - seems straightforward?

  • this is what I would like to do. If it's not ideal, what would you suggest?

 

Questions:

1. Since the Macbook has Paragon NTFS, does that mean a backup disk image can be created onto the hard drive (NTFS format)?

2. Importantly, if my Macbook fails, can it read this backup disk image and thus be restored?

 

BACKUP

If yes to the above, can it be done this way:

  1. Start from  Macbook (without the install disk)
  2. Choose Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
  3. Select the disk I wish to back up  (Macintosh HD) in the source pane on the left.
  4. Click "Verify Disk" to check the hard disk for issues. If an issue is found, click "Repair Disk" to repair.
  5. Click the "New Image" button in the toolbar.
  6. Give your image a useful name such as "04-15-2009 Macintosh HD backup". A date in the name makes it easy to tell when the backup was made.
  7. Save destination is a location to the external hard disk, then click "Save" to continue.
  8. Enter your admin name and password if prompted. Imaging process starts.
    • Expect to take 2-3 hours?
    • May I use the computer while it is doing this?

9. When the imaging process is complete, select the newly created disk image in the device pane. 
Then, choose Images > Scan Image for Restore... from the menu bar, and let the scan complete.

    • is this step to make sure that the disk image is bootable?

10. Quit Disk Utility (press Command-Q). Then press Command-Q to quit the Mac OS X installer; you will be prompted to restart

 

RESTORE

In the event, that my laptop dies.

  1. Go to apple store to get hard disk replaced?
    • How much will this cost?
    • Or do I get a new laptop altogether?
  1. Connect external hard drive to laptop
  2. Start from your Mac OS X 10.5 or 10.6 Install DVD. (Insert the disc, then restart and hold the C key.)
  3. Select your language. Do not start an installation.
  4. Choose Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
  5. Select your internal Mac OS X disk that you want to restore to.
  6. Click the Restore tab.
  7. Drag your internal disk to the "Destination:" field.
  8. Click the "Image..." button next to the "Source:" field.
  9. Navigate to the location of the backup image you want to restore (located on your external disk).
  10. Click "Open" to continue.
  11. Click the "Restore" button. Confirm you want to "Restore to Disk" by clicking "Restore" again.
  12. Enter your admin name and password when prompted. If the backup disk image is encrypted, enter the disk image password if necessary. The time it takes to restore from the image depends on factors such as the amount of data on your backup disk image.

What computer will be back to the way it was ?

 

Q: In what circumstances would I need to use Migration Assistant?

  • If I bought a new Macbook? For a new macbook, is there any reason why I cannot perform the above steps?

 

 

Other

My MacPro is about 3 years old at the moment. It's mainly used at home now, connected to an external monitor, though I used to take it to university.
I hope I didn't significantly shorten it's life by taking it everywhere with me.

  • How long typically do they last?
  • When should I expect that there could be 'something wrong'
  • What maintenance can I do? Verify and repair disks? Take it to the Apple Store to clean the internal fans? It's on 24/7 and sometimes whirs quite loudly.

 

Sorry if these questions are simplistic, just want to be sure.

 

Hopefully, your help can assist me and others also in my position.

We appreciate your help

Posted on Nov 24, 2013 7:12 AM

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Q: Backing up to a NTFS External Hard Drive (I have Paragon NTFS)

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

  • by Kurt Lang,Helpful

    Kurt Lang Kurt Lang Nov 24, 2013 11:55 AM in response to mmkardart
    Level 8 (37,696 points)
    Nov 24, 2013 11:55 AM in response to mmkardart

    1. Partitioning the drive into 2 and formatting: 50% is NTFS and 50% is OS Extended.

    • Can this can be done via Disk Utility?
    • Can it be done without having to format, potentially losing all existing data on the external hard drive?

    No. Disk Utility cannot modify an NTFS partition. Destroy and rebuild is the only option. DO NOT use a Windows utility such as Partition Magic. I ran across a user here who did that a couple of months ago. It did work, but it left the drive in a state that Disk Utility didn't understand. It couldn't even modify a Mac OS Extended partition.

    2. Buying another drive and formatting it to OS Extended

    That would of course work.

    3. Simply creating a backup disk image to the hard drive without partitioning and formatting - seems straightforward?

    With Paragon NTFS installed, you would be able create a .dmg image of your Mac drive to the NTFS partition, but how would you restore it? Booting to an OS X DVD wouldn't work since you can't peruse a drive from within Disk Utility in order to find and open a .dmg file. You'd have to have yet another OS X partition with, or without Paragon NTFS on it to boot to in order to access the .dmg file. Probably with Paragon NTFS would be necessary since mounting the .dmg file may require a write operation, and not just read.

     

    These answers cover your next two questions. I'm going to select items from the next list that won't work.

     

    Backup:

    4. Click "Verify Disk" to check the hard disk for issues. If an issue is found, click "Repair Disk" to repair.

    Not possible if the drive you're booted to is the same drive you need to repair. You can only repair a drive while booted to a different OS X drive/partition.

    • May I use the computer while it is doing this?

    If the drive you're backing up is the same drive you're currently booted to (a hot backup), then no. You'd be changing the content of the drive at the same time it's trying to create a clone. If you're booted to a different OS X partition from the one you're backing up, then yes, as long as you're not doing anything to change the content of the drive being backed up.

    • is this step to make sure that the disk image is bootable?

    No, the restored image will be bootable regardless. That's a verification step to test the backup for errors.

     

    Restore:

     

    The basic answer to the entire thing is the same as explained above where you have the .dmg file on any other drive, NTFS or Mac formatted. You can't find or choose the .dmg file from within Disk Utility while booted to an OS X installation DVD.

     

    Basically, forget the entire .dmg thing. Get an external drive and format at least one part of it as Mac OS Extended, and at least as large as the Mac partition you want to back up, plus an extra 50 GB or so of empty space. Use Disk Utility to clone your current OS X partition to the external drive. If the main drive ever konks out, you replace it, boot to the clone on the external, and clone that back to the new drive. Obviously, you need to keep the clone up to date.

     

    Since Disk Utility will always and only clone the entire drive, spend the few bucks on SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner. Both have options to do incremental backups. You only have to wait of the full cloning process the first time. After that, the software only copies/removes/replaces whatever has changed on the target drive from the last time, and so only takes a few minutes.

     

    Q: In what circumstances would I need to use Migration Assistant?

    • If I bought a new Macbook? For a new macbook, is there any reason why I cannot perform the above steps?

     

    Only if you wanted to bring over the personal data of your user account and installed third party apps to a new Mac. Never clone the entire data of an old Mac over to a new one.

     

    1) A newer Mac will always only boot to an OS that it shipped with, or newer. So if the new Mac came with Mountain Lion, and you cloned over a backup with Lion or older on it, it will not boot.

     

    2) An older OS will not have the hardware drivers on it for a newer Mac. But as noted just above, it wouldn't boot anyway.

    • How long typically do they last?

    Like any other electronic device, it varies. Hard drives usually go first because they're always spinning (bearings wear out) and the heads are always moving (actuator wears out). A part as simple as a resistor that dies can cause the system board to drop dead. That's rare, thankfully.

    • When should I expect that there could be 'something wrong'

    That again is mostly an unknown. You could look up MTBF (mean time between failure) data, but it's an average. Something could die sooner than average, or it could last much longer.

  • by mmkardart,Solvedanswer

    mmkardart mmkardart Nov 24, 2013 1:22 PM in response to Kurt Lang
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 24, 2013 1:22 PM in response to Kurt Lang

    Hey Kurt,

     

    Thank you for your response. Very very helpful.

     

    I'm going to follow your advice, but I want to use my 1.5 TB external disk drive.

     

    May you please give me step-by-step instructions on how to format it, partition it and then create the clone/backup? Do I need to use the install disk at all?

     

    My current Macbook has 250GB capacity.  The external hard drive has 100GB of music and movies, the rest are backup files from the Macbook (I have been manually backing up; did not realise that I can clone until recently).

     

    When you mentioned at least 50GB of empty space, did you mean have a partition of at least 250GB + 50GB for the Mac OS Extended and 1200GB for the NTFS?

     

    Again, sorry for the ignorance.

     

    Also, meant to say "when should I suspect that there could be something wrong." The fan noises worry me.

     

     

    Appreciate your help Kurt.

  • by mmkardart,

    mmkardart mmkardart Nov 24, 2013 1:50 PM in response to mmkardart
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 24, 2013 1:50 PM in response to mmkardart

    Also, I've read that we need to regularly maintain the Macbook by using Utility to verify and repair.
    I also recall them doing this on the same booted drive e.g. me going into Utiliy now and doing it on this Macbook.

     

    But you mentioned:

    "Not possible if the drive you're booted to is the same drive you need to repair. You can only repair a drive while booted to a different OS X drive/partition"


    So my questions are:

    1. Do we need to verify and repair our Macbook drives often?

    2. How do I do it?

  • by Allan Eckert,Helpful

    Allan Eckert Allan Eckert Nov 24, 2013 1:54 PM in response to mmkardart
    Level 9 (53,464 points)
    Desktops
    Nov 24, 2013 1:54 PM in response to mmkardart

    Whoever told you that fairy tale certainly knows nothing about Macs

     

    It is not necessary to repair and/of verify disks periodically

     

    If you are having problems and only then it might be necessary for you to use Disk Utility to do that. That usually hapens very infrequently.

     

    Allan

  • by Kurt Lang,

    Kurt Lang Kurt Lang Nov 24, 2013 2:29 PM in response to mmkardart
    Level 8 (37,696 points)
    Nov 24, 2013 2:29 PM in response to mmkardart

    I'm assuming you have the external formatted as NTFS because you need to transport it between home and the office for use with a Windows machine? If it was only ever intended for use with your MacBook Pro, then it should have been set up as Mac OS Extended.

     

    At your current setup, you need to get a third hard drive involved. You can't change the external drive's setup without repartitioning it, which means everything on the drive will be lost. So you need to get the 300 GB of data on it copied somewhere else before you can do that. There isn't enough room on your MPB, so another drive is necessary.

     

    1) If you do have a Windows computer, or another Mac available with enough free space, connect the external to that and copy all of the data off of the external to a separate folder. If it's another Mac, you don't need to install Paragon NTFS on it. OS X can read an NTFS drive without the need of any extra software, and reading is all you need to do to copy the data.

     

    2) Once you have the data copied somewhere else, bring the external back to the MacBook Pro, turn it on and launch Disk Utility. Highlight the physical drive at the left for the external drive. Example:

     

    drives.jpg

     

    With the external chosen, you'll have the Partition tab at the right. Choose that and set the number and size of partitions you want. The default is Current. Change the pull down menu above the graphic representation of the drive to the number of partitions you want. If you choose two, it will default to a split down the middle. If you want different sizes, you can grab the line between the two and drag it up or down, or highlight one and enter the size you want it to be at the right. The other partition will shift to take up the remaining space.

     

    Important! Make sure to click on the Options button at the bottom after changing the number of partitions. If it's not already selected, you must change the drive map layout to GUID, or it will not be bootable for OS X.

     

    Click on each partition graphic and change the format you want it to be with the drop down menu to its right. One of course has to be Mac OS Extended (Journaled) in order to clone OS X to it (DO NOT use case sensitive). Highlight the other partition and make it MS-DOS, which will default to FAT32.

     

    For sizes, since you have 1.5 TB to work with, I see no reason to make the Mac partition any smaller than 250 GB. So as you fill up the drive on the MBP, you'll always have enough space on the external to hold the cloned content.

     

    Once you have all of the options set the way you want it, click Apply.

     

    3) You can now use Disk Utility to clone your MBP's hard drive to the Mac formatted partition on the external. Click any logical drive (it doesn't matter which one) and choose the Restore tab. Drag and drop the MPB's logical hard drive name into the Source field at the right, and the external drive's Mac formatted drive name into the Destination field. Click Restore and let it run without doing anything else.

     

    4) Use Paragon NTFS to reformat the MS-DOS partition on the external drive as NTFS. Take the external to whatever computer you used to hold the 300 GB of data and copy it back.

     

    1. Do we need to verify and repair our Macbook drives often?

    No.

    The fan noises worry me.

    A bad hard drive motor can also sound much like a dying fan. I'd get the backup done sooner rather than later.

  • by mmkardart,

    mmkardart mmkardart Nov 25, 2013 6:31 AM in response to Kurt Lang
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 25, 2013 6:31 AM in response to Kurt Lang

    Kurt,
    Thank you for your help.

     

    For the sake of simplicity, I just split it into 2 x 750 GB.

    The format of the Windows partition says "Windows NT Filesystem (compressed)." Is that right?

     

     

    Do I follow these steps now to create the clone:

    1. Start from  Macbook (without the install disk)
    2. Choose Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
    3. Select the disk I wish to back up  (Macintosh HD) in the source pane on the left.
    4. Click "Verify Disk" to check the hard disk for issues. If an issue is found, click "Repair Disk" to repair.
    5. Click the "New Image" button in the toolbar.
    6. Give your image a useful name such as "04-15-2009 Macintosh HD backup". A date in the name makes it easy to tell when the backup was made.
    7. Save destination is a location to the external hard disk, then click "Save" to continue.
    8. Enter your admin name and password if prompted. Imaging process starts.

    9. When the imaging process is complete, select the newly created disk image in the device pane. 
    Then, choose Images > Scan Image for Restore... from the menu bar, and let the scan complete.

    10. Quit Disk Utility (press Command-Q). Then press Command-Q to quit the Mac OS X installer; you will be prompted to restart

     

    Also, since I've made the Mac OS Partition 750GB and the disk image won't use up of all that, if I add files and use the remaining space, will I still be able to restore my computer from the clone? Or does that Mac partition have to contain only the disk image (clone) and nothing else?

     

    Another question: I have VMware installed on this laptop and want to remove it completely to free up the disk space and memory, before I create the clone. Don't have a need to run windows on it anymore.

     

    I believe I need to (according to: https://communities.vmware.com/thread/115699)

    1. Uninstall VMWare = Go into Macintosh > Library > application support > VMWare> uninstaller +

    2. Delete Remaining VMWAre  folders and files:


         Delete the following File(s) and or Folder(s) if they remain.

    /Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion

    /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.vmware.launchd.vmware.plist

    /Library/Receipts/Install VMware Fusion.pkg

     

    Note: ~ is your Home Folder.

    ~/Library/Preferences/com.vmware.fusion.plist

    ~/Library/Preferences/VMware Fusion

     

    2. Uninstall the Virtual machine = Documents > virtual machines > windows

     

    Is this correct? Anything else to do?

     

    Really appreciate your help. I can't find the "Solved my Answer" button for your response. Please post again

  • by Kurt Lang,

    Kurt Lang Kurt Lang Nov 25, 2013 6:56 AM in response to mmkardart
    Level 8 (37,696 points)
    Nov 25, 2013 6:56 AM in response to mmkardart

    For the sake of simplicity, I just split it into 2 x 750 GB.

    I'm going to assume you've already backed up the 300 GB of data that was on there before repartitioning. Also just want to confirm that you made the drive map GUID when you did the partitioning. You will not be able to boot to OS X on the external if you didn't.

     

    Skipping ahead a bit…

    if I add files and use the remaining space, will I still be able to restore my computer from the clone?

    If you always do a full clone, yes. If you use SuperDuper's! Smart Backup feature (paid version) or Carbon Copy Cloner's similar function, then no. The whole idea of those two is to save massive amounts of backup time by updating only what is needed to get the target drive to match the source.

    4. Click "Verify Disk" to check the hard disk for issues. If an issue is found, click "Repair Disk" to repair.

    You won't be able to do that. You'd be trying to repair the drive you're currently booted to before cloning it. You can only repair a drive that is not the same as the startup drive. The only way you have of doing that at the moment is to boot to your 10.6.x DVD and run Disk Utility from there to do a Repair Disk of the main drive.

    5 through 9

    No. Skip all of that. You'd only succeed in putting a .dmg file of the main drive onto the Mac partition of the external. You will still have no way to boot to, or restore it. Please follow the instructions I noted above for cloning the main drive to the external. The result will be an exact duplicate with all of the files and folders on the drive as on any other drive. Not compressed into a drive image. To repeat…

    3) You can now use Disk Utility to clone your MBP's hard drive to the Mac formatted partition on the external. Click any logical drive (it doesn't matter which one) and choose the Restore tab. Drag and drop the MPB's logical hard drive name into the Source field at the right, and the external drive's Mac formatted drive name into the Destination field. Click Restore and let it run without doing anything else.

    As an example below. With the Restore tab selected, I dragged "Mac Pro" into the Source field, and "Mavericks" into the Destination field. If I were to click the Restore button towards the lower right, the Mavericks partition will end up as an exact duplicate of whatever is on the Mac Pro drive, whether there's an OS on it or not.

    Screen Shot 2013-11-25 at 8.33.17 AM.png

     

    Personally, this is what I would do. Launch Disk Utility and split the Mac OS Extended partition. You can do this now without repartitioning from scratch. Click on the physical drive and click the Partition tab. Grab the lower right dashed corner of the Mac partition and drag it up, like so:

     

    Screen Shot 2013-11-25 at 8.39.05 AM.png

     

    Here, I kind of randomly sized it to 424.57 GB. I could click on the number to round it off if I wanted to. The point is that you will now have a gray area of unused disk space. Click the + button and a new partition will be created to fill the hole. You can do this as many times as you want. By default, the new partition with be Mac OS Extended. Click Apply.

     

    Here's what I do with such a setup.

     

    1) For you, the NTFS partition would be for your Windows data, or data that can be shared between the Mac and Windows. Be careful what Mac files you put on an NTFS drive. I wouldn't put a .dmg file on it.

     

    2) Besides the NTFS partition, you now have two Mac partitions. You could clone the main drive to one of them, which will make it bootable and an exact copy of your main drive. But my choice is to install a bare bones installation of OS X on one of the partitions, along with any drive and file utilities I may need to rescue another drive, or its data. Such as DiskWarrior, File Salvage, Data Rescue, Drive Genius, etc. That's all I have on it.

     

    The other partition is where I store backups of any other data. In this type of setup, the backup of your main drive now can be a .dmg file. You have a separate Mac partition to boot to, where you can restore the .dmg file from the second Mac partition back to the MacBook Pro's main drive.

     

    Kind of getting back to your last question:

    Or does that Mac partition have to contain only the disk image (clone) and nothing else?

    Not at all a good idea to use the clone partition as a way to also store secondary files. Say you copy all kinds of other data there and then remove it from the main drive to save space. The next time you clone the main drive to the backup, all of that extra data will be wiped out. A clone is literal. Only what exists on the source drive is what will end up being on the target drive. Anything else gets removed. That is at least in part why I use multiple Mac partitions on my external drive.

  • by mmkardart,

    mmkardart mmkardart Nov 25, 2013 11:15 AM in response to Kurt Lang
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 25, 2013 11:15 AM in response to Kurt Lang

    Hey Kurt!

     

    You are lovely. Appreciate your time and effort

     

    Yes, I did back up the 300 GB of data that was on there before repartitioning.

    Yes, I made the drive map GUID when you did the partitioning for Mac OS. You will not be able to boot to OS X on the external if you didn't.

     

    So in summary, you recommend 3 partitions. Is this the following ok:
    1. Mac OS Extended #1 "Mac Backup" - to hold the clone only, should not add secondary data. e.g. 250GB

    2. Mac OS Exended #2 "Mac Extra" - to hold secondary files e.g. 500 GB
    3. NTFS formatted "PC Stuff" - to allow PC to read but also write e.g. 750GB

     

     

    Questions:

    1. Should the NTFS drive read "Windows NT Filesystem (compressed)"? I clicked Windows NT Filesystem, but it comes out with the "compressed"

    2. Regarding Carbon Copy Cloner's - I don't understand why you said 'no' sorry. Yes, I understand that it only backs up changes "incremental backups" - so what happens when my laptop fails. Can it be restored completely? Or will it only restore from the full backup clone, and exclude the incremental ones?

    4. If I use Cabon Copy Cloner - I won't need to use disk utility right true?
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjp0xtj_LRY

    5. Lastly, do you have any ideas on removing VMWare and virtual assistant (previous post)

  • by Kurt Lang,

    Kurt Lang Kurt Lang Nov 25, 2013 12:39 PM in response to mmkardart
    Level 8 (37,696 points)
    Nov 25, 2013 12:39 PM in response to mmkardart

    1 through 3

     

    Yes, that works well. You would want to occasionally keep the cloned partition up to date. Say once a week. If the internal hard drive ever konks out, you would only lose a small percentage of data (whatever hadn't been backed up since the previous time). You replace the main hard drive, boot to the clone on the external and clone it back. Way, WAY faster than reinstalling the OS and all of your apps from scratch onto the new drive.

     

    No idea why your NTFS system says compressed. When I check mine, which I have Win 7 on, OS X simply states it as NTFS. No mention of compression. I can only guess this is something Paragon NTFS is doing.

     

    I said no on CCC or SuperDuper! because if you were to use either of those on a clone you had manually copied other data on, and then ran either of the utilities, you would lose that extra data if it didn't exist on the source. The same thing would happen using Disk Utility.

     

    4. Correct. CCC or SuperDuper! are much better for that task. You use either to make the first full clone (or Disk Utility). After that, these two apps will only change what is necessary to make the clone match the source instead of cloning the entire drive each and every time, as DU would do.

     

    5. I have no real experience with VMWare, so can't really give any suggestions.

  • by mmkardart,

    mmkardart mmkardart Nov 25, 2013 1:30 PM in response to Kurt Lang
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 25, 2013 1:30 PM in response to Kurt Lang

    Great, you have been wonderful.ing,

     

    So to clarify, I should make a full back up [e.g. dated today] with CCC, and then incremental backups weekly or so.

     

    If my laptop fails in 1 years time and I've only made 1 full back up clone (today), then I'll only be able to restore to today. I won't be able to restore all the 'incremental changes' (between now and next year)

     

    If that's true, it also means I should run regular 'full back ups' yes?

  • by Kurt Lang,

    Kurt Lang Kurt Lang Nov 25, 2013 2:30 PM in response to mmkardart
    Level 8 (37,696 points)
    Nov 25, 2013 2:30 PM in response to mmkardart

    I won't be able to restore all the 'incremental changes' (between now and next year)

     

    No, they'll be there. The idea is to keep doing the incremental updates to the clone on the external on a weekly basis, or however soon you feel it should be done. If you create a lot of files and do a lot of emailing per day, you may want to do it two or three times a week.

     

    Each time you run CCC, it updates the clone on the external to match the source drive, so it is always on exact copy. So say a year from now, your main drives croaks two days after your last CCC update. You will have lost only those last two days worth of changes.

     

    I use the registered version of SuperDuper!. It's updating feature is called Smart Update. It will only remove, replace, or copy whatever is necessary to make the clone match the source. Usually only takes a few minutes each time I run it. CCC will do the same thing, I'm just not quite sure what the settings are called.

  • by mmkardart,

    mmkardart mmkardart Nov 25, 2013 2:39 PM in response to Kurt Lang
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 25, 2013 2:39 PM in response to Kurt Lang

    Sounds great.

    I cannot thank you enough Kurt. You are the best.