Making disk image

Do not make a disc image. They are relatively useless as backups. You cannot boot from a disc image, and you must boot from an Installer disc in order to restore one. Instead you should clone your hard drive to the external drive.

How to Clone Using Restore Option of Disk Utility

1. Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
2. Select the backup or destination volume from the left side list.
3. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (journaled, if available) and click on the Erase button. This step can be skipped if the destination has already been freshly erased.
4. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
5. Select the backup or destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
6. Select the startup or source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
7. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.

Test the clone by opening Startup Disk preferences, select the system on the external volume, then click on the Restart button. Your computer should boot from the external drive if the cloning has been successful. Then open Startup Disk preferences, select the system on your internal volume, then click on Restart button. This will return your startup volume to the internal drive.

If you then use a good backup utility you can incrementally maintain your clone by doing regular scheduled backups.

Backup Software Recommendations

My personal recommendations are (order is not significant):

1. Retrospect Desktop (Commercial - not yet universal binary)
2. Synchronize! Pro X (Commercial)
3. Synk (Backup, Standard, or Pro)
4. Deja Vu (Shareware)
5. PsynchX 2.1.1 and RsyncX 2.1 (Freeware)
6. Carbon Copy Cloner (Freeware - 3.0 is a Universal Binary)
7. SuperDuper! (Commercial)
8. Intego Personal Backup (Commercial)
9. Data Backup (Commercial)

I have just made a bootable copy of my system (using SuperDuper) on to an external HDD. To my horror I find that this is NOT password protected, or secure in any way.

Hi,

Yes, I found this to be true also.

It depends on the 'Type' of Clone you make. This I wrote on another thread about the cloning process:

When I tell CCC to make the volume able to Boot... what does it do? Make that connection between the little loader to a bigger one on that clone? I have made two clones, one a device and one a volume, by clicking on either the upper listing or lower listing in Disk Utility. Different clone types were made. The device one only works on the computer that generated it, login and all the device settings; on other computers it will not get past the login screen (that data has to be device hardwired). The volume one works on any of them, but the desktop picture/icons are what is on the computer, not the clone; the login is not there, the folders are accessible (whether private or not), but the system is functional on the other computer. This is maybe a 'permissions' thing, how the clone was done. So really all my data/pic'/files/settings are available off the volume clone. The device clone would be best used for a new hard drive replacement restore, as it's got the hardware connections for the computer with it. I believe the volume clone is only software.< </div>

So, you see, if permissions are part of it when it was cloned, it was done while being logged in so all is permission-granted on the clone. If you do a 'device' clone (clicking the upper drive name) it will be an 'exact' duplicate with some hardware involvement from the computer that did the clone and then only be able to run on that very computer (or maybe an exact identical one), with all the security you have on the original. The 'volume' clone boots from another computer and has 'permission' to all that was cloned... here is your security finding.

We have to get to: what is it we want a clone for, and what are we going to do with it? And CCC is like SuperDuper with a different interface. Remember, if you do a device clone, and your computer goes down the tubes, it is useless; If you make a volume clone, at least you can get your info/data/files/pic's/doc's/etc onto a new computer (nothing is lost OR inaccessible). With the 'device' clone, it is secure, but you can not even access it on a new computer.

Leaves some room to think...