Cloning my hard drive

When you copy to an external hard drive, does CCC create an icon that just click on or does it make lists of files?

It can do either depending on whether you told it to clone to a disk image or not.

I know you need a firewire HD to boot up from the clone (don't have one), but if I clone to a USB HD what if anything can I do with the clone?

The clone can be restored, but you need access to the Disk Utility on a bootable system to do so.

(35327)

lee:

As you are aware, to be able to create a bootable clone, you need a firewire HDD, since you cannot boot a PowerPC computer from a USB device.

However, you can clone your entire HDD or only part(s) of it as backup. If you want a bootable clone you should get a firewire HDD or you can remove the drive mechanism from the USB enclosure and install it in a firewire enclosure, thus creating a firewire HDD. Your USB HDD is best used for a backup.

I have never cloned a HD before, I have just done a back up of documents and such. I don't have much of an idea of what I am doing.

To create a clone with

Clone Old HDD to new HDD using Carbon Copy Cloner
• Connect external HDD to computer
• Download and launch Carbon Copy Cloner
• Select a Source. This will normally be the Disk which you want to backup
• If you wish to backup/clone only your Users Folder or other folder click on the checkbox. If you want to copy the entire HDD, check Macintosh HD.
• Select a Target. This can be your external HDD, or, if you so decide, you can backup/clone to a Disk Image on the external HDD.
• Cloning Options: for the first time you should backup everything. For updating your backup you should select Incremental backup of selected items.
• If you want your clone to be an exact copy of the original you should check the box to Delete items not on the original.
• Click Clone

Please do post back with further questions or comments.

😉 cornelius

I have a related question:
I am preparing to upgrade my PowerBook's hard drive. I have a new HD and a USB enclosure ordered and have read all the forums on the process the physical upgrade.

Is it better to clone my current HD to the new HD before I swap the drives?
Does it matter if you clone before or after the HD swap?

Hi, Doug. Your changeover will be far simpler if you immediately cancel the order for the USB enclosure and order a FireWire enclosure instead.

Uh oh! I'm in the same position and I'm sitting here with the USB housing on my new HD. Is it going to be impossible to clone my HD using USB? Or is it just impossible to boot using the USB drive?

If I clone the HD using Carbon Copy and then put the new HD into my Macbook, will I be able to boot from that if it's inside the computer?

eww,

I guess I'm cheap and could not justify the extra $ for the firewire enclosure just to verify a boot.

From what I understand, I can clone to a USB drive, I just wont be able to boot from it.

Any thoughts on cloning before I swap the drives?

Seth,

I writing this from my upgraded PowerBook G4. Just to remind you, I did this upgrade with a $15 USB enclosure... I was too cheap to by a firewire enclosure.

1. Before I started, I cloned my new drive (connected via a USB enclosure) using Carbon Copy Cloner. (skip this step if you want because it did not work and took 2 hours).

2. The hardware install went very smooth. I had to use a lot more tools than the *I Fix It* guide suggested, but I didn't have any problems.
http://www.ifixit.com/GuideFiles/pdf/guide_208en.pdf

3. I placed the old 60GB drive in my USB enclosure.

After I put the computer back together and booted the new hard drive I ran into some problems... My computer was hanging on the gray screen with the Apple Logo.

4. I booted to the OSX 10.4 install CD and ran disk utility... The new drive was there, and formatted correctly but still no luck.

5. I used the *restore option in disk utility* and restored the original 60GB disk image (in my external USB enclosure) to the new 250GB hard drive (in the computer). Restore actually clones the data block by block and took about 30 minutes for 60GB.

6. After the clone, I rebooted and everything runs great!

I suspect that my original clone attempt did not work because I had a different volume name the the original drive (but I will never know).

So there you have it, a successful powerbook hard drive replacement with a USB enclosure.

Message was edited by: dougrs

doug:

So there you have it, a successful powerbook hard drive replacement with a USB enclosure.

Congratulations! Cloning to an external USB device is not an issue. However, for $10 more for a Firewire enclosure you would have a bootable clone which you could use for regular backups, an emergency boot drive, or booting from it to run diagnostics and repairs on the internal HDD. That $10 would have bought you a great deal more than the $15 😟

😉 cornelius

cornelius wrote:
for $10 more for a Firewire enclosure you would have a bootable clone which you could use for regular backups, an emergency boot drive,

I agree that the firewire enclosure is a better by for those reasons however, the cheapest enclosure I could find was $60. Any leads on good $25 firewire enclosures?

Doug

dougrs:

Any leads on good $25 firewire enclosures?

I have a couple of these enclosures and love them. They have the more reliable Oxford 911+ chipset, and are very compact and portable. They come in a neat leather case with FW cable. I have purchased from this vendor and have referred a number of users there and no problems.

😉 cornelius

I am trying to do exactly as dougrs did. (yes, I know that a firewire enclosure is better, etc -- it's a long story). I have a 160gb drive just installed in my Powerbook G4, newly formatted. And I have the old 80gb drive in an external USB enclosure. I have tried restoring the original 80gb drive's contents onto the newly installed 160gb drive, but it doesn't work -- it seems to hang at the beginning of the "copying" phase. It says it's copying, but the progress bar never goes anywhere.

dougrs, can you tell me exactly what you did when you tried to restore the original disk image to the new drive in the computer? Did you select "erase destination," "skip checksum," etc? Do the source and destination need to have the same name?

Any help much appreciated!

thanks

alcf98:

Welcome to Apple Discussions.

Shortcuts can be more expensive in the long run. Check the link I posted earlier and get a Firewire enclosure.

😉 cornelius