How do I Backup my iMac hard drive

Question

Level 1

11 points

How do I Backup my iMac hard drive

My current OS is Tiger and I bought the Mac Box Set to upgrade to Snow Leopard. But before I do that I want to back up my current data, so I bought a 1TB WD My Book Essential external HD. I have partitioned it for Mac OS and now am trying to figure out how to do a backup. The drive comes with its own software called WD SmartWare which includes a backup utility but I wanted to ask if there is something already on my iMac that I should be using instead.
The idea is make an image of my current hard drive just in case something goes wrong with the OS upgrade so that I do not lose my data, pictures etc.
In reading the WD SmartWare docs, it does a "continuous" update / backup when files are added/modified, etc. but really I just want a snapshot to set aside.
thanks in advance,
Brad.

iMac 20-inch 2GHz Dual Core, Mac OS X (10.4.11), Mac OS X Tiger, iPhone 3G, iPod 5th Gen, iPhone 3GS

Posted on Nov 2, 2009 7:20 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Niel

Level 10

726,905 points

Nov 2, 2009 7:22 PM in response to Brad Kyer

Use the DIsk Utility in the /Applications/Utilities/ folder to image the drive, or a program such as Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper to clone it.

(48405)

Reply

Answer 2

Nov 2, 2009 7:43 PM in response to Brad Kyer

Buy SuperDuper! from ShirtPocket.com

Reply

Answer 3

virg

Level 2

395 points

Nov 2, 2009 8:11 PM in response to Brad Kyer

When you download SuperDuper its software will lead you to mirror your hard drive. I will make an exact clone. All of your applications and files will be exactly like your present hard drive.

Reply

Answer 4

Macsastic

Level 4

3,380 points

Jan 23, 2010 12:28 PM in response to virg

Won't Time Capsule do the backing up for you? I just ignored the WD SmartWare and let the Time Capsule take over automatically. It asked if I wanted to reformat the drive because it comes formatted for the PC running some/any version of the Windows operating system.

So i guess my question is do I need to install the WD software. When I eject it, it just comes back the next time my iMac starts back up.

Reply

Answer 5

rkaufmann87

Level 10

140,532 points

Jan 23, 2010 12:38 PM in response to Macsastic

I think you are confusing Time Capsule with Time Machine, in either case it wouldn't work for the OP as he's using Tiger which doesn't have Time Machine built into it, that was released with Leopard.

Were I the OP I would either use SuperDuper or CCC or upgrade to Snow Leopard and then use Time Machine.

Roger

Reply