How to create a system image

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How to create a system image

Firstly, I have just bought my first mac (macbook pro) so I do not know much about OSX (I have always used windows).

I was just wondering how I can take an image of my hard disk so that I can restore my mac to it's original condition (with some essential apps such as office mac and firefox installed).

Does OSX have a tool built in to do this or will I need another program.

Also I would like to know how you would restore the image because I know that an image of a hard drive cannot be restored while that drive is in use.

All help appreciated, thanks in advance.

Macbook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6)

Posted on Nov 17, 2009 11:03 AM

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Answer 1

K T

Level 7

23,889 points

Nov 17, 2009 11:12 AM in response to ss4

Do you have another HD to use as a backup?

You can use Disk Utility to make a copy of your HD onto another, and then use that to restore later.

You can use Time Machine for the same but with automation etc.

You can use a 3rd party application named CarbonCopyCloner to do cloning.

You can buy Apple's Time Capsule option and then use Time Machine with it as well.

Try the Time Machine forums for details on that solution.

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Answer 2

ss4 Author

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Nov 17, 2009 12:23 PM in response to ss4

Yes I do have another hard drive to back up to.

If I can clone the hard drive using built in software then I probably won't install 3rd party software.

Whats the difference between if I do the backup in disk utilty and time machine?

Also, how easy is it to restore an image from disk utility or time machine?

Thanks for your help so far.

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Answer 3

thomas_r.

Level 7

32,031 points

Nov 17, 2009 12:47 PM in response to ss4

Check out the last section of my [Mac Backup Guide|http://www.reedcorner.net/thomas/guides/backups>.

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Answer 4

ss4 Author

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Nov 18, 2009 8:37 AM in response to ss4

Would it be better to create a clone of the hard drive in disk utility or time machine?

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Answer 5

V.K.

Level 9

56,192 points

Nov 18, 2009 8:42 AM in response to ss4

time machine does not create clones and you can not boot from a TM backup of the system drive. you can restore a bootable copy of your system from TM backups using the restore utility on the SL install dvd but you can not boot directly from tM backups.

the best tools for direct cloning are CCCloner and Superduper as they provide customization and scheduling. restore tab in disk utility works just fine too for one time jobs.

see this link for more backup options
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=7495315#7495315

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Answer 6

baltwo

Level 9

62,386 points

Nov 18, 2009 9:30 AM in response to V.K.

Adding to V.K.'s post. While you can make a complete clone with Disk Utility, it takes much longer than doing it with CCC or SuperDuper!. Additionally, you can't use it to do future, incremental backups. Once you figure out your backup strategy, see these:

Switching from Windows to Mac OS X,
Basic Tutorials on using a Mac,
Mac 101: Mac Essentials,
Anatomy of a Mac,
MacFixIt Tutorials,
MacTips, and
Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Leopard Edition.

Additionally, *Texas Mac Man* recommends:

Quick Assist.
Welcome to the Switch To A Mac Guides,
Take Control E-books, and
A guide for switching to a Mac.

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Answer 7

ss4 Author

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Nov 18, 2009 12:52 PM in response to ss4

Ok, I have created a image using disk utility.

So if I ever want to replace the mac os currently on the internal hard disk with the image on the external hard disk how would I do this?

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Answer 8

V.K.

Level 9

56,192 points

Nov 18, 2009 12:53 PM in response to ss4

did you make a clone to another hard drive or a disk image? I recommend you clone to a hard drive (or a partition on one). don't clone to a disk image. if it gets corrupted you won't know it until you try to restore from it and then if will be almost impossible to salvage any data from what's inside. if you clone to anore drive you can just boot from that drive. reboot the computer and hold option at the chime. this will get you to stratup disk manager where you can choose which drive to choose from. boot from the clone and use disk utility to clone it back to the main drive.

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Answer 9

ss4 Author

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Nov 18, 2009 1:24 PM in response to V.K.

What I did was:

Select restore on the mac hd drive, then I put the source as mac hd and destination as freeagent drive and then I pressed restore.

But I got an error while the clone was being made:

restore failure: operation not supported

Do you why this is?

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Answer 10

V.K.

Level 9

56,192 points

Nov 18, 2009 1:35 PM in response to ss4

ss4 wrote:
What I did was:

Select restore on the mac hd drive, then I put the source as mac hd and destination as freeagent drive and then I pressed restore.

But I got an error while the clone was being made:

restore failure: operation not supported

how is the freeagent drive formatted? make sure it's formatted mac os extended journaled and partitioned with GUID partitioned scheme. also, check the box to erase the destination drive.

Do you why this is?

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Answer 11

ss4 Author

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Nov 18, 2009 1:46 PM in response to V.K.

it's formatted as fat32 so that I can use it in windows, is this a problem?

thanks for your help so far

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Answer 12

V.K.

Level 9

56,192 points

Nov 18, 2009 2:03 PM in response to ss4

ss4 wrote:
it's formatted as fat32 so that I can use it in windows, is this a problem?

yes, it is a problem. as I said, it needs to be formatted mac os extended journaled. you can reformat the drive and split it in two partitions.format one mac os extended journaled and clone your main drive to it. format the other one FAT32 so that you can use it with windows. and remember that the partition scheme should be GUID.

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