This update ate my Mac!
Do not read this tip, unless you want to be left with no excuse for an unsuccessful update or upgrade.
Because you won't install anything until you KNOW if it will eat your Mac, your cat, or a school bus 😉
You have Time Machine and Time Machine is good, but it's not the same as a bootable clone. Each have their own strengths and purposes.
The clone is a file for file copy of your entire hard drive. With a clone, if your hard drive fails you can just boot from it and keep on right on working, until you have the time to repair or replace the main drive.
There are many cloning apps to choose from, you can do it through Mac OS X in Disk Utility as described in Disk Utility Help, However Disk Utility won't update the clone.
There are other cloning utilities you can use, but both SuperDuper or CarbonCopy Cloner seem to be the most reliable and simplest to use, as reported by users here. You can also use them for incremental backups. CCC is free for backup, while SD is shareware for the backup feature. Also be sure to run Disk Utility/Disk repair before cloning and that there are no issues you know of.
Why it's guaranteed not to eat your Mac....
Because the next time you install, you will startup from your clone, by selecting it in System Preferences > Startup Disk. (At the same time in System Preferences choose Time Machine and turn it off, remembering to turn it back on when you return to your main disk.)
Now, install your test software and try it out. (Remember to Repair permissions after all installs.)
After that, you can be very sure if it works, or if there are issues. If it runs well, boot back to your main disk and install the software.
-mj
Because you won't install anything until you KNOW if it will eat your Mac, your cat, or a school bus 😉
You have Time Machine and Time Machine is good, but it's not the same as a bootable clone. Each have their own strengths and purposes.
The clone is a file for file copy of your entire hard drive. With a clone, if your hard drive fails you can just boot from it and keep on right on working, until you have the time to repair or replace the main drive.
There are many cloning apps to choose from, you can do it through Mac OS X in Disk Utility as described in Disk Utility Help, However Disk Utility won't update the clone.
There are other cloning utilities you can use, but both SuperDuper or CarbonCopy Cloner seem to be the most reliable and simplest to use, as reported by users here. You can also use them for incremental backups. CCC is free for backup, while SD is shareware for the backup feature. Also be sure to run Disk Utility/Disk repair before cloning and that there are no issues you know of.
Why it's guaranteed not to eat your Mac....
Because the next time you install, you will startup from your clone, by selecting it in System Preferences > Startup Disk. (At the same time in System Preferences choose Time Machine and turn it off, remembering to turn it back on when you return to your main disk.)
Now, install your test software and try it out. (Remember to Repair permissions after all installs.)
After that, you can be very sure if it works, or if there are issues. If it runs well, boot back to your main disk and install the software.
-mj
iMac 24" 2.16 GHz 3GB RAM/22" external HP display, Mac OS X (10.6.4), iMac G4 17" 800 MHz 768MB/ iMac 333MHz 256 MB / a gaggle of LaCie d2s/ APC-UPS
