How to make a back up copy of system install flash drive

Mac Saint wrote:
I get an error on step 5 where it is copying the files to the new Flash Drive, Carbon copy cloner says that "the target drive does not have enough space" "Delete some files or select another drive".
I am using an 8GB Sandick Cruzer Titanium
Also I dont see an option in CCC for "delete existing file"

Please help

Message was edited by: Mac Saint

It could depend on the device. I tried this on a 13" with an 8GB SD card. It showed 7.61GB available and failed with not enough space. I tried it with an 8GB PNY USB device which showed 7.66GB available and it worked fine.

Made a "mounted" disk image of the copied USB. Boots just fine from Dual Layer CD.

Thanks!

was able to duplicate it using superduper which worked fine for me with the same Sandisk Cruiser 8GB. Could be that CCC needs little more space than Superduper does. Thanks everyone for your help.

NOW the best will be if someone can figure out a way to make a thumb drive OSX Install from a retail OSX snow leopard DVD which can work on all mac hardware, not specially for Macbook Air. now that will be the best.

Cheers

Mac Saint wrote:
NOW the best will be if someone can figure out a way to make a thumb drive OSX Install from a retail OSX snow leopard DVD which can work on all mac hardware, not specially for Macbook Air. now that will be the best.

I think you can. I use Disk Utility to make a partition of my Time Machine Drive a bootable Snow Leopard Install Disc, so I can't see why this could not be done on a USB Stick. In Disk Utility, under the restore tab just drag the Install DVD to the source and the USB Stick to the destination hit restore.

Thanks for the tip Tony, it worked, I was able to make a Install DVD backup on a flash drive, now I can boot from the flash and install it on any mac.

This works - and can be split into two distinct elements:

1) To get a bootable disk to reinstall the MBAir system, all you have to do is 1-4:

Brian Caslis wrote:
There is a way but it's complicated.

1.) Get an 8GB USB (or a disk. SM) stick and format it for a boot disk (partition it with GUID option and (Mac OS X extended (journaled)).
2.) Insert the Apple USB stick also. There is a invisible file at the root you need to mount on the desktop called MacOSX.dmg. You can use a utility such as Onyx or use the terminal with the open command to mount it.
3.) Use carbon copy cloner to clone the mounted "Mac OS X Installer Image" to the new USB stick
4.) Unmount the "Mac OS X Installer Image"

At this point you have a bootable re-installation disk. It works from a normal harddisk as well as from a USB stick.

If you also want to be able to install iLife from this disk, then:

5.) Use carbon copy cloner to then clone the Apple USB stick to the new USB stick. Select the delete exiting files.

I interpreted this as: Use incremental (rather than complete) copy. Unselect the "MacOSX.dmg" file from being copied and UNcheck the "Delete items that don't exist on the source" box.

6.) After this finishes you will now have a bootable copy. You can then also use Disk Utility to create a disk image of the new copy.

The above does indeed work, up to and including getting a clean install of the system with iLife installed.

I just cloned the USB stick to a completely empty 8GB flash drive using the latest version of Carbon Copy Cloner. I didn't mess with the invisible file. It works perfectly and is identical to the flash drive that came with the computer.

Note that CCC will say that the copy will not be bootable because it lacks a Library folder; however, CCC is wrong in this case. It does boot.

CopyCatX did it for me, it made an exact copy of the Apple Flash Drive, when I insert the copy on my Mac it mounts automatically, where all the other software mentioned didn't accomplish this, so my hats off to "CopyCatX" as the winner in this one.

Superduper Backup all files (Erase, then copy) of mounted Mac OS X Installer Image ,U mean to just copy and past the all files inside the installer image to the 8 gb pendrive or ? this file size is about 5 gb...later u said Superduper Backup all files (copy newer files) of the whole stick to the same HDD partition (the file size of the stick is 7.6b) so how can all these files fit in a 5 gb pendrive ?????? thanks..sorry of the question is too lame..

u are right...copycat x makes an exact copy of f the usb drive and asks you to saves is as new disk image..so how do i put it in a pen drive and use it to boot mac os x ? diskutility doesnt let me do it..hellp needed..thanks

row adh

What version of Copycat X you running? you need to use 5.0, place the original flash drive in one USB port, and a fresh Flash Drive in the other USB, select Duplicate Volume, select the orginal USB drive as the Source, and the fresh Flash Drive in the other USB Port as the Destination, and with-in a few minutes, the orginal drive is exactly cloned to the freesh Flash drive.

Message was edited by: EdwinRamos