Bootable Clone Question

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Level 1

14 points

Bootable Clone Question

Hey, just wondering if when creating a bootable clone of my Mac's internal hard drive, does the external hard drive I'm making the clone on need to be at least the same size as my Mac's hard drive, or just big enough to hold the actual data that's on the Mac's hard drive?

My iMac has a 1TB drive, but more than half of that is still free space. I have a 500GB external drive (pulled from my old Macbook) which I'd like to use for the clone. Would it be possible?

Thanks for any help.

21.5" iMac 3.6GHz Intel Core i5 (Late 2010), 1TB HD, 8GB RAM, Mac OS X (10.6.7), 1TB WD MyBook Studio External HD / iPhone 4 16GB / iPod Classic

Posted on Jul 28, 2011 7:11 AM

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Answer 1

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rkaufmann87

Level 10

140,796 points

Jul 28, 2011 7:33 AM in response to sleazefrenzy

The EHD only needs to be large enough to hold what is currently on the internal HD. For example if you have 1 TB internal HD but only 100GB on it then a 100GB EHD is fine. However it's wise to get a larger drive, currently you only have 500GB on the internal HD however if you add more data which is almost certain then getting a 500GB EHD would be foolish. The difference in price between a 500GB and 1TB drive these days is pretty small.

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Answer 2

sleazefrenzy Author

Level 1

14 points

Jul 28, 2011 7:43 AM in response to rkaufmann87

Thanks a lot rkaufmann87.

I have another large external drive for music and video files so my Mac mainly just contains documents, photos and applications. I just want to put my old Macbook's drive to use some how so a backup clone is a good a use as any, at least for as long as it'll all fit on there.

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Answer 3

rkaufmann87

Level 10

140,796 points

Jul 28, 2011 7:48 AM in response to sleazefrenzy

Your welcome. My system isn't that dissimilar to yours. I have a 320GB internal HD that only has 70GB on it. I keep my media (music, photos & movies) on an external HD. I have 3 EHD's connected to my system via FW800 that are daisy chained together.

EHD 1 Time Machine Backup (1.5TB)

EHD 2 Media Drive (750GB)

EHD 3 SuperDuper Clone (320GB)

I've been using this system for about 4 years. If one of the EHD's fills up then I can get a larger drive and replace it using the existing enclosure.

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Answer 4

sleazefrenzy Author

Level 1

14 points

Jul 28, 2011 8:17 AM in response to rkaufmann87

That's pretty much the setup I'm working towards.

iMac Internal Drive (1TB)

EHD 1 Time Machine (1TB)

EHD 2 Media Drive (2TB RAID) 1TB of media that's instantly cloned to second drive for backup

EHD 3 SuperDuper! Clone of iMac (1TB) (500GB for the mean time though obviously)

I'd like all my data to be backed up on at least one other drive.

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