Anyone ever use Carbon Copy Cloner?

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Anyone ever use Carbon Copy Cloner?

Hi all, need advice on speeding up my iMac 2007 Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz, at least until the new iMacs come out very soon. Here's my situation. My Time Capsule recently filled up, necessitating purchase of a LaCie 2 TB external storage device. I've only used it for regular Time Machine backups since I took it out of the box yesterday, but would love to (if possible) use this puppy for all it's worth...perhaps taking some of the storage strain off my iMac, which currently has L2 Cache of 4MB and Memory of just 2GB. Gah, I know. And a wee 800 MHz processor. So what can I do to help speed this baby up? A friend mentioned Carbon Copy, but what do I do? I realize my new LaCie could eat my iMac's storage for lunch, but I don't want to mess anything up. Where do I start? Do I move photos over? Create partitions? Transfer everything over and start from scratch, slowly adding things back to my iMac, bit by bit? Someone please help. It's Sunday late afternoon here...would like to start Monday rarin' to go with a blazing-fast computer.

iMac 20, Mac OS X (10.7.1), Time Capsule, AirPort Express

Posted on Apr 15, 2012 2:38 PM

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Answer 1

SeaPapp

Level 7

26,486 points

Apr 15, 2012 3:15 PM in response to Ima Writer

I seriousley doubt that you have an 800 mHz imac running lion. Can you go to about this mac under the apple menu and post which mac and which os you're running.

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Answer 2

Ima Writer Author

Level 1

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Apr 15, 2012 3:32 PM in response to SeaPapp

Yes, I misspoke. The 800 mHz is of course the BUS speed. My processor is 2.4 GHz as I listed in the first sentence. Does this help you Mike? Thanks.

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Answer 3

Apple 2GS

Level 4

3,410 points

Apr 15, 2012 3:36 PM in response to Ima Writer

I have used CCC for many years. It makes a perfect clone of your HD. You can boot from the clone and clean up your internal HD all the way up to using your internal HD as a data storage drive.

-Apple //GS

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Answer 4

den.thed

Level 9

77,182 points

Apr 15, 2012 3:50 PM in response to Ima Writer

Ima Writer wrote:

Someone please help. It's Sunday late afternoon here...would like to start Monday rarin' to go with a blazing-fast computer.

You probably will not see much if any improvement or difference in speed, doing any of the above unless your Hard Drive is over 80% full.

The best way to speed things up, is to upgrade the RAM from 2GB to either 4 or 6GB.

see > Upgrade Apple iMac Memory & more – Easy Guide, Free Installation Videos.

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Answer 5

Klaus1

Level 9

52,749 points

Apr 15, 2012 3:50 PM in response to Ima Writer

For making a bootable clone of your hard drive, CCC is great. So is SuperDuper.

For making incremental backups of individual folders, I use SyncTwoFolders.

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Answer 6

Apr 15, 2012 5:42 PM in response to Ima Writer

I have used CCC for quite a while and have found it to be flawless in cloning my internal hard drive to an external drive. I clone on the 1st and 15th of each month, but others clone more often. It has always produced a bootable clone.

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Answer 7

Ima Writer Author

Level 1

0 points

Apr 15, 2012 5:49 PM in response to nathanspap

Forgive me, but I simply don't understand the relationship between creating a bootable clone and increasing the speed of my computer. After reading Den.Thed's response, I am convinced my only solution is to add more RAM. can someone convince me otherwise? It sounds like I just need to wait for the new iMacs to come out. 😟

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Answer 8

Apr 15, 2012 6:00 PM in response to Ima Writer

I'm sorry if some of us were off target, but your question was "Anyone ever use Carbon Copy Cloner?" Some of us who do use CCC were trying to answer that question.

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Answer 9

Ima Writer Author

Level 1

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Apr 15, 2012 6:02 PM in response to nathanspap

No harm no foul. Thanks, nathanspap.

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Answer 10

den.thed

Level 9

77,182 points

Apr 15, 2012 6:08 PM in response to Ima Writer

Run your iMac normally for a about an hour or so and then check your Activity Monitor > Using Activity Monitor to read System Memory and determine how much RAM is being used

If your low on both Free and Inactive with a high number of Page outs: then you need to upgrade the poor things RAM.

Also for kicks, see > 25 Ways to Speed Up Your Mac | Mac|Life

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Answer 11

Ima Writer Author

Level 1

0 points

Apr 15, 2012 6:06 PM in response to den.thed

Thanks. Will try this tomorrow as it's getting late. I appreciate everyone's help here....your assistance is greatly appeciated. Fingers crossed...especially for a speedy iMac release. I mean, come on, Apple! 😝

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Answer 12

den.thed

Level 9

77,182 points

Apr 15, 2012 6:11 PM in response to Ima Writer

Your welcome!

It also should help a lot, if you stream line by cut back on the number of Applications and Widgets that are running at the same time.

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