I want to format my HDD to start out fresh. I already have a Carbon copy clone of my HDD and a time machine back-up. I do not have the OS X installation disks. I just want to know the best way to restore my system after deleting all currecnt partitions on my HDD.
MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.5)
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Carbon Copy Cliner has got its pros, because you can start your Mac from a backup made with it and you can restore the backup easily. However, it doesn't let you select by categories what you want to restore, but if you want to restore the whole backup, this application is an option. Another similar application is SuperDuper.
Time Machine, in this case, is a bit worse because it sometimes fails during the restore of the backup, making OS X unusable and having to reinstall. My advice is to make a Time Machine backup and a clone with Carbon Copy Cloner at the same time, so you will have the best of these two worlds
Welcome to the Apple Support Communities
Carbon Copy Cliner has got its pros, because you can start your Mac from a backup made with it and you can restore the backup easily. However, it doesn't let you select by categories what you want to restore, but if you want to restore the whole backup, this application is an option. Another similar application is SuperDuper.
Time Machine, in this case, is a bit worse because it sometimes fails during the restore of the backup, making OS X unusable and having to reinstall. My advice is to make a Time Machine backup and a clone with Carbon Copy Cloner at the same time, so you will have the best of these two worlds
Ok good to know. I kind of figured having both would be my best bet. So my next question is after i format my HDD will i still be able to either hold down the option button to boot to my Cloned drive or restore from my time machine back-up? Or even use the internet recovery service? I accidently deleted my Mac OS partition before and had to use the internet recovery service before which was a very nice feature. I guess what I'm wondering, is there a way to basically make a copy of the OS X installation incase everything else goes wrong? I guess Apple has stopped giving out the OS X installing DVDs with MBP purchases.
After formatting your hard drive, you will be able to start from your cloned drive without any problem. Apart from that, you should know that Internet Recovery is stored in the firmware of the computer, so it doesn't mind if you replace the hard drive, because you will still be able to use Internet Recovery.
Since the OS X Lion launch, Apple has stopped including DVDs with Macs because now you can gets OS X from Internete Recovery and Recovery HD. As you are running OS X Lion, it's easy to create a USB drive with the OS X Lion installer. Just open App Store > Purchases, and download OS X Lion. When the download finishes, close the installer and use Lion Diskmaker to make a bootable USB drive with the installer > http://liondiskmaker.com
What is the best way to back-up HDD in order to full system restore?
