How to backup an image of internal hard drive on external hard drive with disk utility

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How to backup an image of internal hard drive on external hard drive with disk utility

I've followed the instructions under the paragraphph 'Instructions for backing up to an external hard disk via Disk Utility

in this article: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1553. My external hard drive is plugged in. I mount my install DVD of Leopard and restart. Press C to boot on the DVD, select the language and go to Utilities -> Disk utility.

However I'm blocked in step 9 when I have to choose the destination. I don't have the option to select my hard drive to back up the image. I only have 2 options: root or Applications to save the image. Nevertheless, I can see my external hard on the left.

- Could it be because the internal hard drive is encrypted?

- Could it be because the external hard drive is encrypted?

Note also that the button 'Verify disk' is greyed out.

Any clue?

MacBook Pro (15-inch Early 2011), OS X Mavericks (10.9.1)

Posted on Feb 12, 2014 4:26 PM

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Answer 1

Feb 12, 2014 4:41 PM in response to cricrib

I always advise Mac users to never:

encrypt a disk
set a firmware password

In my experience they cause more loss of data than they are worth.

On Leopard I always use the latest free Carbon Copy Cloner to backup and clone disks - it is so simple to clone to either a disk or disk image. The free version may not be compatible with later OSs.

As you appear to be on the wrong forum I will follow this with my standard message.

Whilst it may not be your fault I am afraid it appears that your post is on a forum which is not the best for your OS. It will save the time of the unpaid volunteers here, and may resolve your issue faster, if you could examine the list below and see if there is a more appropriate forum to which you could direct your question.

OS X 10.9 Mavericks
OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion
OS X 10.7 Lion
OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard
OS X 10.5 Leopard
OS X 10.4 Tiger
OS X 10.3 and earlier
OS 9, OS 8 & System 7
OS X Technologies
OS X Server
iPad
iPhone
iPod
Other

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Answer 2

Kurofune

Level 1

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Mar 31, 2014 6:00 AM in response to Neville Hillyer

Hello, Neville -

As a non-power user I appreciate the willingness of those who

have some clue about the issues to respond to people's questions.

I was attempting to follow the same instructions the poster (cricrib)

whom you responded to and managed to get one more step in the process

before unable to continue.

Without going into that - my question is about your response - how can it be

inappropriate to report a problem or request clarification about a very specific

set of instructions provided by an article purporting to explain how to do a

specific task involving particular hardware and software? (Assuming, as apears

to be the case here, that the poster actually read the article and is making

a reasonable attempt to follow the advice/instructions therein)

Presumably the OP got here the same way I did - by being directed to

a thread discussing the article whose advice he/she was attempting to follow.

Maybe I'm missing something (wouldn't be the first time) but how/why is this

not the appropriate place to be asking such questions?

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Answer 3

Kurofune

Level 1

0 points

Mar 31, 2014 6:13 AM in response to cricrib

Hi, cricrib -

Hope you were eventually able to resolve your problem.

FWIW - I was attempting to follow the same instructions (with the same hardware and software)

to backup to an external drive preparatory to upgrading from 10.5.8 to 10.6.3.

In my case, I was abe to select a destination, but wasn't able to proceed further -

attempting to initiate the scan of my (unencrypted) hard drive I first tried the default

option to save it "compressed"

response:

"unable to save - bad file descriptor"

trying to save as read-wriite also failed

response:

"read-only"

trying to save as read only also failed

response:

error - 61

There was one further option of "CD or DVD Master" which didn't appear to apply

to my situation so I didn't attempt it.

Maybe I will just try the Carbon Copy Cloner which Neville suggested..

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Answer 4

Mar 31, 2014 11:03 AM in response to Kurofune

Kurofune wrote:

my question is about your response - how can it be

inappropriate to report a problem or request clarification about a very specific

set of instructions provided by an article purporting to explain how to do a

specific task involving particular hardware and software? (Assuming, as apears

to be the case here, that the poster actually read the article and is making

a reasonable attempt to follow the advice/instructions therein)

When the OP appears to have an OS unrelated to this forum.

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Answer 5

BDAqua

Level 10

238,979 points

Mar 31, 2014 11:31 AM in response to Kurofune

CCC is the way to go. 🙂

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