How to check which disk am I booted in to?

Just got new iMac running Mavericks, and new Seagate 3TB ext HD for external backup. Have cloned the iMac to Seagatewith Superduper, made sure that Seagate was correctly formatted, told SuperDuper to make it bootable etc.

Just tested whether I can boot into it, firstly tried holding down Option Key. It was a bit sticky doing it that way, but it eventually booted. As it all looked EXACTLY THE SAME as my internal HD I thought I would go back, changed the desktop image, cleared everything off of desktop and re cloned. (Then reverted back to old destop image and put all stuff back where it was on desktop). Rebooted into clone, this time going through "system prefs/startup disk" expecting to see new desktop image, but NO, all looks exactly the same as internal HD! Spotlight did say it was indexing new clone disk though..... Is this something to do with how Mavericks works?

Ideally, I want the booted clone to look a bit different in some way to my internal HD, just so I can visually see which I'm booted in to. ie that is why I changed desktop image before cloning.

Very confused... Just want to check that my new clone is indeed working and bootable before I put it in the safe.

Any help appreciated.

Kate

Posted on Jul 3, 2014 4:34 AM

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FatMac-MacPro

Level 5

5,083 points

Posted on Jul 3, 2014 7:57 AM

Kathykate wrote:

...Ideally, I want the booted clone to look a bit different in some way to my internal HD, just so I can visually see which I'm booted in to. ie that is why I changed desktop image before cloning...

As WZZZ says, the (USB?) external should have a different icon. But to see which drive you're actually running from, in a Finder Window, right-click on the Toolbar (the top bar in the window) and pick Customize. One of the buttons you can add to the Toolbar (if it isn't already present) is "Path." Click on the button and you'll see the path right out to your computer, including your boot drive. If the icon is different, you'll see which one you're actually booted from at that time even if the name is the same. I've found that when I clone the internal to an external (which I do frequently), the unique icon I've pasted into the upper left of the Get Info window of the internal, which also identifies the drive on the desktop and in Disk Utility, will not be carried over as part of the cloning process to the clone.

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19 replies

Kathykate Author

Level 2

248 points

Jul 3, 2014 8:39 AM in response to Kathykate

Can I plug Seagate into my old 2007 iMac (on Mountain Lion) and see if it will boot from there? I have an idea that won't work as new clone is on Mavericks?

Kathykate Author

Level 2

248 points

Jul 4, 2014 4:09 AM in response to dwbrecovery

I like to be a bit 'belt and braces'. Remember kids, don't assume something works just because you've set it up. TEST it! 🙂

WZZZ

Level 6

13,238 points

Jul 4, 2014 5:26 AM in response to dwbrecovery

So what is the USB hub doing in this scenario? Is it acting effectively as a 3.0 to 2.0 adapter?

Kathykate Author

Level 2

248 points

Jul 4, 2014 5:29 AM in response to WZZZ

I would say it is. I guess if I had an adapter that would do the same job and I would be able to boot using that too.

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How to check which disk am I booted in to?