Create a bootable clone using Disk Utility

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growler62000 Author

Level 1

123 points

Create a bootable clone using Disk Utility

Tried to create a bootable clone using Disk Utility & got this:

“Restore Failure, Recovery partition restores can only be done on GPT partition maps.”

I may need to purchase Carbon Copy Cloner ($40) or Super Duper ($28).

I had been using my free CCC v. 3.4.7 to make clones of OS X 10.6.8 but now I upgraded to OS X 10.9.4 & got message that CCC not compatible with Mavericks unless I buy the CCC v. 3.5.6.

I read several places that DU can do back up clones same as CCC or SD!

I launched DU from recovery system, selected Mac HD as source & my XHD as destination. Both are formatted Max OS Extended (Journaled)

So, what am I doing wrong?

Also, what advantages, if any, are there in using CCC or SD instead of the free DU?

Thanks,

Steve

Message was edited by: growler62000

iMac, OS X Mavericks (10.9.4), 4 GB RAM, Win XP Pro-Boot Camp

Posted on Aug 22, 2014 7:12 AM

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Answer 1

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keg55

Level 6

11,755 points

Aug 22, 2014 7:24 AM in response to growler62000

growler62000 wrote:

Tried to create a bootable clone using Disk Utility & got this:

“Restore Failure, Recovery partition restores can only be done on GPT partition maps.”

I launched DU from recovery system, selected Mac HD as source & my XHD as destination. Both are formatted Max OS Extended (Journaled)

So, what am I doing wrong?

Also, what advantages, if any, are there in using CCC or SD instead of the free DU?

To answer your second question, first, CCC and SD have other features built in that DU Restore doesn't. For example, they both have schedulers, have the ability to update your clone after the initial create instead of "erase and build", CCC backs up the Recovery HD and has a feature to recreate it from CCC via Disk Center.

The error you're getting appears to be due to your external HDD not being setup with the GUID partition map. Try reformatting your external drive from DU and click the Options button to ensure you have the GUID partition map selected; then click Apply. Try the DU Restore again from your Recovery HD.

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Answer 2

growler62000 Author

Level 1

123 points

Aug 22, 2014 3:09 PM in response to keg55

Thanks, keg55.

I knew that CCC backs up the recovery HD & SD does not. I’m not sure I need the recovery HD backed up since I clone in order to be able to restore my system in the event of a failure or loss of my Mac HD. Not sure I would use the scheduler feature of CCC or SD to create regular clone backups since I will have Time Machine volume backing up every hour automatically & not sure about possible conflicts between the 2 tasks that may try to run at the same time. If I knew that Time machine would have priority & CCC would wait till TM was finished b4 beginning its scheduled clone, it would be nice. The one feature of CCC & SD that I know I’d like is update (replace only things that have changed since the last clone) which will shorten the time to clone.

I searched Google for how to reformat a volume. I tried to check if my XHD volume (It is partitioned into 3) is GUID. When I select that volume wi DU, I do not have a tab for Partition. I only have; First Aid, Erase, RAID & Restore tabs.

When I originally partitioned this XHD years ago, I made 2 partitions for Mac & one for Windows. I don’t recall if I set up the Mac partitions with GUID.

Do CCC & DU both require the volume to be GUID b4 I can clone? If so, It must already be GUID since I had cloned it using CCC in the past. I did secure erase it in preparation for using it to clone Mavericks though. Maybe THAT changed the partition map? I’m not clear on format vs map. Is GUID always Mac OS Extended (Journaled)?

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Answer 3

keg55

Level 6

11,755 points

Aug 22, 2014 3:20 PM in response to growler62000

growler62000 wrote:

DO CCC & DU both require the volume to be GUID b4 I can clone? If so, It must already be GUID since I had cloned it using CCC in the past. I did secure erase it in preparation for using it to clone Mavericks though. Maybe THAT changed the partition map? I’m not clear on format vs map. Is GUID always Mac OS Extended (Journaled)?

The Mac OS Extended (Journaled) is the partition format. GUID (partition map) is sort of like a DOS MBR on a PC. That's the piece that makes a Mac partition bootable. So, two different pieces of a partition. Neither CCC nor SD nor DU Restore would change the GUID or get rid of it. Whenever I format a Mac partition, using Disk Utility, I make sure it has the GUID partition map from the Options button. This makes the partition bootable on a Mac. I'm not familiar with what a secure erase will do to a partition. As you pointed out, maybe that did something to the partition map. But I don't know for sure.

The Recovery HD really comes in handy when you need to do something outside of your OS X partition. It has Disk Utility so you can repair a disk outside of your OS. The Disk Utility Restore requires being in the Recovery HD in order to block-copy (Restore) your OS X partition to a Destination. It also has Terminal so one can run Terminal commands, it will also download and reinstall the OS that it was created for (e.g. OS X Lion, Mountain Lion, Mavericks). So, even though you don't think you need it because you have a clone of your OS partition, what happens when your OS partition gets damaged? How will you fix/repair it? Just some food for thought.

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Answer 4

growler62000 Author

Level 1

123 points

Aug 22, 2014 3:43 PM in response to keg55

Thanks,

How do I reformat just one volume of my XHD? If I reformat, I can make sure I select GUID under options. Right now I don’t see a way to do it. Hopefully, I need not reformat the entire drive with all 3 partitions getting erased. That is not an option as I need the other 2 partitions.

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Answer 5

growler62000 Author

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123 points

Aug 22, 2014 3:48 PM in response to growler62000

Hmm, I see if I click on the disk, not just the volume/partition in question , then I do get the tab “Partition.” I’m hesitant to go further w/o knowing I can reformat only one of the 3 partitions & leave the other 2 intact.

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Answer 6

keg55

Level 6

11,755 points

Aug 23, 2014 6:02 AM in response to growler62000

Yes you can format each partition your create, independently. Just name them with different names so you can keep track. Then select each and do an erase on it with Mac OS Extended (Journaled), click the Options button and select GUID partition map; then Apply.

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Answer 7

growler62000 Author

Level 1

123 points

Aug 25, 2014 9:15 PM in response to keg55

There is no ‘options button’ option! (Pun Intended)

Only Only when you select a disk (all the way to the LEFT in DU do you get Options & Format. If you select a volume, one of several partitions on a disk (Indented rather than all the way to the left side) You can select the erase tab & you do get SECURITY Options button which is not at all the same thing. So, you can only select the Format. You cannot select the partition map.

Can Cannot be done w/o reformatting the entire disk erasing the other 2 partitions that I need.

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Answer 8

Csound1

Level 9

60,033 points

Aug 26, 2014 2:39 AM in response to growler62000

growler62000 wrote:

Hmm, I see if I click on the disk, not just the volume/partition in question , then I do get the tab “Partition.” I’m hesitant to go further w/o knowing I can reformat only one of the 3 partitions & leave the other 2 intact.

Do you not have backup for this disk?

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Answer 9

keg55

Level 6

11,755 points

Aug 26, 2014 4:30 AM in response to growler62000

You're right. My mistake. You can only set the partition map when you partition a drive. And I believe once it's been partitioned, you can't change the partition map unless you repartition.

Open Terminal and type diskutil list. If your drive is partitioned (all 3 partitions) with the GUID partition map, you should see something like below where #0 on the left should show a Type Name of GUID_partition_scheme. If so, all your partitions should be fine and you have the GUID partition map.

/dev/disk0

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *251.0 GB disk0

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_HFS Macintosh HD 250.1 GB disk0s2

3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB disk0s3

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Answer 10

growler62000 Author

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123 points

Aug 27, 2014 12:10 AM in response to growler62000

Csound1, the XHD in question is a backup. As I mentioned, when I originally partitioned this XHD years ago, I made 2 partitions for Mac & one for Windows. The Windows partition is my only backup for my Windows BootCamp installation. The 2 Mac partitions were Snow Leopard. I erased one to use the volume for Mavericks when I ran into the problem in my 1st post. The other Mac volume is my only clone of Snow Leopard. I do have a Time Machine XHD with years of Snow Leopard backed up. I just disconnected that & started using a new XHD for my Maverick TM backups.

Keg55, Thanks for the Terminal tip. I found that my XHD was partitioned with APM & not GPT as I had assumed. But, The 2 Mac clones on the APM were bootable & the one remaining still is bootable. I did a search & found: “If you want to boot OS X Intel, need GPT & need APM if want to boot OS X PPC.”

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3905667?start=0&tstart=0

Well, I have an Intel iMac & I must have used APM yet, I still can boot the clone.

I must have followed instructions (Years ago) telling me to use APM or else I would have used GPT.

So, I apparently have an XHD formatted with partition map: APM (Apple Partition Map) & have format HFS {Mac OS Extended (Journaled)}

From my 1st post we know I cannot clone Mavericks onto the empty partition. Will I have the same issue if I purchase CCC? Does CCC require GPT partition map to make a bootable clone?

Details from Terminal:

1st part is detailing my iMac HD. States: “GUID partition scheme”

Next lists; Apple_HFS Macintosh HD 465.4GB, Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB & Microsoft Basic Data Win XP Pro B.C. 33.9 GB

Next section details my XHD:

Apple_Partition_Scheme (Uh Oh!)

Apple_ Partition_Map

Apple_HFS Mavericks-Current 200.4 GB (My newly erased volume that I planned on using to clone Mavericks)

Apple_HFS Snow Leopard Recent 247.4 GB (My bootable clone of Snow Leopard (I tested it & it IS bootable)

Apple_HFS Win XP Pro Boot Camp 51.9 GB (My bootable clone of Windows Boot Camp - I tested it & it IS bootable)

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Answer 11

RIFerrarr

Level 4

1,181 points

Aug 27, 2014 1:28 AM in response to growler62000

If you have your partitions backed up Snow Leopard and Bootcamp. Or at least you have the hard drives to make the clones again. Format the external and make it GUID, then clone Snow Leopard and Bootcamp back over, now you will be able to Clone Mavericks.

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Answer 12

keg55

Level 6

11,755 points

Aug 27, 2014 4:34 AM in response to growler62000

growler62000 wrote:

From my 1st post we know I cannot clone Mavericks onto the empty partition. Will I have the same issue if I purchase CCC? Does CCC require GPT partition map to make a bootable clone?

I can't advise you on your Bootcamp partition. I have never used that.

With CCC or Superduper, you would format an external drive with Mac OS Extended (Journaled) with the GUID partition table map. Then, clone your Snow Leopard to the external. And deal with your Bootcamp partition. Next, you would need to delete all your internal drive's partitions and repartition/reformat them with the GUID partition table map. Clone back SL from the external and somehow deal with your Bootcamp partition.

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Answer 13

growler62000 Author

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123 points

Aug 28, 2014 5:25 PM in response to growler62000

RIFerrarr, I do not have the hard drives to make the clones of SL. The XHD in question which apparently is formatted partition map: APM (Apple Partition Map) & has format HFS, Mac OS Extended (Journaled) is My only clone of Snow Leopard (SL). The free program Winclone is not longer available, so I can no longer clone my Boot Camp Windows XP installation unless I purchase some other Windows cloning software. (I think Winclone may be back as a paid software)

Keg55,

You confirm what I read on the CCC website. You need to format with partition map GUID (GPT). You say “ clone your Snow Leopard to the external.” Did you mean for me to use 2 separate XHDs? My iMac (internal) HD has Mavericks & also BootCamp Windows.

If I had an extra XHD, I suppose I could connect it but I have only a single FW 800 port on the iMac. I probably could connect one XHD using FW800 & the 2nd XHD using FW400 or USB 2.0. It would be slow but, I suppose (After I purchase CCC), I could clone from my SL clone to a new XHD. Then after dealing with Windows partition somehow, I would be able to reformat the XHD in question into 3 partitions once again but, this time make the 2 Mac partitions GUID partition map. Then re-clone SL back to the XHD in question & have a volume ready to clone Mavericks.

So, with a 2nd XHD & a way to clone Windows, I could salvage my XHD in question (which currently has; SL, Windows & an empty volume.

I may end of doing that although I hate to have to buy another XHD & buy a Windows cloning software.

I would like someone to answer the question: “How the **** did I originally make 2 bootable clones, using CCC (tested!) of Snow Leopard on an XHD that I formatted with APM & not GPT?” Has CCC changed their requirements re partition map?

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Answer 14

Barney-15E

Level 10

117,142 points

Aug 28, 2014 6:26 PM in response to growler62000

When I select that volume wi DU, I do not have a tab for Partition. I only have; First Aid, Erase, RAID & Restore tabs.

You need to select the whole drive, not the individual Volume in order to see the Partition tab or the Partition Map scheme. But, I guess you’ve figured that out.

Also, there is no way to change the Partition Map scheme without erasing all the partitions. So, if you want to use DU, you’ll need to repartition the Drive.

Since it is APM, it cannot be used to boot your Mac. I don’t remember which OS required GPT to boot, but I think it was Mountain Lion and later.

Without a second external, I’m not sure how you are going to pull this off.

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Answer 15

keg55

Level 6

11,755 points

Aug 29, 2014 5:19 AM in response to growler62000

I'm confused on where your drive is that you have your production SL and Windows. You keep referencing "XHD" which I take to mean "external hard drive".

Regardless where your SL and Windows partitions that you want to clone reside (drive A), you need an another drive (drive B) to clone them to. That drive can be external or internal. Again, I can't help you with your Windows partition cloning.

For example:

You show your SL partition as 247GB (Drive A). Let's pretend 100GB of that is used.

Drive B should have a partition large enough to hold the used space from Drive A. I would make it 150GB.

Clone the SL partition on Drive A to the 150GB partition on Drive B.

Boot into SL on Drive B. Use Disk Utility to delete all partitions on Drive A, repartition and size what you want and format it with Mac OS Extended (Journaled) with the GUID partition map.

Clone SL on Drive B to the partition on Drive A you want SL to reside on.

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