Disk utility "Restore"

Question

Level 1

8 points

Disk utility "Restore"

Hi,

I have bought a new external hard drive (let's call it #2), and I wanted to copy a partition of the other one (let's call it #1) to it.

So the partition called "DATA" from #1 should be copied to the partition "FAT CLONE" on #2.

Both partitions were in MS-DOS FAT.

I wanted to use the "Restore" functionnality (in Disk Utility).

I selected DATA as the source and FAT CLONE as the destination.

As I clicked "Restore", I had a doubt, I forgot to copy the data on DATA before, in case anything happens.

So I canceled the operation and now I can't see DATA anymore in the Finder. It's still here in Disk Utility but it's apparently unmounted.

So my question is: should I just unmount it and will I find all my data again? 🙂 That's my guess, but I really don't want to mess everything up as I have some data that's unique there... That's why I'm asking here.

Regards,

Laurent

MacBook Air (13-inch Mid 2012), OS X Yosemite (10.10.5), null

Posted on Jul 2, 2016 10:48 AM

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Answer 1

theratter

Level 4

3,961 points

Jul 2, 2016 11:43 AM in response to MTefi

Select the grayed entry for the volume then click on the Mount icon in the toolber to remount it. It should reappear on your Desktop. In order for the process to work the volume on the destination must be equal to or larger than the target volume. Disk Utility does not copy just files but rather all the blocks on the volume. If the destination volume is not large enough then Disk Utility will notify you. Then you will need to copy the data with a different backup utility such as Carbon Copy Cloner.

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Answer 2

MTefi Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 2, 2016 11:45 AM in response to theratter

Thank you, it worked 🙂

That's what I wanted to do, but as I said, I wanted to check with someone else first.

I know what "Restore" would do, and both partitions were 500 Gb so it would have been fine I think. And I knew it would copy blocks and not files, that's why I wanted to use this, because I think it can be faster than to copy files, right?

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Answer 3

theratter

Level 4

3,961 points

Jul 2, 2016 12:18 PM in response to MTefi

Depends on what utility you use. Disk Utility verifies its copying and it copies all the blocks on a disk, so it can be slower than backup utilities that just copy files and have an option not to verify the copy. Personally, for cloning a disk I prefer using Disk Utility. When Disk Utility isn't the best tool for a particular job, then I usually turn to Carbon Copy Cloner.

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