Backup Intel mac via Firewire drive

[wolfy357]

Hello all,
Well, after reading up on the subject of backing up to Firewire drive at the X-lab site as well as the many informative posts in these forums, I think I'm ready to try this.

My system: Macbook 10.4.8 (just did updates/firmware and so far so good), Western Digital Firewire/USB 2.0 Combo External Drive. There are two volumes currently mounted on the FWD. Format--OS Extended (journaled). Total FWD size 120G. I have everything I need off the volumes so drive is ready to be erased and formatted to GUID.

Utilities at my disposal: SuperDuper, TinkerTool + TinkerTool System, good ole Disk Utility.

Bought my Macbook with 100GB. Have sinced used up 50GB in files, music, movies. Ideally, I would like to have a bootable clone and backup sets. Although I have the software mentioned above, I have not fully explored the capabilities and have only been able to locate info on somewhat more complex methods of backup (triple-boot, etc), than what I am going for.

What I am driving at here is:
How can I most beneficially use the 120G exernal drive to give me adequate backup/restore solutions?
And lastly, and perhaps more importantly, how do I use my new utilities to do all of this in a step by step fashion?

On a sidenote--I am not running and do not plan to run Windows on my system.
Thanks in advance everyone, I really do think there is some great info on this site, I am glad I finally found it.

 

[Steven1621]

Superduper is really all you need. Just set it up to make a image of your macbook's drive on the external. It will take awhile to do, but is very easy. You'll still be able to use the drive for other stuff afterwards.

 

[wolfy357]

Ok. Still a few questions left unanswered. How much room on the FWD should I use to create a bootable clone? Should I make another partition for storage as well? And if I have a clone of my OS and files, do I really need another partition for storage?
I mean Ive got a 120GB FWD, so if I clone my current HD leaving room for growth to a total of say 100GB, still have an extra 20GB.

 

[vansouza]

start with 50 percent

You can start with 50% more then you need ... Looks like your backup partition should be about 80gigs, based on what you detailed. Now, in case that needs to be increased in the future be careful about what you store on the second partition.

SuperDuper is all you need... it really is as simple as install and run. I use it to backup to two fire wire drives, just in case.

Good luck and welcome to the forum. Van