Bootable backup on a small harddrive??

[faintember]

I looked through some previous posts, but i am quite confused now, so hopefully someone can shed some light on this.

I am going to replace my internal HD in my PB, and use my old (60gig) HD as a backup drive in an external enclosure. This is what i think i should do:

1) Put new HD in external enclosure
2) Use Carbon Copy Cloner to make a boot-able image onto the new HD
3) Attempt to boot off of the external HD (to make sure that it is boot-able)??? (not sure how to do this exactly)
4) If #3 works, then install the new HD into my PB
5) Put old HD into the enclosure and use Carbon Copy Cloner to make a boot-able image onto it (will be my "permanent" backup)
6) Use extra space on the old (external) HD for extra storage.

I think this is what i have to do. One other question, when i make the boot-able copy on the old hd (once it has been removed) do i need a partition to store other files (.doc, .mp3, etc.) on it, or will it be fine as is?

This is the first time i have ever done this, and i really want to know exactly what i should be doing!

Thanks!

 

[spinne1]

I looked through some previous posts, but i am quite confused now, so hopefully someone can shed some light on this.

I am going to replace my internal HD in my PB, and use my old (60gig) HD as a backup drive in an external enclosure. This is what i think i should do:

1) Put new HD in external enclosure

Most enclosures are designed for full-sized drives. Make sure you get one that can accommodate a smaller drive, and that has the hookups for that drive (I am not aware of such enclosures, which means nothing since I don't own a laptop)

2) Use Carbon Copy Cloner to make a boot-able image onto the new HD

That should work fine.

3) Attempt to boot off of the external HD (to make sure that it is boot-able)??? (not sure how to do this exactly)

To do this, you go to Apple Menu-->System Preferences-->Startup Disk and select the operating system of choice on your hard disk of choice and then hit "restart." Your computer should restart with your external disk as the hard disk. (but look into whether there are special requirements for laptops booting into external drives--Firewire or USB 2.0? Which will work and under what conditions, if any? How do you search? Go to Google and try searching for "powerbook boot external drive os x." (but with the quotation marks) Also, I am not sure of the protocol for laptops. Is it the same as the IDE master/slave thing? I do not know. If so, you must make each hard drive a "master" since each would be on it's own bus.

4) If #3 works, then install the new HD into my PB

You know, it might be easier to skip steps 3 and 4 and simply take your hard drive out, put it in an external enclosure, put the new hard drive in your computer, boot from an operating system CD, open up Startup Disk, tell the computer to boot from the external hard drive, restart, then use Carbon Copy Cloner to copy the external drive (which is your original drive) onto the new drive in the computer. That way, you only need to swap once. And, you can skip step 5 altogether. Both drives will be identical as of the time you get the cloning done and you could boot off either. A better thing to do then would be to pay the shareware fee for SuperDuper! which would allow you to make smart backups of only the changes on your new internal drive onto your external drive, always allowing them to stay identical. (whether this would prevent you from using extra space on the external drive for extra storage is something I don't know--how would SuperDuper handle that? (my guess is the program would ignore the extra stuff and keep on doing its job of adding the changed files from the new internal to the external without regard to extra files on the external))

5) Put old HD into the enclosure and use Carbon Copy Cloner to make a boot-able image onto it (will be my "permanent" backup)
6) Use extra space on the old (external) HD for extra storage.

See my answer to step 4.

One other question, when i make the boot-able copy on the old hd (once it has been removed) do i need a partition to store other files (.doc, .mp3, etc.) on it, or will it be fine as is?

This question ties into what I was asking at the end of step 4's foray. I don't think you need to partition anything. I believe you can just add files as you wish to the external.

 

[faintember]

First of all, thanks spinne1

Most enclosures are designed for full-sized drives. Make sure you get one that can accommodate a smaller drive, and that has the hookups for that drive (I am not aware of such enclosures, which means nothing since I don't own a laptop)

The external enclosure i ordered is for 2.5" (laptop) harddrives.

The enclosure is also FW 400 and USB 2.0. I will be using FW 400.

You know, it might be easier to skip steps 3 and 4 and simply take your hard drive out, put it in an external enclosure, put the new hard drive in your computer, boot from an operating system CD, open up Startup Disk, tell the computer to boot from the external hard drive, restart, then use Carbon Copy Cloner to copy the external drive (which is your original drive) onto the new drive in the computer. That way, you only need to swap once. And, you can skip step 5 altogether. Both drives will be identical as of the time you get the cloning done and you could boot off either. A better thing to do then would be to pay the shareware fee for SuperDuper! which would allow you to make smart backups of only the changes on your new internal drive onto your external drive, always allowing them to stay identical. (whether this would prevent you from using extra space on the external drive for extra storage is something I don't know--how would SuperDuper handle that? (my guess is the program would ignore the extra stuff and keep on doing its job of adding the changed files from the new internal to the external without regard to extra files on the external))

Sounds good. I may just do the "boot from cd" method and use CCC then. Just wondering how long it is going to take to copy 30gigs via FW 400. lol. I have a thing against purchasing shareware. The only thing that SuperDuper does is the automatic/smart backup. I hate when my computer does anything "smart". I would rather back up my important documents, etc. by hand. Also smart folders can be used to do this as well, and they are included with 10.4!

This question ties into what I was asking at the end of step 4's foray. I don't think you need to partition anything. I believe you can just add files as you wish to the external.

This is what i thought, but just wasn't sure. I was concerned that adding/backing up files in the future may somehow "disable" (i.e. screw with) the ability of the external having a bootable OS as a backup.

Thanks again. Just trying to figure all of this out for sure before my new HD gets here. I know that i will be itching to put it in ASAP, but i don't want to screw up because of my eagerness!

 

[ftaok]

You know, it might be easier to skip steps 3 and 4 and simply take your hard drive out, put it in an external enclosure, put the new hard drive in your computer, boot from an operating system CD, open up Startup Disk, tell the computer to boot from the external hard drive, restart, then use Carbon Copy Cloner to copy the external drive (which is your original drive) onto the new drive in the computer. That way, you only need to swap once. And, you can skip step 5 altogether. Both drives will be identical as of the time you get the cloning done and you could boot off either. A better thing to do then would be to pay the shareware fee for SuperDuper! which would allow you to make smart backups of only the changes on your new internal drive onto your external drive, always allowing them to stay identical. (whether this would prevent you from using extra space on the external drive for extra storage is something I don't know--how would SuperDuper handle that? (my guess is the program would ignore the extra stuff and keep on doing its job of adding the changed files from the new internal to the external without regard to extra files on the external))

Actually, I think this is a bad idea. The reason is because if the hard drive gets hosed during the removal process, faintmember is screwed. It would be much safer to put the new HD in the enclosure, do the CCC, check for success, then swap the HDs. That way, there's a back-up of the original hard drive.

However, with that said, I would advise to do a fresh install on the new HD. No reason other than it being an easy way to do a spring cleaning. Just drag over any applications and documents from the old drive to the new one, or you could re-install the apps from the original CDs. Afterwards, you can go into the old hard drive and snatch the important preferences and such.

Oh, and if you use iTMS, you should probably de-authorize your account. Not sure if you have to, but it only takes a few seconds and can't hurt anything.

 

[faintember]

Actually, I think this is a bad idea. The reason is because if the hard drive gets hosed during the removal process, faintmember is screwed. It would be much safer to put the new HD in the enclosure, do the CCC, check for success, then swap the HDs. That way, there's a back-up of the original hard drive.

However, with that said, I would advise to do a fresh install on the new HD. No reason other than it being an easy way to do a spring cleaning. Just drag over any applications and documents from the old drive to the new one, or you could re-install the apps from the original CDs. Afterwards, you can go into the old hard drive and snatch the important preferences and such.

Oh, and if you use iTMS, you should probably de-authorize your account. Not sure if you have to, but it only takes a few seconds and can't hurt anything.

Good advice. Didnt think about the current internal getting damaged/etc. in the process.

As for the fresh install, i did one about, oh, three months ago when i bought Tiger, so i should be ok on that. Besides, some of my software is downloaded from the distributors websites, and thus is a pain to setup. Everytime i re-install the OS i have to email them to get a new response to the new challenge that the program spits out.

No iTMS account, so no troubles there (still dont believe in "buying" a song that isnt as high of quality as i like).
Thanks ftaok, i will be doing the new hd in the external/CCC to it, then swap routine.