Tips for copying all from external to internal?

[jrosinia]

Have an iMac G5 (running 10.4.3) and an external LaCie. A while ago, used SD to erase the ext and copy all files from the internal HD. Been doing Smart updates since then.

Yesterday, while using Disk Utility to verify the internal HD after some odd behavior, I received an error message and DU advised me to repair the drive. Started up from the ext backup and tried to use DU from there but couldn't repair int drive because of an "Invalid Key Length" (whatever that means).

As luck would have it, I backed up just before the problems started. Don't own Disk Warrior and don't have the $80 to buy it right now. Since the ext has a bootable copy of the int, thought I'd just use SD and reverse the process I originally used with the ext -- erase the int and copy all files from the ext.

Does that sound like it'll work?

Anything I need to do before attempting this?

Thanks in advance.

[dnanian]

As long as you erase the drive with Disk Utility it should work, jrosinia. Try to name the external drive the *same* as the internal before you boot from it, to ensure that the internal is "not busy" when you do this.

Other than that, should work fine.

[jrosinia]

As long as you erase the drive with Disk Utility it should work, jrosinia.

Thanks!

Quick question - why use Disk Utility to erase the internal drive and not SuperDuper?

[dnanian]

SuperDuper! will work fine, but if you have any files open on the destination, we'll default to a "slow erase". I want you to literally format the drive no matter what, so I suggested using Disk Utility.