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-   -   backing up an active system drive (https://www.shirt-pocket.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1003)

~ j ~ 01-24-2006 08:45 PM

backing up an active system drive
 
helo there :)

im just getting my head round this cloning malarky. yet whenever i read manuals
or forums, i still get stuck on a certain thought, so forgive this dumb question ...

i have a g5, and an ibook.
do i run superdooper from the ibook to backup the g5s hard drive - and visaversa?

i guess what im saying is ive got in my head that my g5s operating system canot be backed up whilst active?
do i start it in firewire disk mode?

ouch my head hurts :confused:

dnanian 01-24-2006 09:42 PM

I'm not quite sure what you're trying to do, j. Are you trying to copy one to the other? Sync? One-time backup?

It's hard to give you advice without knowing... so, fill in some details about your intentions, and we'll go from there.

~ j ~ 01-24-2006 10:01 PM

thanks for the reply ... i always get jumbled with the lingo, sorry!

i basically want a bootable copy, or clone (if thats how its called) of both computers hard drives.

my confusion comes from thinking this >
that in order to do this, the drive i am trying to copy must be 'inactive' ... ie: not booted up, or running any applications?
this is where i start to think - that i run superduper on a computer other than the one im trying to clone?

do i run superduper on the mac that i am actually trying to clone?

i have a g5 with 160G drive
and an ibook 30G drive
and i have just got a lacie 80G firewire drive to do the backing-up onto.

i hope to move all these backups over to a big 400G external drive,
if i ever work this out!

thanks!

dnanian 01-24-2006 10:30 PM

OK. You can definitely back up the drive you're booted from, j. Just connect the FireWire drive that you want to back up to, and follow the instructions in the User's Guide. Should be pretty easy!

~ j ~ 01-24-2006 10:36 PM

ok thanks again :D

i knew i was making this hard for myself.
i'll give it a go tmoro.

x

dnanian 01-24-2006 10:37 PM

Sounds good! Let me know how it works out, OK?

~ j ~ 01-25-2006 12:10 PM

helo dnanian, thanks for all the help :)

backed up my ibook internal 30G drive to my external lacie 80G drive.
i booted up from the lacie 80G and all looks well. im using the clone as i type this - fantastic!

so - i have 4 drives i need to make backups of ... 2 of these 4 drives need to be bootable (my G5 system drive & my ibooks internal)

ok i have just a few other Q's ;)

1* i guess i could PARTITION my 400G seagate firewire drive into say ... 4 partitions ... and make backups directly onto this drive?
this will prevent superduper from erasing the other backups whilst in the process of making one?

2* do i need the same free space on my destination drive, as is the entire size of the drive i am backing up?
or just enough for files on it to be backed up?

3* is there an advantage for me to use disk images?
4* will they save any space?
5* is a disk image directly bootable, if so, are they as reliable as the normal 'backup'?

i have read the manual several times, but some of it seems to be going in one ear and out the other!
i think ive read too many manuals lately!

x

dnanian 01-25-2006 12:16 PM

If you have multiple drives, I recommend creating multiple partitions, not using disk images. I list the reasons why in detail in the Guide, so take another look there.

You don't need the same free space, but the partition should be large enough to store the size you expect the data to get to, plus 10-20% slack.

macfeller 01-25-2006 08:37 PM

What about apps that can be open and those that shouldn't?
 
If I remember correctly, shouldn't a cloner be sure that Mail.app is not open when cloning? What about other apps?

dnanian 01-25-2006 08:57 PM

In general, no -- Mail can be backed up while open, but if mail is fetched while we're backing it up, you could have an incomplete backup.

It's all a matter of balancing convenience with "exact"... in most cases, if there's a problem, we'll generate an error. But, if you can, it never hurts to close everything... and you're obviously less likely to run into a problem that way.

~ j ~ 01-27-2006 11:00 AM

oki

im backing up all 4 drives to my [now] partitioned big external firewire drive.

is it normal for the resulting backup drives icon to be not as the originals,
when backing up to a partition? ie: im just getting a generic firewire icon.

when i backed up a previous drive to a non partitioned drive, it copied the hard drives non standard icon too.

anyway, many thanks, this app is very easy to use, works fantasticly, and thus ... totally rocks :D

*also .. i have a 'dev' folder in the backup now - which wasnt in the original?

dnanian 01-27-2006 11:08 AM

Yes, that's normal. You get the icon of the source. A "generic" icon, on the source, gives you a "generic" icon on the destination -- if FireWire, a FireWire icon.

The "dev" folder is hidden by Finder when it's the boot drive, but not when copied. It's OK -- don't touch it! :)

Glad things are working well!

~ j ~ 01-27-2006 11:26 AM

cheers :D


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