Restoring to my original system

[Tomzo]

I would like to take the plunge here and give this a go but am a bit risk averse. I have a couple of questions:

- I use SuperDuper and have a bootable clone of my HD on a FW drive - if I decide that the whole Xp thing is not for me, I presume that I will be able to re-constitute my system as it was. Has anyone actually done this (I guess I am paranoid about lingering effects on the iMac)

- The Windoze app that I need to use is an astronomical image processing application that routinely handles several GB of images that need to be stored while processing. If I assign the minimum space to an XP partition, will my XP boot be able to store files on the OSX volume?

- Could Windoze virus attacks cause damage to my OSX system?

Thanks in advance!

Tom

[jann]

I would like to take the plunge here and give this a go but am a bit risk averse. I have a couple of questions:


good to ask before taking the plunge


- I use SuperDuper and have a bootable clone of my HD on a FW drive - if I decide that the whole Xp thing is not for me, I presume that I will be able to re-constitute my system as it was. Has anyone actually done this (I guess I am paranoid about lingering effects on the iMac)


Great utility.
Yes, you can totally restore your image. SIMPLY STORE IT AS AN IMAGE...not as a separate bootable volume.

After you clone your system, go through the instructions to setup and install xp.


If you have to go back:
Make sure your FW drive is connected at the start of this process.
Next, boot from the original install disk (os x) or your system disks that were included w/your computer.
Then launch disk utility from the menu at the top of the first screen.
Choose RESTORE from Disk utility and navigate to your image on the external firewire drive.

It will then put your system back exactly like it was.


- The Windoze app that I need to use is an astronomical image processing application that routinely handles several GB of images that need to be stored while processing. If I assign the minimum space to an XP partition, will my XP boot be able to store files on the OSX volume?

Only with MacDrive. Buy it if you need to use your OS X partition.


- Could Windoze virus attacks cause damage to my OSX system?

YES .. If you use MacDrive. If you do not use MacDrive, then it cannot touch it.

The problem is that with MacDrive the XP partition sees the OS X partition as another drive letter. Without MacDrive, XP cannot see and thus viruses cannot use it.



Thanks in advance!


No problem. Any more questions, just ask.

Jann

[mcnaugha]

Watch out for the missing GPT problem that I have encountered. This may have been caused by me choosing to create partitions with the Windows installer, but otherwise you'll find that your disk is no longer in an Intel-based Mac bootable state. To restore the disk back to the correct bootable state I found I was forced to use the command line interface. Disk Utility does not seem to have a GUI for setting the GPT option. The following AppleCare Knowledge Base document refers to GUI elements which are simply not present in the 10.4.4 and 10.4.5 Intel Disk Utility:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303220

I found I had to access the Terminal from the Utilities menu and use the following command:

diskutil partitionDisk disk0 1 GPTFormat "Journaled HFS+" "Macintosh HD" 250G

The above command creates a single partition which is in Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format, named Macintosh HD. It's the "GPTFormat" that is the vital option for Intel Macs.

If you enter simply "diskutil partitionDisk" you can read the other options you have here.

If you have lost your GPT on your Intel Mac, the Mac OS X Installer will refuse to install onto any partition on that disk.

[scottmcd]

I found I had to access the Terminal from the Utilities menu and use the following command:

diskutil partitionDisk disk0 1 GPTFormat "Journaled HFS+" "Macintosh HD" 250G


Thanks very much for that. Saved my bacon.

[Tomzo]

Mcnaugha,

Is there something that I should (or shouldn't) do to avoid the "missing GPT" problem? Did this happen to you because you did some additional partitioning or is this something that is just a byproduct of installing XP on an iMac?

Thanks

Tom

[The Viking]

THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU!!!

I was absolutely freaking out when I couldn't seem to format my drive to install OSX to switch to Boot Camp from XoM. The computer was unuseable, and creating the GPT partition table I saw in another thread didn't help.

This got me going. Ferris Bueller, you're my hero.

[eckeltico]

I found I had to access the Terminal from the Utilities menu and use the following command:

diskutil partitionDisk disk0 1 GPTFormat "Journaled HFS+" "Macintosh HD" 250G

If you have lost your GPT on your Intel Mac, the Mac OS X Installer will refuse to install onto any partition on that disk.

I just registered in this page to say "Man....you just save my day :p"

BTW, it would be good idea for apple to publish this somewhere easy to find...since i had to erase the 200Mb partition to install Win Vista (and just to find out that really sucks...)