Avoiding tedous OSX installation

[tano]

Can I make a clon copy of my internal HD to an external disk, then erase and repartioning the internal disk as the instructions and restore my disk (that it is in the external) to the OSX partition in teh imac disk?

I don't want to reinstall all my apps again and I don't find iPartition 1.5.0b2 like in teh "how to" instructions says.

does this operation i want to do can make win xp unbootable?

thanks for the help

Tano

[Steve1496]

Yes, make a bootable backup of your hard drive. Then, afterwards, you go to Disk Utility, and Restore your internal disk from your External HD. There's more instructions on this that I posted somewhere, you can do a search for it if you'd like.


Steve

[rxcited]

Can I make a clon copy of my internal HD to an external disk, then erase and repartioning the internal disk as the instructions and restore my disk (that it is in the external) to the OSX partition in teh imac disk?

I don't want to reinstall all my apps again and I don't find iPartition 1.5.0b2 like in teh "how to" instructions says.

does this operation i want to do can make win xp unbootable?

thanks for the help

Tano

Yeah Tano you can do this, it is what I did on my MBP 2.0Ghz. You boot off of the install DVD that came with your Mac (hold down the C key while booting up to select the CD). Then use the Disk Utility to save a disk image of your Macintosh HD to an exernally connected drive. I used USB but FW ought to work too.

Then repartion/format your drive following the instructions. I used 32Gb for my WinXP partition as I gather this is the upper limit for FAT32 volumes created by the WinXP setup program. At this point you are supposed to be able to use Disk Utility to burn the image you stored on the external drive, back to the new Macintosh HD partition you create. I could not get Disk Utility to do this. It refused to let me drag the target disk to the destination field.:eek:

After some digging, I determined that Disk Utility is a front end for "asr" the Apple Restore Utility which is a command line program that lets you save and restore disk images. To use this, boot off the installation CD and use Terminal instead of Disk Utility. Once you get a command line, asr and other binaries are available to use. I used the following syntax to burn the image from my external drive back to the new Mac formatted partition:

asr restore --source /Volumes/Untitled/disk0s2.dmg --target /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/ --erase --verbose

Note "Untitled" is the volume name for my external USB where I stored the disk image "disk0s2.dmg" and "Macintosh HD" is the name of the Mac OS X partition I created to restore to. Both volumes (new mac partition and external drive) are conveniently mounted for you under /Volumes when you boot off of the Installation DVD. Your mileage may vary. In particular, it is possible Disk Utility will work for you for the restore operation. If not, use asr. If you like the command line, you can use asr for both save and restore with appropriate options. Try asr --help to get the options available.

After doing this, I used the Startup Disk program (also available when booted off the CD) to select the new Macintosh HD volume. I gather this "blesses" the new partition and selects it for booting. When you first start it, the new volume doesn't show, but after a few seconds of disk activity it pops up. Select it and you're good to go. After rebooting, all your apps and data should be there exactly as it was before, just on a smaller volume. Good Luck! :D

-- Fuzz

[tano]

thank you so much to everybody for the fastest answer you gave me.

I appreciate this help and I will do the job as you point.

Thanks again!

Marcelo

[Audiomaker]

Hmm, but is there a way to make a disk image of the whole drive (all partitions) and restore OSX and XP at once?

Gotta ask.

:D

[Steve1496]

Hmm, but is there a way to make a disk image of the whole drive (all partitions) and restore OSX and XP at once?

Gotta ask.

:D


Sure, just partition the disk two have two partitions: one MS DOS and one OSX Journaled. Back up each OS to its respective partition.


Steve

[Audiomaker]

Thanks Steve,
I ran right over and tried that but my OSX doesn't seem to have the GUID option available for that....just PC partition scheme or Apple partition scheme.

Is this because it's a Apple dmg or did my OS just loose that option?

In any case, isn't it just backing up files at that point? Every time I make backups with just file transfers I inevitably end up with disk permission problems and lost authorizations...etc. I use to think there was a way to make a perfect drive copy so basically it was writing disk tracks...etc and the partitions come along for the ride. No?

Thanks!
Audiomaker

[Steve1496]

Thanks Steve,
I ran right over and tried that but my OSX doesn't seem to have the GUID option available for that....just PC partition scheme or Apple partition scheme.

Is this because it's a Apple dmg or did my OS just loose that option?

In any case, isn't it just backing up files at that point? Every time I make backups with just file transfers I inevitably end up with disk permission problems and lost authorizations...etc. I use to think there was a way to make a perfect drive copy so basically it was writing disk tracks...etc and the partitions come along for the ride. No?

Thanks!
Audiomaker


I'm not sure I understand what you're saying. Are you trying to set your external disk to have two partitions? If so, it should look something like this:
http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/1876/picture29by.png

[Audiomaker]

My Bad,
I was trying to figure out if I could make a .dmg to cover both partitions and then store that .dmg on an external HD.

Actually I haven't had much luck with .dmg as a backup platform. What I was trying to say is that I often run into problems with permissions and some program applicatoins....even path issues sometimes using disk img.
I'm probably doing it wrong but after several failed attempts over the years I pretty much back up my drives by keeping copies of all installers and SN's and just get fast as re-installing the whole system.

In any case, I guess the question might point more to... Is there a format, process, or disk backup utility that could back up the whole drive with both windows and osx in a single file and then restore them perfectly?

Thanks Steve.

[lasvegas]

No. You would have to backup each partition separately.