backup entire hd as image file?

killer2239killer2239
Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
Hey, i had to redo my entire computer using a month old backup of my stuff last night. I noticed under disk utilities in install area of panth, where you do partion, you can restore using disk image, aka .dmg. How do you make backups of your entire hd to restore easily? I have a usb2 external hd to use to store my backups. Id like to be able to run the restore anytime needed next time, thanks.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 14
    ebbyebby Posts: 3,110member
    I do that all the time. It is the least problematic for me. However, some people use Carbon Copy Cloner, and find that easy.
  • Reply 2 of 14
    killer2239killer2239 Posts: 110member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Ebby

    I do that all the time. It is the least problematic for me. However, some people use Carbon Copy Cloner, and find that easy.



    How do you do it??
  • Reply 3 of 14
    ebbyebby Posts: 3,110member
    In disk utility, single-click the drive you want to backup. Go up to the Images menu and select New->Image from "disk name". That will bring up a menu allowing you to name and save the image along with what kind of image you want to make.
  • Reply 4 of 14
    jwink3101jwink3101 Posts: 739member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Ebby

    In disk utility, single-click the drive you want to backup. Go up to the Images menu and select New->Image from "disk name". That will bring up a menu allowing you to name and save the image along with what kind of image you want to make.



    How would you go about restoring that? Thanks
  • Reply 5 of 14
    ebbyebby Posts: 3,110member
    Simple, in Disk Utility, click the formatted drive you want to restore to, select the restore tab, choose your disk image you want to restore from and the drive you want to restore to. Finally, click restore.
  • Reply 6 of 14
    colby2000colby2000 Posts: 91member
    I've been having pretty good luck with SuperDuper! . You can restore the same way Ebby described.
  • Reply 7 of 14
    ishawnishawn Posts: 364member
    I try this with Disk Utility and get a Disk Busy error. I am trying to copy to a file server I created for backups. Any suggestions? Do I have to boot from a CD to copy my hard drive that I run on? (Like the disc that came with the computer or a bootable disk for such use?)
  • Reply 8 of 14
    ebbyebby Posts: 3,110member
    If you are trying to backup the startup drive, you may be getting that problem. You could boot off a CD/DVD, or I've heard you can boot into single user mode and run disk utility there. (I personally never used single user mode yet.)
  • Reply 9 of 14
    ishawnishawn Posts: 364member
    I tried booting off a CD, then got an error message after a while that said my image/device is too large. The place I'm recording to has 30GB and the drive I'm backing up is around 20GB. I don't understand? Or do I need more free space?
  • Reply 10 of 14
    aslan^aslan^ Posts: 599member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by iShawn

    I tried booting off a CD, then got an error message after a while that said my image/device is too large. The place I'm recording to has 30GB and the drive I'm backing up is around 20GB. I don't understand? Or do I need more free space?



    I'm afraid I dont know the answer to your question but have your tried carbon copy cloner ? it really does work well.



    First clone the drive to an external harddrive and make it bootable. Assuming you then want to restore from the clone, you boot from the clone, format your internal disk and clone the external hard drive back to the internal hard drive. Then unplug the external drive and boot from the internal drive.
  • Reply 11 of 14
    ishawnishawn Posts: 364member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by AsLan^

    I'm afraid I dont know the answer to your question but have your tried carbon copy cloner ? it really does work well.



    First clone the drive to an external harddrive and make it bootable. Assuming you then want to restore from the clone, you boot from the clone, format your internal disk and clone the external hard drive back to the internal hard drive. Then unplug the external drive and boot from the internal drive.



    I would do so, but since I am bitten by the cheap bug and only am using a windows box for file storage, CCC doesn't allow cloning over a network or to an unformatted drive for OS X. I will get myself a few FWdrives for backup and loop/music storage in the near future though. I just want a way to save my stuff in the meantime.
  • Reply 12 of 14
    kcmackcmac Posts: 1,051member
    I use SuperDuper. It is easy, quick and saved me when my hard drive on my powerbook went kaput.
  • Reply 13 of 14
    aplnubaplnub Posts: 2,605member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by iShawn

    I would do so, but since I am bitten by the cheap bug and only am using a windows box for file storage, CCC doesn't allow cloning over a network or to an unformatted drive for OS X. I will get myself a few FWdrives for backup and loop/music storage in the near future though. I just want a way to save my stuff in the meantime.



    Just boot off a OSX install cd/dvd and format the drive. It only takes a 2 or 3 minutes tops start to finish.



    I tried messing with Apples Disk Utility for backups, but I always got error messages. I really wanted to use the built-in options if I could. I finally gave up and started using CCC, life is MUCH easier now. Restoring over a network? You have some serious patience...or gigabit ethernet. I am impatient as it is using my FW drives.





    CCC has worked flawlessly everytime for me. I just swapped out my 160 GB iMac hdd for a new 300 GB the other day.
  • Reply 14 of 14
    aslan^aslan^ Posts: 599member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by iShawn

    I would do so, but since I am bitten by the cheap bug and only am using a windows box for file storage, CCC doesn't allow cloning over a network or to an unformatted drive for OS X. I will get myself a few FWdrives for backup and loop/music storage in the near future though. I just want a way to save my stuff in the meantime.



    In that case I would simply recommend archiving your home folder and dragging it over to your windows share every so often. This has some advantages and disadvantages... One thing you might want to try is archiving your home folder but setting the destination folder as your windows share. The encoding process should be slow enough for the filesystem and network to keep up.



    I did this when encoding a dvd with idvd that I was going to burn on a DVD burner equipped linux computer. I simply mounted a samba share and then when asked to specify a save location I saved it to the share. It worked flawlessly and I was able to burn the image with Linux.



    One thing to watch out for though is the limitation of the target filesystem. If your archived file is going to be greater than 4 GB it wont fit on a Fat32 filesystem and possibly NTFS but Im not sure... If you're feeling truly cheap and geeky you might want to try setting up a Linux file server with ReiserFS, Ext2 or Ext3 which support large file sizes. I know for a fact ReiserFS will support files greater than 4GB but you might want to check on the others.



    To restore would be tricky, software would possibly need to be reinstalled seperately but all your content would be safe.
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