Using Disk Utility to copy hard drive

Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
Has anyone run into a problem using disk utility to make an image their hard drive?

A friend of mine was trying to do this and for some reason it wouldn't let him make an image.



Any suggestions would be helpful.



Thanks...

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 7
    mr. memr. me Posts: 3,221member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by O-Mac

    Has anyone run into a problem using disk utility to make an image their hard drive?

    A friend of mine was trying to do this and for some reason it wouldn't let him make an image.



    Any suggestions would be helpful.



    Thanks...




    In MacOS 9, this is unnecessary. In MacOS X 10, it is generally a bad idea. Carbon Copy Cloner serves the purpose and comes highly recommended.
  • Reply 2 of 7
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Mr. Me ]Carbon Copy Cloner[/URL] serves the purpose and comes highly recommended. [/B]



    A big vote YES for CCC. It's about time I donated for that excellent program.
  • Reply 3 of 7
    ebbyebby Posts: 3,110member
    I gotta object to that. I tried to use CCC but it was just a hassle. However I found that making disk images is a more reliable way to make copies/backups. It takes a little longer, but you can verify them and work with them if you need to.
  • Reply 4 of 7
    If the total drive to be backed up is larger than say 20 Gigs, it's going to take some time. Also you must make sure to have enough SCRATCH space. e.g., if drive is 100 gigs and its 70% full, you are going to run out of available HD space. So make sure they have enough space. To backup 50 gigs, you need at least 110 gigs to make it work. We do it all the time. Time consuming and need to know your way around Disk Utility. But it does work. Try to use OS-X 10.3.5.
  • Reply 5 of 7
    heres one way to do this



    note : both hdd's must be of similar size



    attach source & dest hdd's to a pc

    boot from any linux live cd , knoppix will do

    (google for this before trying this)

    dd if=/dev/hda of=/dev/hdb



    this uses the std dd util to copy sectors from hda

    to hdb

    or you can try the same thing using a ppc live cd

    eg gentoo.



    you can also try sysrescuecd ..though that might be

    x86 only

    basically its a linux cd that boots

    you pick your partitions & it compresses & ftp's them

    to a remote box as a file
  • Reply 6 of 7
    This whole discussion and the fact that file synchronization on classic (which I still use) just points out how Apple really should build better synchronization software into OSX. It should be as simple as saying I want to synch my home directory on two computers "click button" and let it go. Same goes for backing up you entire hard drive's content on an external hard drive. At least one of these things should be done by every Mac user and our OS should let it be done with a click of a button.
  • Reply 7 of 7
    onlookeronlooker Posts: 5,252member
    I've used CCC several times for expanding drive space, and never had a problem. It's just like starting up the same old drive with an additional 100GB of space once your done. If your drive has over 30GB of data it takes a while, but it's going to take just long no matter which utility you use at increased sizes.
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