Backing Up to an External Drive
in [Mac Systems]
|
Prev: Parallels and Windows 7
Next: New Apple PR Footer
From: Jason S on 29 Jun 2010 00:51 On 2010-06-28 22:00:52 -0400, Paul Goodman said: > On 2010-06-28 21:33:41 -0400, David Arnstein said: > >> In article <2010062818532637090-goodmanp(a)comcastnet>, >> Paul Goodman <goodmanp(a)comcast.net> wrote: >>> Hello, >>> >>> After reading posts here concerning backing up my system, I have >>> decided to purchase an external drive to backup my whole hard drive >>> rather than just copying selected folders on to thumb drives. Some of >>> the external drives that I am looking at state that "mac users may have >>> to reformat the drive before using". How would I do that? >> >> The way I would did this was to clone my OSX installation DVD to my >> external disk drive. After that, I set up Time Machine software to use >> that external disk drive as a backup medium. > > [SNIP] > > Thank you for your suggestion and reply. I ended up getting a drive > pre-formatted for a Mac. I used Time Machine to do my first backup > this afternoon. Time Machine is amazing. You'll be glad you have it when you need to restore your computer in the future. It makes it very easy to restore your computer to the way it was from the point of the backup, and it is pretty fast to restore. -- Jason
From: Erik Richard Sørensen on 29 Jun 2010 06:29 Paul Goodman wrote: > After reading posts here concerning backing up my system, I have decided > to purchase an external drive to backup my whole hard drive rather than > just copying selected folders on to thumb drives. Some of the external > drives that I am looking at state that "mac users may have to reformat > the drive before using". How would I do that? Use DiskUtility this way - Connect the drive (a Firewire drive would be the best) - Open DiskUtility and mark the drive in the column to the left - In the window to the right select the pane 'Partition' - In the new window you can now select one or more partitions in the popup menu top left. Select only 1 (one) partition - Beneith the graphically shown partition map, select 'Preferences' and be sure the formatting type is set to Apple Partition Map for G4 and G5 Macs (PowerPC) or GUID for Intel based Macs - Click now on the 'Apply' button. The disk will now be both erased and re-partitioned to maintain the correct formatting table. Depending on which backp app you will be using you can now also make the external drive bootable. I use the Backuplist+ myself and have all my backup disks made bootable... Backuplist+ 7.1 (freeware/donateware) http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/29671 Cheers, Erik Richard -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Erik Richard Sørensen, Member of ADC, <mac-manNOSP(a)Mstofanet.dk> NisusWriter - The Future In Multilingual Text Processing - www.nisus.com OpenOffice.org - The Modern Productivity Solution - www.openoffice.org ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From: Erik Richard Sørensen on 29 Jun 2010 06:42 Davoud wrote: > Paul Goodman wrote: >> After reading posts here concerning backing up my system, I have >> decided to purchase an external drive to backup my whole hard drive >> rather than just copying selected folders on to thumb drives. Some of >> the external drives that I am looking at state that "mac users may have >> to reformat the drive before using". How would I do that? > > You would do that with Disk Utility. I wouldn't do it at all. I would > buy a FW drove from Other World Computing and just plug it in. > Pre-formatted for your Mac. You'll want SuperDuper as well. Will do a > complete backup and make the external drive bootable. Right so, but the problem is that if anything specific isn't meantioned, all the OWC drives come with the MBR formatting table (Master Boot Record), which is unable to be used as a bootable drive. The partition map must be Apple Partition Map (APM) for G3/G4/G5 PowerPC Macs and GUID for Intel based Macs to make the external drive bootable. I made this mistake right after I switched from a dual G4/1,8ghz to a MacPro as my main machine. - just erased the 'Gr backup' and connected to the MacPro. Made the backup... Later I unfortunately had to switch to another harddisk as the bootdisk and therefore tried to boot from the backup, - it wouldn't... ?? - checking with DU... checked partition map - APM.:-( - Changed it to GUID and made a new backup and the MacPro booted like a dream so I could interchange boot disks putting the originally Tiger onto a smaller disk and Leopard to the larger one... Btw. the disk was - and still is - a Mercury Elite Pro 320gb from OWC.....-)) Cheers, Erik Richard -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Erik Richard Sørensen, Member of ADC, <mac-manNOSP(a)Mstofanet.dk> NisusWriter - The Future In Multilingual Text Processing - www.nisus.com OpenOffice.org - The Modern Productivity Solution - www.openoffice.org ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From: Matthew Lybanon on 29 Jun 2010 14:48 In article <4c29cafd$0$32175$ba624c82(a)nntp06.dk.telia.net>, Erik Richard S�rensen <NOSPAM(a)NOSPAM.dk> wrote: > Paul Goodman wrote: > > After reading posts here concerning backing up my system, I have decided > > to purchase an external drive to backup my whole hard drive rather than > > just copying selected folders on to thumb drives. Some of the external > > drives that I am looking at state that "mac users may have to reformat > > the drive before using". How would I do that? > > Use DiskUtility this way > - Connect the drive (a Firewire drive would be the best) > - Open DiskUtility and mark the drive in the column to > the left > - In the window to the right select the pane 'Partition' > - In the new window you can now select one or more partitions > in the popup menu top left. Select only 1 (one) partition > - Beneith the graphically shown partition map, select 'Preferences' > and be sure the formatting type is set to Apple Partition Map > for G4 and G5 Macs (PowerPC) or GUID for Intel based Macs > - Click now on the 'Apply' button. > > The disk will now be both erased and re-partitioned to maintain the > correct formatting table. > > Depending on which backp app you will be using you can now also make the > external drive bootable. I use the Backuplist+ myself and have all my > backup disks made bootable... > > Backuplist+ 7.1 (freeware/donateware) > http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/29671 > > Cheers, Erik Richard Disk Utility will definitely do the job. But if you just want to use the new drive for Time Machine backups, Time Machine itself can take care of the formatting. Tell Time Machine what disk you want to use for backups, and TM will format it (probably by calling the same system routines that DU uses) if necessary.
From: John Albert on 30 Jun 2010 00:45
"Thank you for your suggestion and reply. I ended up getting a drive pre-formatted for a Mac. I used Time Machine to do my first backup this afternoon." Sounds great.... until..... .....something goes wrong with your internal drive and you need to BOOT UP from another source. If you had done a "clone" using either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper, you can just connect the backup, reboot it from it, fix your internal drive (assuming it's not physically broken), or, restore your internal from the backup clone. Plug in a Time Machine backup, and... well.... won't boot. Over at macintouch.com, folks are complaining of late about how TM backup drives get corrupted after a while, and then can't be accessed. I've seen numerous posts over at forums.macrumors.com, usually to the tune of "help! can't access my Time Machine backup!" I wouldn't touch Time Machine with a 10-foot pole, and I've been backing up since 1987, back when I used DiskFit and 40 or 50 floppies that you inserted one-at-a-time. You're much better off with a "bootable clone" as your backup. Yes, you have to backup "manually". But the results are better. I can fully understand why for some folks doing mission-critical moment-to-monment document changes, why it's important to have a "continuous backup" running. But 99.99% of day-to-day users don't need anything like this. For "the rest of us", it's far more important to have that bootable backup close at a hand for a moment of extreme need. For backups something like this works great: http://www.amazon.com/Syba-Connecland-CL-ENC50013-Docking-Station/dp/B002BXG36O/ref=sr_1_22?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1253062702&sr=1-22 Then, buy a couple of "bare drives" and use CCC to make dupes of your internal to the bare drives. Keep one "off-site" and rotate them. Do a backup every few days, and you'll be more "protected" than 99% of the other end-users out there. - John |