Bootable Target Disk backups between different Macs?
in [Mac Systems]
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From: David Empson on 7 Jul 2010 12:45 Frank Haber <frhaber(a)N0SPMrcn.com> wrote: > David, thanks for your valuable posts. PC guy here (have a IIci and an ibook > G4). Couple of questions. > > Was the shift to generic builds around the 10.6.4 level a conscious "further > de-copy-protecting" move on Apple's part, do you think? I've always admired > Apple's attitude on this. This is not specific to any particular version of Mac OS X. The same rule applies to every new Mac model and every version of Mac OS X. I was just describing the situation for the Mid 2010 MacBook and MacBook Pro. The simplest way to explain the rule is that any version of Mac OS X installed from a retail DVD or updated to a particular minor version will support all compatible Mac models that were released PRIOR TO the release date of that minor version. There is a special case: Tiger (10.4) has separate PowerPC and Intel builds, so the rule only applies within the same processor family. New Mac models are supplied with a custom build of the current minor version of Mac OS X. The general release of the same minor version usually doesn't support subsequent new models, due to missing drivers. You can tell the builds apart by looking at the build number (Apple > About This Mac, then click on the version number). Custom builds have a four digit number after the letter, usually starting with 1 or 2. General builds usually have a three digit number after the letter. For Snow Leopard (so far): 10.6 (build 10A432, retail DVD) supports all compatible models introduced prior to late August 2009, i.e. "Mid 2009" models and earlier. 10.6.1 (build 10B504) didn't add support for any new models, because none were introduced between 10.6 and 10.6.1. 10.6.2 (build 10C540) added suport for the "Late 2009" models (which were supplied with a custom build of 10.6.1, except the Mac Mini came with 10.6 because it had no significant hardware changes from the Early 2009 models). 10.6.3 (build 10D573) didn't add support for any new models, because none were introduced between 10.6.2 and 10.6.3. 10.6.4 (build 10F569) added support for the "Mid 2010" MacBook and MacBook Pro models (which were supplied with a custom build of 10.6.3), but not the Mid 2010 Mac Mini (which was released too close to 10.6.4: it came with a custom build of 10.6.3 and needs a custom build of 10.6.4; it will be supported by the general release of 10.6.5). > Is the original DVD still a bit non-kosher, to avoid disk copying? I'm not aware of any Mac OS X install CD/DVD being "unusual" or difficult to copy. Prior to Leopard, they are a simple Mac CD/DVD set up with Apple Partition Map scheme and Mac OS Extended file system. Leopard changed the situation slightly by adding Boot Camp support, which means the Leopard DVD is a hybrid Mac and ISO one with the Boot Camp drivers in the ISO9660 + Joliet area. > Are all drivers really lurking on all installs? Yes. (Tiger being a probable exception - no point having PowerPC-specific drivers on an Intel Mac or vice versa.) > Could you SuperDuper! restore from a laptop to a Mac Pro, for instance? Yes, as long as the system was later than the version originally supplied with the Mac Pro. > And a totally off-the wall set of questions: What's the last OSX version that > could read an EXT2/3 (Firewire only, I presume) external? Where would one go > for installable file systems for a recent Intel Mac? No version of Mac OS X includes support for EXT2/3. You would need third party software for that. -- David Empson dempson(a)actrix.gen.nz
From: Frank Haber on 7 Jul 2010 13:24
Thanks again. Message saved. Migrate via target drive is also pretty impressive vs. Windows. I've helped a couple of friends do this. Openness pays. |