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pcfast

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 22, 2013
71
0
Hey Everyone,

I have an iBook G4 that is running 10.3.9 I believe. I tried to create a backup using my WD External HD today but it would not boot the utility from the HD. I tried to drag and drop the folders I wanted to backup to the HD but it kept giving me error messages saying it wasn't allowed or something.

How should I backup this iBook G4?
 

eyoungren

macrumors Penryn
Aug 31, 2011
28,698
26,708
Hey Everyone,

I have an iBook G4 that is running 10.3.9 I believe. I tried to create a backup using my WD External HD today but it would not boot the utility from the HD. I tried to drag and drop the folders I wanted to backup to the HD but it kept giving me error messages saying it wasn't allowed or something.

How should I backup this iBook G4?
Assuming you have a WD external drive that is capable of booting a PowerPC Mac, then I would suggest using Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper as a means of backup. Both of these apps can make bootable clones of your drive and you can schedule those backups if you like.

Dragging and dropping is not going to work. This is OSX and there are permissions attached to each and every file. You have to either own the file or be in a group that has permission to administer the file. This includes folders. And doing this with system files when you are not the owner can have the effect of altering those permissions and thus making those system files unusable in the location you dropped them at.

Even assuming that you could do this just as you tried, you would not be able to boot. That takes a special command commonly called Blessing the hard drive. This is a Unix command and it's also what CCC and SuperDuper use when they get to the end of a clone (to make your drive bootable).
 

pcfast

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 22, 2013
71
0
Assuming you have a WD external drive that is capable of booting a PowerPC Mac, then I would suggest using Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper as a means of backup. Both of these apps can make bootable clones of your drive and you can schedule those backups if you like.

Dragging and dropping is not going to work. This is OSX and there are permissions attached to each and every file. You have to either own the file or be in a group that has permission to administer the file. This includes folders. And doing this with system files when you are not the owner can have the effect of altering those permissions and thus making those system files unusable in the location you dropped them at.

Even assuming that you could do this just as you tried, you would not be able to boot. That takes a special command commonly called Blessing the hard drive. This is a Unix command and it's also what CCC and SuperDuper use when they get to the end of a clone (to make your drive bootable).

Thanks this is really helpful.

I would like to install a Linux distro such as Lubuntu or MintPPC on this iBook. What program should I use to restore the files after I install Linux?
 

eyoungren

macrumors Penryn
Aug 31, 2011
28,698
26,708
Thanks this is really helpful.

I would like to install a Linux distro such as Lubuntu or MintPPC on this iBook. What program should I use to restore the files after I install Linux?
I'm sorry, I can't help you with that as I don't use Linux.

However, if you are cloning your entire drive and then install a Linux distro AND then restore files you will either end up right back where you started or have a messed up installation.

Assuming that what you are trying to do is back up personal files instead of just backing up the entire drive I would put your personal files on your external drive. Pictures, music, etc. All of that should be copyable via drag and drop. The restriction I was mentioning above relates to system files and files you don't have permission to use (such as files from another account).

If you clone your drive as a backup, then install your distro and then want to access your personal info on the clone, that should be easy. I don't know if Linux can access HFS+ formatted drives, but if it can, you can just go through the file system of the clone to where your personal information is stored and then drag and drop back to the desktop (assuming your distro has a desktop) or a folder where you want to keep these files. Also assuming your distro allows you the permissions to access the files on the external.
 
Last edited:

pcfast

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 22, 2013
71
0
I will check on some Linux forums and see. I really only need personal files from it though.
 

pcfast

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 22, 2013
71
0
Assuming that what you are trying to do is back up personal files instead of just backing up the entire drive I would put your personal files on your external drive. Pictures, music, etc. All of that should be copyable via drag and drop.

That's the odd thing it isn't working when I try to drag and drop the files onto the External HD.
 

pcfast

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 22, 2013
71
0
Is your external drive happened to be formatted in NTFS? Your external should be formatted as FAT or else you cannot copy or move file into it.

I just checked and it is formatted in NTFS.

Can I reformat it with files on it? I already have backups of other computers on the drive.
 

eyoungren

macrumors Penryn
Aug 31, 2011
28,698
26,708
I just checked and it is formatted in NTFS.

Can I reformat it with files on it? I already have backups of other computers on the drive.
No.

You'll need to copy off the backups first if you want to save the data. A drive format erases all data.
 

Nameci

macrumors 68000
Oct 29, 2010
1,944
13
The Philippines...
I just checked and it is formatted in NTFS.

Can I reformat it with files on it? I already have backups of other computers on the drive.

If you reformat, all the data on the external will be erased.

Unfortunately, you have 10.3.9, if you only have 10.4 NTFS-3G would work for you.
 

skateny

macrumors 6502
Jul 19, 2012
448
0
New York, NY
It clones your HDD, copying only user-selected files. If you simply drag-and-drop files to an external drive, you simply have copies of the files moved, and NOT the functionality of a bootable drive.
 

pcfast

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 22, 2013
71
0
It clones your HDD, copying only user-selected files. If you simply drag-and-drop files to an external drive, you simply have copies of the files moved, and NOT the functionality of a bootable drive.

I don't need to clone the HD.

What I would like to do is take the files from the iBook then use it with Lubuntu. I really only need files so I have them. Most likely I will them to my main laptop and then just use the iBook for fun.
 

pcfast

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 22, 2013
71
0
exFAT

The only option I see for reformatting the drive in Windows is exFAT. That format should work to get the files off the Mac though?
 

pcfast

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 22, 2013
71
0
Software like CCC would make things work best.

Is there something like CCC that is free for Macs? It looks like it's $40 for a license. I guess that is still cheaper than taking to a computer repair shop.

----------

I have a 1TB Toshiba external HD that I will use. I can partition it using Gparted on Linux for using with this PowerPC Mac.
 

pcfast

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 22, 2013
71
0
Once I make a backup with SuperDuper would it possible to transfer the backup to Linux Mint? Also would I be able to access for the files or is strictly a backup for Macs?
 
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