How to backup data

[TSE]

Hey guys, I have an iMac G5 that needs servicing so we are hauling it into the Mall of America Apple Store on Sunday. We have a 500 GB external firewire harddrive that we will backup the data to. How do I go about doing this? Thanks!

[MacHipster]

Can't you just drag and drop the hard drive icon to the external hard drive icon?

[kfordham281]

Clone your entire internal drive to the external drive with Carbon Copy Cloner: http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html or SuperDuper: http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html

Both will make a bootable copy of your entire drive. CCC is totally free while SuperDuper will make bootable copies for free also. Additional features are unlocked when your purchase SD.

[motulist]

Can't you just drag and drop the hard drive icon to the external hard drive icon?

As I understand it, dragging and dropping an entire boot drive will mostly make a copy of your drive, but not entirely. The copy won't actually be bootable. If you want to make a full copy of a boot drive, follow kfordham281's advice, use ccc or superduper.

[TSE]

Thanks guys! God bless you and have a wonderful holiday season! Going to go Christmas shopping with my dad tomorrow at the mall afterwards!