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Best way to copy my MBP drive

mgacam2

mgacam2

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 27, 2007
210
1
So I'm probably going to take my Macbook Pro into Apple and I was wondering what is the best way to get my drive completely copied. Or do a full backup of everything. Is it also possible to back up an entire image of my hardrive including leopard?I have an external drive i can use to back everything up. So where do i begin?
 
mgacam2 said:
So I'm probably going to take my Macbook Pro into Apple and I was wondering what is the best way to get my drive completely copied. Or do a full backup of everything. Is it also possible to back up an entire image of my hardrive including leopard?I have an external drive i can use to back everything up. So where do i begin?
Click to expand...


I would have to say Carbon Copy Cloner. Simply clone the MacBook Pro drive to your external hard drive. Then when all is done, you can clone back the drive.
 
I use a software called SuperDuper! I simply plug in the external, select my MacHD, and select 'backup-all files.' It is a simple application that is comprehensive in its copies. Also, there is a spot under options where you can select to make it into a disk image. I believe that it is the exact same as Carbon Copy Cloner (I have both, but have only used SuperDuper! to do exactly what you are going to do).
 
Either Carbon Copy Cloner or Time Machine (I think you said you had Leopard...). If they wipe your HDD and reinstall Mac OS X, you can, upon the initial startup, use Migration Assistant to transfer all your stuff from a Time Machine-backed up drive -- I think.

EDIT Time Machine WILL back up all your system files. They may not be viewable from any other computer until you get your computer back and migrate the stuff back over (if needed; sometimes Apple doesn't wipe the drive -- you can ask them not to do so when you take it in, and they'll make a notation of that on the service order), but once you do so your computer will be just like you left it, and hopefully better working with Apple's repair.
 
Here's the thing, my laptop seems like its got a dead GPU, scrambled rainbow colours and crashing and such all the time. I want to do the time machine backup but say if apple gives me a new laptop can it transfer over.
 
You should have no problem copying your old HDD to your new HDD, especially since it looks like you would be going from Intel -> Intel computers. I used SD when my S.M.A.R.T. status on my HDD showed failure (which was confirmed by the horrendous noises it was making), so I made a complete backup of my disk. I then purchased a new HDD, installed it, and used Disk Utility and copied everything to the new drive.
 
Do these instructions still apply when there is a windows Bootcamp partition? How do you migrate both over?
 
Radio Monk33 said:
Do these instructions still apply when there is a windows Bootcamp partition? How do you migrate both over?
Click to expand...

Hey monk, I am looking to do a similar thing (moving to a bigger harddrive) so I am asking the same questions. I have used both CCC, superduper, and TimeMachine to completely restore machines in the past, and the method I like best is to restore from a TimeMachine drive that also has the leopard install disk cloned to it using CCC. Ha! U can never be too careful. I've noticed that CCC and superduper has been choking the further we get into leopard, so I have stopped using them for regular backups, i just use TM now.

BUT you asked about bootcamp partition! none of these solutions will help alas. I still use Acronis from the old days to create a backup of the bootcamp partition but I am not sure it will ever restore properly...never tried to replace the partition there. Its pretty much a throwaway partition for me however. If it goes, it goes, I would never store data there.

Good luck!
ccfccp
 
sushi said:
WinClone seems to work very well. I have tried it a few times with no problems.

The only issue is that the Windows partition must be NTFS. It will not work for a FAT partition.
Click to expand...


Hi, THAT'S interesting! I think Parallels Desktop only supports FAT and that's why I have that...I was looking for something better then Acronis for backup, as I am not sure it that even will restore to a mac/intel box. Cheers,
ccfccp
 
I do have WinClone..but I'm still a bit confused.

Are these the steps to replicating an existing drive?

1) Format NTFS
2) Clone Mac partition
3) From OS X, open up a Windows partition of a larger size
4) Use WinClone to place the old on the Windows partition?

It seems like a shame if there's not a 1 step solution.
 
+1 for SuperDuper!

Backed up my entire hard drive to an external HD and made it bootable.
 
The Apple Store will do the HD transfer for you on the spot.

You don't need to back up your HD because Apple will do it for you. I exchanged a MBP and when they gave me the new one they asked if I would like my HD imaged. I said yes and they transferred everything except my XP partition.

All your apps, OS, and user accounts and settings will be preserved exactly as is.

mgacam2 said:
Here's the thing, my laptop seems like its got a dead GPU, scrambled rainbow colours and crashing and such all the time. I want to do the time machine backup but say if apple gives me a new laptop can it transfer over.
Click to expand...
 
The latest version of SuperDuper works fine in Leopard. Time Machine also works well as long as you aren't restoring wirelessly.
 
e12a said:
+1 for SuperDuper!
Click to expand...
SuperDuper and Carbon Copy Cloner (my preferred) will clone your Mac partition to an external hard drive.

However, AFAIK, neither one will back up the Windows partition.

bcaslis said:
Time Machine also works well as long as you aren't restoring wirelessly.
Click to expand...
Will Time Machine backup a Windows partition?

From another thread, here is what I came up with to back up a FAT32 partition:

The method that I used worked fairly well. In brief:
- Back up the Boot Camp partition using Disk Utilities.
- Deleted and create the Boot Camp partition.
- Boot off of your Windows XP SP2 CD.
- Complete the install up to the point where Windows restarts the first time.
- Press the OPTION key to boot into your Mac partition.
- Copy files from your back up to the Windows partition (4 key files first).
- Eliminate the NotePad issue.

And viola, you are done!

Here are the two web sites that I used:

Site A

Site B
Click to expand...

Personally, I think I will just stick with NTFS and WinClone.
 
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