Boot from "copy" of entire system on old drive?

[bohemianguy]

I'm sure there is an easy answer to this but here goes:
I had a hard drive failure in my Powerbook. I had "copied" ,not "backed up" with backup software, the entire contents of the hard drive to an external one. So i installed a new drive, installed OSX from the cd onto it in a smaller partition. Started up, copied the entire contents off the external drive onto the larger part of the partition. My thoughts were to keep the newly "installed" OSX software/system separate from the "copied" OSX software/system by partitioning it. What i wanted in the end was to be able to boot from my "copied" system and be back where I was a month ago, and disable/trash/whatnot the "installed" system that was just to get it up and going. I'm running 10.4.11 on the G4 1.67 Powerbook. So, how can I boot from the original hard drive contents? It doesn't recognize or give a choice for the copied hard drive contents with the copied system and all, just the "new" installed system.

Thanks in advance
Martin

 

[MikeSantor]

What program did you use to copy? Whatever program it was had to make it bootable in order to do what you wanted to do. For instance, in Carbon Copy Cloner it makes an exact, Bootable copy (image) of the hard drive. If you just copied all the contents it will not boot up.

 

[bohemianguy]

I truly just selected "all" when I opened the hard drive I was saving, dragged over everything to my external drive where it copied all I had selected/highlighted. That simple. All of that eventually got "copied" onto the newly installed Powerbook hard drive(onto it's own partition, to keep it separate from the installed system I put on the new hard drive just to get it up and running again. I guess I'm screwed. I just want "all" my old stuff back again, without having to copy/reinstall/whatever to get back to pretty much where I was.

 

[mackmgg]

Selecting all, then copying won't create a bootable disk, because that didn't copy the hidden system files. You can get your data back, but it won't be bootable.

 

[bohemianguy]

I guess I have everything except the hidden system files I suppose. Can I replace everything else in the newly installed system on the new drive?ie Applications?/Library?/System?/Users? If that's possible.

Selecting all, then copying won't create a bootable disk, because that didn't copy the hidden system files. You can get your data back, but it won't be bootable.

 

[mackmgg]

I guess I have everything except the hidden system files I suppose. Can I replace everything else in the newly installed system on the new drive?ie Applications?/Library?/System?/Users? If that's possible.

I wouldn't replace everything. You could probably replace Applications, Library, and Users, but I would leave system in place

 

[bohemianguy]

So, if i drag out the Applications, Library & User folders from the now operating OS,rename them so as not to confuse anything, and drop my same ones from my "copied" folders I might get pretty close to my old setup?

I wouldn't replace everything. You could probably replace Applications, Library, and Users, but I would leave system in place

 

[Fishrrman]

RE:
"Can I replace everything else in the newly installed system on the new drive?ie Applications?/Library?/System?/Users? If that's possible."

Yes, it can be done. But you have to be careful just HOW you do it.

1. Get your NEW drive all set up, with an account for yourself, home folder, etc.

2. Connect the OLD drive and get it mounted on the desktop.

3. Navigate on the NEW drive to your "home" folder, and open it.
IMPORTANT: you DO NOT want to move, rename, or otherwise change the "home" _folder_ itself. You can change the contents _inside_ the folder, but NOT the folder itself.

4. Next, open the home folder on the OLD drive, so that you can see the contents (i.e., Documents, Library, Music, Movies, etc.)

5. Now, select everything in the OLD home folder that you wish to move over.

6. With all the items selected (see note below), just "drag" and then "drop" it into the NEW home folder.

7. You will get a dialog asking if you really want to replace everything. I'm guessing that that's what you want to do, right?

8. When the copying has finished, disconnect the OLD drive, and restart the computer. How do things look now?

NOTE: You may not wish to copy the entire "Desktop" folder over, particularly if your desktop has aliases, which may not work after the copy. It might be preferable to open the OLD desktop folder by hand, and then manually copy individual items over into the NEW desktop folder.

Also, the reason you can't just copy the "home" _folder_ itself is [I believe] due to certain "links" within the System itself. You can replace the _contents_ of the home folder, but not the folder itself.

I've done this before and it worked for me. YMMV.

- John

 

[bohemianguy]

Thanks John
I'm now back pretty much back to where I was when I last saved on that external backup drive. A few small hiccups pertaining to "not having sufficient permissions" to finish copying over some things but all in all pretty good.

Martin

 

[DewGuy1999]

This is too late to help the OP, but I think a person could use Applications/Utilities/Migration Assistant on the "new" drive to move over the stuff from the "old" drive.

 

[bohemianguy]

When I installed the new OS on the Powerbook it asked about migration but it would only do it from another computer with an active system on it, not a hard drive by itself.

This is too late to help the OP, but I think a person could use Applications/Utilities/Migration Assistant on the "new" drive to move over the stuff from the "old" drive.

 

[DewGuy1999]

When I installed the new OS on the Powerbook it asked about migration but it would only do it from another computer with an active system on it, not a hard drive by itself.

Oops, learn something new every day. I've never used Migration Assistant so I didn't know if it would work for sure. Sorry, my mistake.

 

[iphonematt]

Just for future reference, using a program called Carbon Copy Cloner, you can make a bootable copy of your internal drive. I used it when I got a new larger drive for my MBP and it worked like a charm.