Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Bootable Image - Should I use Carbon Copy, Super Duper or Disk Utility?

K

Kan-O-Z

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 3, 2007
305
2
I am trying to create a bootable cloned image on an external harddrive. I have heard both Carbon Copy and Super Duper is good but I have also heard that Disk Utility can also clone an image.

All I need to do is make a bootable clone image. Should I just use Disk Utility or do you really recommend one of the others. I understand that Super Duper is easier to use but costs money while Carbon Copy is free.

Kan-O-Z
 
Personally I like paid for SuperDuper! as I can keep the bootable image updated frequently without re-copying the whole drive every time. If you just want to make a one-off copy then I'd not say it's worth paying for (free SuperDuper! or one of the others will work fine)...
 
Eidorian said:
You're a little vague. Do you want a bootable clone or a disk image?
Click to expand...

I want a bootable clone. I basically want to make a clone of my mac onto an external drive and then be able to boot off of the external drive. I thought bootable clone is essentially a bootable disk image? Sorry about my terminology.

By the way it doesn't seem very obvious how to do this in Disk Utility. Any directions on disk utility or should I just download Carbon Copy Cloner?

Kan-O-Z
 
Kan-O-Z said:
By the way it doesn't seem very obvious how to do this in Disk Utility. Any directions on disk utility or should I just download Carbon Copy Cloner?
Click to expand...
I am a CCC diehard. :cool: It's free and it's easy to use.

I'd never heard of that Super Duper application.

Disk Utility is okay for partitioning, but I wish it could do it non-destructively. I've never used the New Image or Convert functions in Disk Utility.
 
Disc utility will clone a drive easily.

Simply choose the RESTORE option, put the drive you want to clone in the source field, the drive you want to clone ONTO in the target field, and away you go.
 
GotPro said:
Disc utility will clone a drive easily.

Simply choose the RESTORE option, put the drive you want to clone in the source field, the drive you want to clone ONTO in the target field, and away you go.
Click to expand...

I found some documentation stating that with Disk Utility you essentially need 3 volumes for it to work correctly. Volume A should be the boot volume, Volume B should be the 'Restore From' volume. Volume C should be the 'Restore To' Volume. Now this article I found also stated that if your boot volume A and restore from volume B are the same, it may not work correctly to make a true bootable clone. It mentioned something about booting off of a CD/DVD instead of the harddrive? Sounds a little complicated.

See here: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=607321

I may just stick to CCC.

Kan-O-Z
 
One more vote for CCC.

Now, I might checkout SuperDuper if it truly doesn't need a full clone to just do a weekly mirror update.
 
Kan-O-Z said:
I found some documentation stating that with Disk Utility you essentially need 3 volumes for it to work correctly. Volume A should be the boot volume, Volume B should be the 'Restore From' volume. Volume C should be the 'Restore To' Volume. Now this article I found also stated that if your boot volume A and restore from volume B are the same, it may not work correctly to make a true bootable clone. It mentioned something about booting off of a CD/DVD instead of the harddrive? Sounds a little complicated.

See here: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=607321

I may just stick to CCC.

Kan-O-Z
Click to expand...

No, it's super simple.

You simply boot off of the OS X cd... go into disk utility with both drives hooked up... choose restore, put the source and destination in, and click GO.

It's THAT easy.
 
GotPro said:
No, it's super simple.

You simply boot off of the OS X cd... go into disk utility with both drives hooked up... choose restore, put the source and destination in, and click GO.

It's THAT easy.
Click to expand...

There's an even easier way.

Boot from the disc you want to restore from and then copy it to the disc you want to restore to.

Simple :)
 
If you're going to do disk cloning then stick with Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper!

If you're going to do imaging I suggest NetRestore or NetInstall/NetBoot if you have an OS X server.
 
OllyW said:
Disc Utility works just as well for a straight clone.
Click to expand...

From the article that I posted a link to:

2) You should have three volumes, be they your CD/DVD install media and/or partitions, physical HDs, or a combination. One volume is what you boot from to use Disk Utility (this could be your CD/DVD install media), the second is the volume you are cloning ("from" volume) and the third is the volume you are creating the clone on ("to" volume). While partitioning one or two internal HDs will suffice, such is the most risky backup regime - the least risky is alternating external HDs. Also, while your boot volume "can" be used as the "from" volume also (if other than CD/DVD install media), such may impose permissions restrictions that result in an incomplete clone (among other issues). I have not had occasion to do so, but another user reported running Disk Utility from a second Mac, with the Mac on which the cloning is to be done connected in FireWire target disk mode and its HDs mounted as external HDs.

So it seems the safest way to do it is to boot off of Mac OS X CD/DVD first.

Kan-O-Z
 
If I need to boot off of the Mac OS X DVD, do I just insert it and restart the computer? Will it ask me whether I want to boot from DVD vs. Installing the OS? I thought I would ask this before I try it as I don't want to inadvertently do something wrong.

Kan-O-Z
 
Boot from the OS X install disk... and right after accepting the eula, launch the Disk Utility from the apps menu at the top!

Thats it!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back