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Can I restore my internal drive from my external backup drive ?
- Thread starter Celtiad54
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The answer is that it can be very easy -- IF you created your external backup properly.
The easiest way to do this is from a "cloned backup" created with either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper.
What Mac are you using?
What OS was on it?
How did you create your backup?
The easiest way to do this is from a "cloned backup" created with either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper.
What Mac are you using?
What OS was on it?
How did you create your backup?
How did you make the backup? If it was with Time Machine to a locally attached disk, just attach the disk and option key boot to it then erase the drive with Disk Util and click restore.
The TM backup would need to have been from Lion 10.7.2 or later.
Hey Fishrrman, It's an imac with OS X 10.6.3 SL was 10.6.8 before I erased it in prep for Mavericks.
Backup was created using disk utility's copy/restore option onto an external 1 TB Toshiba External USB 3.0 Media which shows up in DU left side window above the old HD info and that old HD info now says 1 TB ST31000528 ASQ Media and below that where the old imac HD gray icon was is just a grayed out Disk2s2.
So, Ive seen a couple things on the Apple support site that said you can just use the backup using DU and restore the internal drive by basically using DU in reverse with the restore option
My brother had told me to do it this way, "start up off the ext drive, launch DU and freshly format the internal drive, which I did and to use app store and download yosemite and install it on the internal drive", but I have to get up to 10.6.8 to be able to download yosemite don't I ?
Can I use software update and upgrade the ext drive to 10.6.8 SL and then go to app store and get Mavericks ?
Did I erase the wrong drive ?
I'll stop here, don't want to overload you.
Thank you for any help,
Celtiad54
Hi Weaselboy, I made the backup using Disk Utility's copy/restore option onto a Toshiba 1TB External USB 3.0 Media.
I was told by my brother who should know these things he runs a mac users group to start up off the ext drive open disk utility and freshly format the internal drive, launch the app store and download Mavericks and install it on the internal drive.
Did I erase the wrong internal drive ? In disk u window on left there is still an HD icon which has next to it 1 TB ST31000528 ASQ Media and under that is an HD icon but is grayed out with disk2s2 next to it.
I have a SL install cd 10.6.3 which I had to install onto ext drive, computer just kept taking me back to sign in password window even with otion key held down, no blue then black screen then pick your startup disk, just screen flash and back to pswd window over and over.
So tell me if I erased the wrong HD and if so what now ?
I'm on the ext drive as I write this and want to know if I use software update to get up to SL 10.6.8 will the app store let me download mavericks so I can install it onto the internal drive ?
Thank you for any help,
Celtiad54
Okay... first open System Prefs and go into the Startup Disk pane and set the external you are on now as the boot drive. Then yes you can update to 10.6.8 to get you access to the App Store.
Now Mavericks is gone for "purchase" from the App Store, but if you downloaded it before it will be in your purchase history so you can redownload and install to the internal. If you have not previously purchased Mavericks, you will need to go with Yosemite.
If you want to just clone the external back to the internal, you can do that like your brother said following this video. Just make sure you get the correct volumes in destination and source in Disk Util.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhNma0ZjrWs
Ok, I'm being told by someone that my internal drive the one labeled 1 TB 31000528 ASQ Media is not formatted yet and that I need to use disk u to erase it and that once it is formatted I will then be able to use disk u to restore the data from my external drive. He said that disk u works both ways. So my question to you is Am I erasing the right thing here ?
And when I do the restore I know that my ext drive is dragged to the source field and my internal drive that I've erased gets dragged to the destination field and to select extended journaling. In disk u's left window at the top there is the external drive icon w 1 TB Toshiba External USB 3.0 Media and same icon that says Backup HD, below those two in seperate window is the internal drive mentioned above with gray icon HD 1 TB 31000528 ASQ Media and another same gray icon with disk2s2 after it and that disk2s2 is grayed out and has nothing in it since that is what I erased. Am I supposed to use the "media" for source and destination fields or just drag the icons with the labels ie; Backup HD and disk2s2 to the fields ? Because the two icons for each drive have/contain two different things when I click on them, the name labeled ones contain a volume, the Media labeled ones contain a disk. Which ones are the ones I drag ? Sorry if this is long, hopefully not confusing to you, I'm trying to get you to understand what exactly I'm to do here.
Thank you for any help you can give me !
Celtiad54
Don't worry to much about wrecking things. You are booted to the external, so while you are booted to that drive it will not let you erase it... so you are safe there.
It sounds like you need to format the internal. In Disk Util go to the erase tab and select the drive itself in the left column HD 1 TB 31000528 ASQ Media then. Now select Mac OS Extended (Journaled) in the dropdown then name the drive whatever you want and apply the change. Let's just say "My Drive" for example.
Now to go the restore tab and you should see My Drive (or whatever) below HD 1 TB 31000528 ASQ Media. Drag that over as your destination then the Backup HD volume as the source then click restore. That will clone the external to the internal, if that is what you want to do.
Then you can update the internal to 10.6.8 and upgrade direct to Yosemite from there if you like.
Ok Weaselboy, I'll do that but right now last night actually yosemite just would not download for me, we got hit with a pretty good storm last night, before I tried to get yosemite I was downloading/installing the 10.6.8 update which started out saying would take 4 hrs and 2 hrs later it says will take 20 hrs, so easy to figure out phone lines went down somewhere took 5-6 hrs in the end. So I don't know if it's my lack of broadband which some people on yosemite support said you had to have so I'll try to get that again later, need something pdq cause this computer is slow to respond, won't give me the option window re which drive do I want to use etc. just goes straight to the backup drive. I have solar backup battery industrial size but I think something happened while I was at work today cause I left computer on and when got home no chrome open on desktop try to relaunch and nothing reboot holding option key pointless chrome finally launched but only after a minute or so.
Thanks for your help, I've got a phone appt at 3:30 w apple re not being able to get yosemite.
Celtiad