Cloning and Restoring a Partition

[undesign]

Is there any software that allows you to make a single file backup of an entire partition to use to apply to any future partitions as a restore?

Essentially what I want to do is have a FRESH installation of OS X 10.6.8 with Adobe CS6 installed on with all my regular tools and settings applied. This kind of setup takes me ages to go through typically but I'd like to make a copy of all this into one file. Then, whenever my computer gets bloated with crap, I can start fresh but going back to that backed up point by wiping a partition and applying the restore point.

Is this possible to do with a dual boot setup? I have Mavericks on one partition and Snow Leopard on another. Could I use Mavericks to wipe the SL partition and apply the backed up copy?

I heard Carbon Copy Cloner is decent but I've *never* used such software.

Thanks!

 

[Fishrrman]

CarbonCopyCloner is *very* easy to use.
I suggest you give it a try.

 

[Weaselboy]

You can clone/copy a partition/drive with the app. Disk Utility that comes with OS X. Here is a video showing how to do it.

Yes, you could do this with a SL partition from Mavericks.

 

[undesign]

You can clone/copy a partition/drive with the app. Disk Utility that comes with OS X. Here is a video showing how to do it.

Yes, you could do this with a SL partition from Mavericks.

Awesome! THANK YOU!

Is there a way to do it though by creating an image file of the partition instead of always having to restore from an existing partition? I'd rather have the image file somewhere than split an existing drive into two partitions.

 

[Weaselboy]

Awesome! THANK YOU!

Is there a way to do it though by creating an image file of the partition instead of always having to restore from an existing partition? I'd rather have the image file somewhere than split an existing drive into two partitions.

Yes you can also do that with Disk Utility. See the middle of this page for a walkthrough.