cloning two Mac hdd's to 1 external hdd

[Mpulsive81]

Ok so I just picked up a 500Gb WD Studio and I've got two Macbooks at the house that I want to back up/clone. using SuperDuper/CCC, what would be the best way to do this so that I have a clone of both hdds in case of a hdd failure?

here's how i'm thinking it works:

1. partition external, one half for Macbook #1, one half for Macbook #2. Make a clone of each partition.

or

2. create .dmg files for each Macbook on the hdd and put them on the hdd...my train of thought is that *both* hdd's wouldn't go out at the same time so i could always drag the .dmg to the working one and then mount it there and boot from it via target disk mode (did that even make sense??)

My main goal of the ext hdd was to to store my video and pictures on it as well as have a bootable image of my hdd "just in case". Being that this is my first time having an external hdd, i'm a bit confused on how it's supposed to work. Right now it's making a bootable clone of Macbook #1 on my external via superduper.

Thanks in advance for any guidance.

 

[Eidorian]

Do #1 and partition the external.

 

[Mpulsive81]

awesome, thanks!

It seemed like a waste, since i'm using a 500gb hdd external to clone the 30gb i'm using on my Macbook. A partion of maybe 100GB for me and another 100GB for Macbook #2, leaving 300gb to play with is what I was thinking. Does that sound about right?

 

[blodwyn]

awesome, thanks!

It seemed like a waste, since i'm using a 500gb hdd external to clone the 30gb i'm using on my Macbook. A partion of maybe 100GB for me and another 100GB for Macbook #2, leaving 300gb to play with is what I was thinking. Does that sound about right?

3 partitions should do nicely, two large enough for each of the 2 MacBooks, and one spare.

 

[Mpulsive81]

would both partitions containing the clone be able to used as a bootable drive? meaning, if my hdd crapped out and i need to boot from my external, could i specify what partition i wanted to use when i turn on my Mac to boot from it?

 

[misterredman]

If the partition are bootable yes. Just hold down option when starting the mac and you will be presented with all bootable partition available. Then you can choose the right one.

 

[Mpulsive81]

ok so i created 3 partitions through disk utility, OS Journaled and apple bootable partitions. Now when I plug in my firewire cable, all 3 mount. That's how it's supposed to work, right?

 

[Eidorian]

ok so i created 3 partitions through disk utility, OS Journaled and apple bootable partitions. Now when I plug in my firewire cable, all 3 mount. That's how it's supposed to work, right?

For right now you might want to give them descriptive names. It'll make it easier when cloning instead of every drive being Macintosh HD.

 

[sickmacdoc]

ok so i created 3 partitions through disk utility, OS Journaled and apple bootable partitions. Now when I plug in my firewire cable, all 3 mount. That's how it's supposed to work, right?

Before you start cloning data onto the drive's new partitions just make sure that when you click on the drive in the left hand column of Disk Utility that it reads "GUID Partition Table" in the "Partition Map Scheme :" field in the info concerning the drive at the bottom of the page.

If it should by chance read "Apple Partition Map" instead, you will not be able to boot from the drive as that is the partition map necessary to boot a PowerPC Mac, not an Intel based one like the MacBooks (which require GUID to boot from).

Just wanted you to check that before you take the time to clone the drives onto it and find out they won't work as boot drives!!!