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Good Backup Program? PLEASE HELP!

prmccarron

prmccarron

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 7, 2009
134
0
I just sold my iMac (described in sig) and need to backup my stuff to an external drive. What (free) program would allow me to backup my user name without having to manually drag everything over? Migration Assistant won't work as there will be a few days where I have no computer. Also I don't want to back up the OS itself; just my home folders (Pictures Music Movies etc.) and some applications.
 
The two mentioned above are the best. They will copy the entire drive including the OS though. Whats wrong with just dragging over a copy of your home folder and applications folder? Its really not that hard.
 
carbon copy cloner not only is able to copy the entire drive , its able to copy whatever you want it to copy , just choose what you want to back up and it does it , and best of all its free, while super duper can copy your entire drive , but is not really free if you want all other features ;)

and another quiet importent warning some apps need reinstalling if you just copy your apps folder and not the entire drive with OS , so have the install discs to hand to reinstall them if needed
 
When you're finished, don't forget to override the free diskspace with zeros -> Boot the System DVD, choose Disk Util from the top menu (Under Utilities), select your partitions and go to the Delete-tab and click Delete free space.

Besides CCC and SD, there is dd, which does exactly the same.
Code: 
sudo dd if=/dev/rdiskX of=/dev/rdiskY
where X is your source drive and Y is your destination drive, it creates a 1:1 copy of the disk. You can figure out the drive numbers in the DiskUtil:
bildschirmfoto20100822u.png

bildschirmfoto20100822u.png
 
Giuly said:
When you're finished, don't forget to override the free diskspace with zeros -> Boot the System DVD, choose Disk Util from the top menu (Under Utilities), select your partitions and go to the Delete-tab and click Delete free space.

Besides CCC and SD, there is dd, which does exactly the same.
Code: 
sudo dd if=/dev/rdiskX of=/dev/rdiskY
where X is your source drive and Y is your destination drive, it creates a 1:1 copy of the disk. You can figure out the drive numbers in the DiskUtil:
bildschirmfoto20100822u.png

bildschirmfoto20100822u.png
Click to expand...

Actually I was going to make a new thread to ask how to do this. But unfortunately I don't have the original OS disks. Is there a way to do it without them and keep the OS?
 
Hrududu said:
The two mentioned above are the best. They will copy the entire drive including the OS though. Whats wrong with just dragging over a copy of your home folder and applications folder? Its really not that hard.
Click to expand...

Wouldn't that take longer?
 
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