HD backup?

[advres]

I am one of the unfortunate souls that now has white spots appearing on my 15 alPB's screen. Next week I am sending it away to apple for a replacement screen.

Here is my delema. The Apple genius at my local Apple store (where I am sending my PB to be fixed from) told me to (obviously) back up my HD and to make a new user that the book automatically boots to with Admin. Privileges so they can trouble shoot if need be.

My question is: Can I make a perfect copy of my HD with all personal settings intact and be able to retrieve it? The reason I am asking is because I would like to erase and install OSX clean so I don't have any tech guy at apple going through my personal stuff. I have a lot of things from work (at a software company) that I would rather not let just anyone peer through. I figured If I could send them a box stock PB and then somehow restore everything the way I had in before would be my ideal course of action. I have plenty of space of my firewire drive for everything on my PB.

Even if this is not a possibility I would really appreciate some input on what you think I should do. Also, If there is an easier way to keep my stuff out of sight from their prying eyes, I would be interested in hearing those comments as well.

Thank you all for the help in advance!!!

 

[Finiksa]

Carbon Copy Cloner

You'll need a firewire hard drive to clone you drive to or use CCC to create an image of your drive then back it up to DVD (if you have superdrive)

Then just wipe the drive and use the Apple restore disk before sending it in for service.

 

[mklos]

I am one of the unfortunate souls that now has white spots appearing on my 15 alPB's screen. Next week I am sending it away to apple for a replacement screen.

Here is my delema. The Apple genius at my local Apple store (where I am sending my PB to be fixed from) told me to (obviously) back up my HD and to make a new user that the book automatically boots to with Admin. Privileges so they can trouble shoot if need be.

My question is: Can I make a perfect copy of my HD with all personal settings intact and be able to retrieve it? The reason I am asking is because I would like to erase and install OSX clean so I don't have any tech guy at apple going through my personal stuff. I have a lot of things from work (at a software company) that I would rather not let just anyone peer through. I figured If I could send them a box stock PB and then somehow restore everything the way I had in before would be my ideal course of action. I have plenty of space of my firewire drive for everything on my PB.

Even if this is not a possibility I would really appreciate some input on what you think I should do. Also, If there is an easier way to keep my stuff out of sight from their prying eyes, I would be interested in hearing those comments as well.

Thank you all for the help in advance!!!

If you create an account for the Apple Technician and have it automatically log in as that account then he WILL NOT be able to get into your stuff. He won't have permission. He will only have permission to access stuff in his/her account only. Ahh...the beauty of UNIX!!!

 

[reh]

If you create an account for the Apple Technician and have it automatically log in as that account then he WILL NOT be able to get into your stuff. He won't have permission. He will only have permission to access stuff in his/her account only. Ahh...the beauty of UNIX!!!

The tech WILL be able to access this guys data because he will be given admin privledges. If you don't give apple admin, it may hinder/slow the repair process.

You could use Carbon Copy Cloner or maybe just hide your sensitive data but putting a "." in front of the folder name (I think you have to use the terminal to do that). I doubt the techs have enough free time to go poking around anyway... :shrug:

 

[jazzman45]

is there anyway to just copy ical, itunes, (other personal data) for a reinstall?

i've installed so much crap that my computer is getting slower and more buggy, i think when 10.3.3 comes out i'll just wipe it all clean and start over.

-Tyler

ps. any idea on 10.3.3's arrival?

 

[advres]

Carbon Copy Cloner

You'll need a firewire hard drive to clone you drive to or use CCC to create an image of your drive then back it up to DVD (if you have superdrive)

Then just wipe the drive and use the Apple restore disk before sending it in for service.

I juts downloaded CCC and I think that is the route I am going to go. I read the directions on it and it seems pretty straight forward but I have a question. Once I get my PB back, Do I just boot from the FW drive and erase and format the PB drive and then CCC the running FW drive onto the PB? That was pretty obscure but I think you all will understand. I think I understand but just want to make sure.

 

[reh]

is there anyway to just copy ical, itunes, (other personal data) for a reinstall?

i've installed so much crap that my computer is getting slower and more buggy, i think when 10.3.3 comes out i'll just wipe it all clean and start over.

All of the stuff you need to backup is most likely in your home folder. Don't forget the Library folder in your home folder. iCal, Address Book, Mail, and Safari (to name a few) keep important stuff in there.

 

[mklos]

The tech WILL be able to access this guys data because he will be given admin privledges. If you don't give apple admin, it may hinder/slow the repair process.

You could use Carbon Copy Cloner or maybe just hide your sensitive data but putting a "." in front of the folder name (I think you have to use the terminal to do that). I doubt the techs have enough free time to go poking around anyway... :shrug:

I just set up another administrator account on my iBook and I CANNOT get to my stuff on my regular account, which is also an administrative account. So I took the account I created and gave it regular user permissions and no one can access anyone elses stuff. So you should be fine just setting up another Admin account.

You maybe thinking of a root user account. They CAN access anyone's account.

 

[reh]

I just set up another administrator account on my iBook and I CANNOT get to my stuff on my regular account, which is also an administrative account. So I took the account I created and gave it regular user permissions and no one can access anyone elses stuff. So you should be fine just setting up another Admin account.

You maybe thinking of a root user account. They CAN access anyone's account.

You CAN access anything with an admin account. I just did it. Create a new admin account and login. You'll notice that most (if not all) of the other users' files are unreadable. However, admins are in the sudoers file. So all I had to do sudo around whereever I wanted to go!

It's pretty safe to generalize in this case that admin == root.

 

[mklos]

You CAN access anything with an admin account. I just did it. Create a new admin account and login. You'll notice that most (if not all) of the other users' files are unreadable. However, admins are in the sudoers file. So all I had to do sudo around whereever I wanted to go!

It's pretty safe to generalize in this case that admin == root.

What are you smokin' dude! I DID create another Admin account and I cannot see anyone else's stuff. When I double click on the other users Documents folder it says I don't have enough access privileges to view the contents of this folder.

Repair your permissions and try it again.

Root User is NOT the same as an Administrator account.

 

[reh]

What are you smokin' dude! I DID create another Admin account and I cannot see anyone else's stuff. When I double click on the other users Documents folder it says I don't have enough access privileges to view the contents of this folder.

Repair your permissions and try it again.

Root User is NOT the same as an Administrator account.

It's good stuff man, want some?
Seriously, open up a terminal window in your new admin account and use the sudo command to access anything you want. If you're unfamiliar with sudo, it bascially lets you do anything as root (provided you're in the /etc/sudoers file, which all admins are).

Edit: Here's an example. Say your user name is "mklos". Log in to your new admin account and open up a terminal window and type "ls /Users/mklos/Documents". Denied, wasn't it? Now type "sudo ls /Users/mklos/Documents" (it'll ask for the password of whatever account you're logged in as). How 'bout them cookies?

 

[mklos]

It's good stuff man, want some?
Seriously, open up a terminal window in your new admin account and use the sudo command to access anything you want. If you're unfamiliar with sudo, it bascially lets you do anything as root (provided you're in the /etc/sudoers file, which all admins are).

Edit: Here's an example. Say your user name is "mklos". Log in to your new admin account and open up a terminal window and type "ls /Users/mklos/Documents". Denied, wasn't it? Now type "sudo ls /Users/mklos/Documents" (it'll ask for the password of whatever account you're logged in as). How 'bout them cookies?

I also found out a way to to it the GUI way too! Select a folder and go to "Get Info", under the permissions section click the padlock and put the administrators password in. It will unlock and there you can give yourself access to a folder you didn't have access to before. How 'bout those cookies n' milk!