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How do you clone and Backup without FIREWIRE

M

mashinhead

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Oct 7, 2003
3,017
1,049
I have to say that, I don't mind a lack of firewire, I don't use it much, but I do use it in TWO situations.

1, when I get an new machine, like i did. A new macbook. Sans FW. So I usually just clone my HD to the new machine... Or if i upgrade the HD I do the same, which I'm thinking of doing.

2. To backup my external. Which I smart update with Superduper. (for this I don't need FW but they only support that.

How do i get a around this... is there setup that I can buy that will allow me to hook up two hard drives together and clone them without using the macbook, is there software that will allow me to use USB2 or Ethernet to do the same thing?
 
If both machines have Leopard installed, you can find users over Ethernet using Migration Assistant. If not, there is an update to Tiger that may accomplish the same task for source machines.
 
Cloning w/o firewire

The new MacBooks and MacBook Pros have easily accessible, removable hard drives.

The easiest way to clone a drive without firewire? Pull the drive and plug it into a SATA to USB adapter. Connect that to your other Mac and clone away - the disk will show up as an external drive, just like it would under firewire.

Of course, the downside to this is that you have to have an adapter handy ... although you also had to have a firewire cable handy to use Target Disk Mode. The other downside is that it isn't as convenient, but it *is* just as functional.

Adapters can be had pretty cheaply. I have a nice one that cost me about $35, which accepts both desktop and laptop-sized drives.

As for cloning software, you can check out Carbon Copy Cloner (don't have the link handy but a quick Google will turn it up for you).
 
mkelly said:
The new MacBooks and MacBook Pros have easily accessible, removable hard drives.

The easiest way to clone a drive without firewire? Pull the drive and plug it into a SATA to USB adapter. Connect that to your other Mac and clone away - ).
Click to expand...



Ok what if you don't have another mac.....see my problem.
 
You are going to want a clean install to avoid problems anyway with new hardware and the updated OS for the machine. Just transfer the applications after the fact and your documents from your external over USB. It's painless.
 
If you just want to clone a drive without Firewire, then SuperDuper is awesome for that. I recently used to to upgrade my HD. Works like a champ for OS X, however I had to redo my Boot Camp partition. Best of Luck
 
Why not buy a express card/34 card with 2 firewire terminals? OWC has these for $30 or $40 each. They also have firewire 800 and usb2 versions as well.
Patrick
Uhhh! Guess the Macbook doesn't have a slot for a express card/34.
 
Roy Hobbs said:
SuperDuper Smart updates works just fine with USB 2 drives

mashinhead said:
what about cloning?
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
SuperDuper! is a cloning tool. The smart update feauture just brings an older clone up to date. The update is still a clone, but it will generally take just a fraction of the time a full clone will take. The smart update feature is not free, though. If you want to use that (and it rocks, I can tell you), you'll have to buy SuperDuper!.
 
Bengt77 said:
SuperDuper! is a cloning tool. The smart update feauture just brings an older clone up to date. The update is still a clone, but it will generally take just a fraction of the time a full clone will take. The smart update feature is not free, though. If you want to use that (and it rocks, I can tell you), you'll have to buy SuperDuper!.
Click to expand...

Seconded - and at a price that is very reasonable.
 
Cloning to an external HD via USB is the same as FW using Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper.

The difference is the speed. USB 2.0 will be slow compared to FW and very slow compared to FW800.
 
sushi said:
Cloning to an external HD via USB is the same as FW using Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper.

The difference is the speed. USB 2.0 will be slow compared to FW and very slow compared to FW800.
Click to expand...
True, sadly. But we'll just have to settle for that, won't we. :eek:
 
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