How to Clone Lion

[r0k]

In the past, when I've cloned drives, I've used CCC to simply clone the partition over to a new drive. I created a GUID Partition Scheme single partition and let CCC copy everything over to it. It worked fine. I did this several times to upgrade from HDD to SSD. I'm thinking of doing this on my daughter's macbook so she can get longer battery life. (SSD uses 1/4 watt to 2 watts).

I'm thinking that if I do the same thing for Lion, I'll get the Lion partition brought over just fine but the recovery partition would not get copied to the new drive. Any ideas on how to clone everything over to a new drive so I'd still have the recovery partition?

For Snow Leopard and older it went something like this:

1. Format new drive with 1 partition HFS+ / GUID partition scheme
2. Use CCC to copy old drive to new drive
3. Boot holding option to test new drive

Any idea what step(s) I might insert to get the "recovery partition" brought over to a new hard drive?

 

[gyorpb]

Recreate the partitioning scheme from the cloned drive on the new drive, then clone both partitions. If I'm not mistaken, the extensive Lion review at Ars Technica contained a rather detailed section on the recovery scheme and the partitioning scheme used on Lion Macs.

 

[r0k]

Recreate the partitioning scheme from the cloned drive on the new drive, then clone both partitions. If I'm not mistaken, the extensive Lion review at Ars Technica contained a rather detailed section on the recovery scheme and the partitioning scheme used on Lion Macs.

I went back and re-read the ars review and it was just as I remember. After pining over the absence of ZFS, they spent a lot of time talking about whole disk encryption and left the whole question about whether you could see the recovery partition in disk utility or carbon copy cloner as an exercise for the end user. I suppose I could simply clone the Lion drive to the second disk, then turn on whole disk encryption to have the recovery partition created for me but that isn't what I'm trying to do here. My daughter, a high school junior, really doesn't need a disk full of games, ichat and facebook photos encrypted.

I appreciate your response and it lines up with my expectations in general but what I'm really hoping for is a response from somebody who has been there, seen it with their own eyes and can remember the software they used and the steps they took to succeed in cloning a Lion disk including the recovery partition. For instance, the CCC site FAQ mentions using block level copy of a Lion partition brings the recovery partition with it. This makes it sound like the recovery partition is really a hidden area of the Lion partition. I'm looking for confirmation of somebody who made it through rather than speculation or general guidelines which might add to my overall comfort but are not "proof".

 

[r0k]

Tonight I tried running CCC and found a rather obscure option to enable block copy. I did this and found the "block copy" button was greyed out. It turns out you can't do block copy clone of the drive you booted from. So this means the only way to run CCC and do a block copy is to boot from some other drive?

It sounds like maybe it might work, but rebooting or booting from another drive is not something I'm particularly interested in. Typically my Macs get rebooted for software updates and power failures. So booting from another drive just to run CCC block copy is exactly what I was looking for.

So I throw down my challenge again. How do I clone a Lion drive without simply "file" cloning it and running whole disk encryption on the new drive to "force" the creation of a new recovery partition. The answer to this question is the only thing standing between my daughter and a shiny new SSD drive (so the battery on her 2007 Blackbook will last all day).

 

[LowMach]

Try clonezilla. I use it all the time but sorry not with lion. I can test tomorrow though.

This thread suggests it works:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/clonezilla/forums/forum/394751/topic/4628154

 

[niksimpsons]

Yes you are right, I am also trying many softwares from few days but not succeed
Today one of my friend suggest to use Stellar Clone Drive so going to use the same today. I will update you once I finished. If you wish you can also use it so that we can compare the results. I will update here soon after I finish and waiting for your views..

 

[Steve's Barber]

SuperDuper?

 

[netnothing]

The other thing to do is, on the new SSD....install Lion clean. That will create both the Lion install and the Recovery HD. Then you can clone the old drive to the new install.....it will only clone the Lion portion....not the recovery HD.

-Kevin

 

[Weaselboy]

The other thing to do is, on the new SSD....install Lion clean. That will create both the Lion install and the Recovery HD. Then you can clone the old drive to the new install.....it will only clone the Lion portion....not the recovery HD.

-Kevin

Exactly. There was a discussion about this in the CCC support forums and at this point, what you have described is the easiest way. Just install Lion from a USB key on the new SSD then clone the Lion partition from the old drive to the new one.

 

[r0k]

The other thing to do is, on the new SSD....install Lion clean. That will create both the Lion install and the Recovery HD. Then you can clone the old drive to the new install.....it will only clone the Lion portion....not the recovery HD.

-Kevin

Exactly. There was a discussion about this in the CCC support forums and at this point, what you have described is the easiest way. Just install Lion from a USB key on the new SSD then clone the Lion partition from the old drive to the new one.

D'oh! Of course! I can simply plug in the new drive, and install Lion to it from either my own recovery partition (via a reboot) or the Lion Install key I made before allowing Install OS X Lion.app to delete itself. THEN after the new drive is bootable, I can simply clone my existing Lion over it using CCC's file (not block copy) mode.

It's an extra step (installing Lion and then cloning) but it's very likely to work as expected. Thanks!

 

[Minicube]

It sounds like you solved your problem, but here's a solution for what you were trying to do earlier:

In order to do a block level copy in CCC you have to be cloning from a drive to a larger drive (I had it grayed out even when I tried to clone to two equal sized drives). Secondly, neither of the drives can be running the OS. So, what you need it a Mac running CCC and two external hard drives; one with Lion and the Recovery Disk, and one slightly larger (empty) drive to copy to. Either (or both) of these external drives can actually be drives installed in Macs that have been booted into Target Disk mode. They can also, of course, be externals connected via USB or Firewire. All the content on the drive being copied to will be erased.