I want to have a bootbable clone, do I need to partition it before hand ?

[chipandegg]

Quick question

I want to do a bootable clone of my main system drive. Just a straight clone using Superduper.

I was just wondering, do I have to partition the bootbale back drive, is it advisable to do this before going ahead with the procedure? I wasn't intending too, though somebody mentioned it to me.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

 

[MacDawg]

Makes no difference either way really
I do have a separate partition for my clone
And my TM backup in another

 

[maflynn]

I'm not sure I fully understand your question but I'll take a stab at answering it.

You have to partition any drive prior to being able to use it. Some external drives come already partitioned, but that partition is for windows.

You need to make sure its a GUID partition type and then its up to you select one volume or divide up the drive into multiple volumes.

 

[chipandegg]

I'm not sure I fully understand your question but I'll take a stab at answering it.

You have to partition any drive prior to being able to use it. Some external drives come already partitioned, but that partition is for windows.

You need to make sure its a GUID partition type and then its up to you select one volume or divide up the drive into multiple volumes.

Hi

This is what I did, installed the hard drive physically in the Mac Pro and then went to Disk Utility.

Selected the drive and went to erase and selected Mac OS Extended (Journaled). The drive is now formatted, and basically one big partition?

If I select the drive in Disk Utility, under Volume Scheme it has 'current', from then on you can select how many partition you want e.g. 1,2,3.

At the moment I intend to use current, where the drive is a big partition?

I sent an email to David at Superduper, in is reply he just mentioned partitioning ( I didn't ask him about it) and that got me thinking.

 

[davidlv]

Hi
If I select the drive in Disk Utility, under Volume Scheme it has 'current', from then on you can select how many partitions you want e.g. 1,2,3.
At the moment I intend to use current, where the drive is a single big partition. I sent an email to David at Superduper, in is reply he just mentioned partitioning ( I didn't ask him about it) and that got me thinking.

The issue here is semantics, a problem with words only. You do not need to make 2 or more partitions to "partition" a drive. Partitioning a drive is "like drawing an electronic border or outline on the drives platters so that data is manageable" (not a very accurate description, but you get the idea I hope). You have a single big partition now, so the drive has been partitioned. As said above you need to make sure the partition is the GUID type for an Intel machine to make the drive bootable, but that is the default for a Mac Pro, so you are probably OK now. If you still have no data on the drive, use DU and select 1 partition instead of "current" and before hitting the "Go" button, check the "Options" and make sure it is set to GUID. This will actually do nothing new, but it may help you understand what is going on. Careful, this will erase any data on the drive!
I haven't used Superduper for ages, but if I recall, it needs to erase the current partition in the free version, and it can only do a full clone, not incremental, unless you buy it. CCC will and it's freeware (actually donation ware).