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Making a restorble backup on 10.8

J

jan1024188

macrumors member
Original poster
Apr 27, 2011
79
95
Ok,

So I've got my very first mac 2 days ago which is 15" retina. I've also got to learn how to use osx in past 2 days, I already know all keyboard shortcuts, workspaces etc etc. Ive got wine installed and bunch of software.

osx is OK, but its not good enough. I've been a linux user for 8 years now and although osx does a pretty good job at being a laptop os its pretty closed and obsolete. Kernel is rubbish, it only supports 2 filesystems, opengl performance is horrible, there is no python3 and although osx desktop in combination with trackpad gestures is quite neat, I still prefer Gnome3.

I know I will be trading some battery life and will loose camera/mic support (I dont use either anyway) I would like to install Fedora 18 on my mac.
The option Im going for is complete osx wipeout, and just run fedora.

Ive made recovery USB using 10.8 recovery software and now Im wondering how can I make a backup of what I already have to external hdd. I've spent 2 days configuring my osx and if Linux goes wrong I want to be able to insta-restore to what I have now.

What is the tool I need, and what are my restore options? Can I just backup to external hdd using Time Machine and than somehow restore everything from it during osx install?

I obviously want the perfect system, Im not willing to take compromises eg. low battery life (Ill have to switch between HD4000 and nvidia manually unfortunately because nvidia is **** to linux and is taking time to release optimus them dumb ****s, like Linus said, **** you nvidia!). And I can get cpu clocking management and some other tweaks done to improve power consumption and probably get around 5 hours. osx is doing 7 tho.

Well just in case if it doesnt work out, I want to be able to roll-back.

Let me know,

Thanks

Edit: Got python 3.3 installed nevermind that.
 
Last edited:
BUMP!

Sorry If I am a bit rude to apple fans...could you help me anyway?

I just got a lot more stuff working on osx, got Audirvana Plus music player to replace itunes and ntfs support, although Id still like to access my encrypted ext4 drives. Might as well change them to encrypted HFS+.

Anyone know about my backup question?
 
jan1024188 said:
What if I like my mac, just don't like osx?
Click to expand...

Seems foolish. There are much better value, and equally stylish laptops around that are better supported by Linux.

The Mac 'tax' is what people pay for the ability to run OSX. If I didn't want to do that, there's no way I would buy one.

Oh yes - and don't fool around with TimeMachine - the backup it creates isn't bootable, and it's a mess of links and other stuff. Use Carbon Copy Cloner to create a completely bootable replica (and on a Mac, you can then just boot from this external drive if you want OSX).
 
jan1024188 said:
Thanks. Is there like a step in installation where you can select time machine recovery?
Click to expand...

Yes... when you boot from that recovery key (option key boot) you will see a screen like below. Just plug in the Time Machine disk and click Restore from Time Machine Backup at the top.

p7nNF.jpg


----------
firestarter said:
Oh yes - and don't fool around with TimeMachine - the backup it creates isn't bootable, and it's a mess of links and other stuff. Use Carbon Copy Cloner to create a completely bootable replica (and on a Mac, you can then just boot from this external drive if you want OSX).
Click to expand...

Carbon Copy Cloner works well also, but you can boot to a Mountain Lion recovery key (I believe OP said he already made one) and easily restore from Time Machine.
 
Weaselboy said:
Carbon Copy Cloner works well also, but you can boot to a Mountain Lion recovery key (I believe OP said he already made one) and easily restore from Time Machine.
Click to expand...

It's an unnecessary extra step. In this scenario, Time Machine doesn't give you any benefit over CCC. A clone can be trivially restored - boot into it, and CCC back.

Plus, if you need to use OSX for a short time, just boot into the external.
 
firestarter said:
It's an unnecessary extra step. In this scenario, Time Machine doesn't give you any benefit over CCC. A clone can be trivially restored - boot into it, and CCC back.

Plus, if you need to use OSX for a short time, just boot into the external.
Click to expand...

We can go on all day about the benefits of both. I just find it easier explaining to new users how to use Time Machine that is already on the machine. Nothing wrong with either approach. :)
 
firestarter said:
Yep, Time Machine route is probably easier.

Just thought I'd mention CCC, seeing as how the OP is a 1337 h4x0r ;)
Click to expand...

Hey thanks. Ill look into CCC too. More options, better.

Although lately Im starting to like osx, specially now when I've managed to get a lot of things working. I might actually keep it. Don't know yet. The first day I absolutely hated it. Now Im more like yea its OK. Maybe Ill just dual boot it. Tho Id prefer to have all 256gb of ssd on just 1 OS, my music library alone is 90gb. So Im probably gonna be using osx till Fedora 18 is out, than try that see what works better. So I believe I will know for sure which OS am I going to use in December.


On laptop I only need browsers, music player, and filezilla/eclipse/bluefish if I have to do some coding on go.

Anyone know any good pictures viewer? The one that has ability to slide between photos in 1 directory, when you just open 1? Like Shotwell/gnome image viewer on linux http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shotwell_(software)
I love linux as Gnome 3 is super useful and way better looking, you get newest kernel, and you can do pretty much everything you want. And the repo system is awesome, you get to update all your software with 1 command, or install/remove any software too. Very neat indeed. Osx is very closed and has much, much fewer features out of the box on the other hand, but since Im on a laptop, could get by.
 
Last edited:
jan1024188 said:
Anyone know any good pictures viewer?
Click to expand...

Take a look at Xee or Lyn. Both lightweight and kinda Linuxee. :D

Just a suggestion. You might like OS X if you just use it a couple weeks. Just about any of the Linux terminal commands you are used to will work in the OS X Terminal app and you can run most Linux apps under the OS X version of X11. It might grow on you.
 
Weaselboy said:
Take a look at Xee or Lyn. Both lightweight and kinda Linuxee. :D

Just a suggestion. You might like OS X if you just use it a couple weeks. Just about any of the Linux terminal commands you are used to will work in the OS X Terminal app and you can run most Linux apps under the OS X version of X11. It might grow on you.
Click to expand...

Yeah I really liked it when I discovered I don't have to re-learn console. I installed macports and brew got more stuff like curl and wget thru that.
Ive got x11 thru quartz thingy and I've got few programs from linux running.
 
jan1024188 said:
Yeah I really liked it when I discovered I don't have to re-learn console. I installed macports and brew got more stuff like curl and wget thru that.
Ive got x11 thru quartz thingy and I've got few programs from linux running.
Click to expand...

Ahah!! We've got you now! :D

RP1vk.png
 
firestarter said:
Seems foolish. There are much better value, and equally stylish laptops around that are better supported by Linux.

The Mac 'tax' is what people pay for the ability to run OSX. If I didn't want to do that, there's no way I would buy one.

Oh yes - and don't fool around with TimeMachine - the backup it creates isn't bootable, and it's a mess of links and other stuff. Use Carbon Copy Cloner to create a completely bootable replica (and on a Mac, you can then just boot from this external drive if you want OSX).
Click to expand...

Show me a device that is as thin and lightweight as mbp 15" retina, made of aluminum and has high resolution display + dedicated graphics card + i7. And is cheaper. See Im addicted to Dota2 I need game performance next month when I go to the other side of our little planet. And I need that in a lightweight elegant solution. Don't care about price.
 
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