New Mac Switcher...

[Atomic-Ed]

Hello everyone I have recently switched over from 20+ years of PC to OSX and a brand spanking new MBP SR 2.4 machine.

Well, I am currently looking for native intel apps for my new system that equate to what I had on the PC side. One important app I used all the time was Acronis True Image for disk cloning and restoration. It is a terrific app for the pc. Anyway I found somthing called superduper that everyone is talking about being great. It appears from what I have read that it can clone drives complete just like true image in windows, but I can not find any details on the restoration process. Is there a bootable disk to use for restore for blank HDs? Can I create a bootable DVD to kick of the restore from? If anyone knows the answers please let me know as I am thinking about buying this app but have way too many I need to get to trial and error everything I need. Thanks in advance for your comments and any other top notch OSX apps you might recommend for other core needs is appreciated.

 

[heySparky]

I don't know that I can directly answer your questions, but I can give you a few thoughts. What I would do is just go with the free version and clone my internal HD to an external HD, then do incremental back ups from there. If I needed to restore an internal HD it would be because of a hard drive failure and I needed to replace the internal harddrive. I'd put the new HD into the Mac, start up from the System Restore disc that came with the Mac, then clone the backup HD to the new HD.

I think that having to reinstall the operating system on a Mac happens much less frequently than on the windows side. In my experience, I've never had to do it with OSX.

I hope that someone with windows experience can provide a little more insight on this subject.

 

[Corrosive vinyl]

I am a bit of a newbie with this stuff... don't mess with cloning and the like. That said, I believe what Sparky described makes a lot of sense to me. I recommend possibly re-installing your OS right now, it works just like you did when you first started it up, only this time installing what you want. there is a customize tab which lets you de-select certain things, like fonts, languages, etc. also there is that pesky pre-installed software. You will not have to re-install your OS for a very long time, I have had to re-install once, and that was on a whim, in 2-3 years of usage, vs. every summer on my PCs running whatever windows OS I thought at the time.

 

[theBB]

I assume you are asking how to recover from your clone in case your internal harddsik fails. You can boot from that external clone if it is USB or Firewire. (I don't think Windows XP has that feature.) Once your failed internal is replaced with a new one, I am guessing, you could use the same cloning program, Superduper or Carbon Copy Cloner, to clone your external to your new internal.

 

[Atomic-Ed]

Thanks for the answers guys. Yes, I was referring to what is called a bare metal restore. Where your existing HD is non functional and you replace it with a brand new blank drive. At that point you need to restore your image to it. So from what it sounds like, there is not a way to restore directly to a new drive from a boot disk or anything? Just boot to a cloned version of your external HD and then back to the new blank one? This is a different approach than in the PC world, but it sound like it would be ok. However does that mean you have to keep a whole external drive of your existing HD on hand at all times in case you need to restore an image back to a blank drive? Seems a little wasteful of an external drive if thats the case. Where on my pc images, I simply store just the image file on an external along with all my other files, then boot from the restore utility disk and point it to that image residing on the external drive. Is this type of approach not possible with superduper or other OSX apps?

 

[72930]

To get to what your Mac was like at first, you can at any point use the disks that came with your machine.

If you have data you do not want to lose, you can back up to an external hard disk very easily and intuitively using SuperDuper!

 

[Atomic-Ed]

To get to what your Mac was like at first, you can at any point use the disks that came with your machine.

If you have data you do not want to lose, you can back up to an external hard disk very easily and intuitively using SuperDuper!

Thanks for the reply. So essentially your saying that in the mac world true images of the whole drive, OS, settings, apps and data are not necessarily needed the way we would do them in the PC world. Instead a clean OS install from the CDs and then the superduper utility to restore everything else back. How long does a CD install of OSX generally take on a new MBP? Also do you recommend superduper over any of the other utlities out there? I am looking for the most stable/dependable option. I appreciate your input as I am quite new to macs and OSX.

 

[72930]

Thanks for the reply. So essentially your saying that in the mac world true images of the whole drive, OS, settings, apps and data are not necessarily needed the way we would do them in the PC world. Instead a clean OS install from the CDs and then the superduper utility to restore everything else back. How long does a CD install of OSX generally take on a new MBP? Also do you recommend superduper over any of the other utlities out there? I am looking for the most stable/dependable option. I appreciate your input as I am quite new to macs and OSX.

No, if you're going to restore from SuperDuper! you don't need the disks at all.

A disk install could take over an hour (depending if you leave out printer drivers, apps etc)

I recommend SuperDuper!, but some like CarbonCopyCloner. SuperDuper has such a simple interface, and has worked well for me.

 

[Atomic-Ed]

No, if you're going to restore from SuperDuper! you don't need the disks at all.

A disk install could take over an hour (depending if you leave out printer drivers, apps etc)

I recommend SuperDuper!, but some like CarbonCopyCloner. SuperDuper has such a simple interface, and has worked well for me.

Guess you lost me here about not needing the disks at all. I am referring to a blank HD with nothing on it to start with. I am assuming you mean if I have a bootable external drive already on hand?

Also one other question, I just bought Toast 8 today and It looks like it has a backup utility that will also backup do cd/dvd disks. Have you ever used this feature in Roxio before and if so how does it compare with superduper?

Thanks again...

 

[WirelessInn]

Thanks for the answers guys. Yes, I was referring to what is called a bare metal restore. Where your existing HD is non functional and you replace it with a brand new blank drive. At that point you need to restore your image to it. So from what it sounds like, there is not a way to restore directly to a new drive from a boot disk or anything? Just boot to a cloned version of your external HD and then back to the new blank one? This is a different approach than in the PC world, but it sound like it would be ok. However does that mean you have to keep a whole external drive of your existing HD on hand at all times in case you need to restore an image back to a blank drive? Seems a little wasteful of an external drive if thats the case. Where on my pc images, I simply store just the image file on an external along with all my other files, then boot from the restore utility disk and point it to that image residing on the external drive. Is this type of approach not possible with superduper or other OSX apps?

Ummm. Atomic-Ed, I know this is a Mac forum, but, if you do not mind, I would like to know about your experience with Acronis. I do maintain a complex Win network at my business, and I am thinking of switching o image backup.

I'll appreciate your input very much. Did you use the Home of the Workstation versions - Networked environment or not?
The Acronis folks are not too helpful in my experience: they only want to sell me the whole network installation (megaclams!!), knowing that I operate a biz network. I'd prefer to go workstation by workstation at first (my main backoffice computer needs reliable backup in place THE MOST)
Could you outline for me the steps you go thru to get yourself a good, reliable image of a Win computer installation with Acronis, ready to be slapped back onto "bare metal" (Acronis' statement!) if necessary (HD failure for example). Any incremental backups available to supplement the imaging? I run a Winn network at my business, with back office computers driving Win Point of Sale workstations with scanners, etc...

Of course, I am also asking all this to help me select a good, reliable way to implement backup on my new MBP before I start loading it up with all sorts of valuable data. Mac OS does not offer much to facilitate backup - the DiskUtility>>NewImage tool is not really useable very conveniently: no scheduling, and especially, it has to be used from rebooting into the Mac OS Install DVD No1!!! So, I am following up info on such utilityes as SuperDuper also.

Again, THANKS VERY MUCH!

- Roger T

- Roger T

 

[fistful]

To restore an image onto a blank HD using SuperDuper! you need to use Disk Utility after booting from the disks that came with your Mac. Plug in your external HD then restore your image with Disk Utility. I've never had to do this yet but I believe you'll need to format the new HD first.

 

[WirelessInn]

To restore an image onto a blank HD using SuperDuper! you need to use Disk Utility after booting from the disks that came with your Mac. Plug in your external HD then restore your image with Disk Utility. I've never had to do this yet but I believe you'll need to format the new HD first.

fistful, Thanks for the information.
I am of course new to the Mac environment.
Incidentally, I had tried to activate DiskUtility>>>NewImage - a disk imaging tool part of Mac OS. I got some error screens (see attached illustrations), and I subsequently learned from the Apple forums' folks (not from AppleCare: they did not have a clue!!) that NewImage has to be activated starting with a reboot with the Install Disk 1. Then, apparently, the Image must be sent to an external drive, not the startup drive on board. Anyway, any experience of this??
In any case, you make SuperDuper a pretty straight fwd proposition. So, with SDuper, you create disk images, etcccc... I would do complete imaging every so often and I would wish to do incremental backup in between: IS THAT POSSIBLE WITH SDuper???
Thanks!
- Roger T

 

[Blubbert]

Incremental backups with SuperDuper are only possible if you buy it. In the free version, you can only create full disk clones and nothing else.