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Replacing Internal HD- Quick Question

MaskedPhantom

MaskedPhantom

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 26, 2007
178
0
New York
Hello all,

I received a 640GB internal hard drive for Christmas and I'm preparing to install it. I plan to use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone my Macintosh HD drive onto my spacious external drive (which also has my Time Machine Backup info on it) before installing the new drive.

Will cloning the drive onto this external interfere with the data already on the external? If so, can anyone suggest a better way to go about doing something like this?

Thanks!
 
Wirelessly posted (iPhone Dark: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/7D11)

I would partition the external before starting the clone to avoid messing with the data already on the external.
 
Well, I already have two partitions on the drive: Time Machine and extra storage space. I have freed up enough space on the storage partition to do this.

Is there such thing as partitioning a partition? :confused:
 
If I were you I would get rid of all the partitions. Why do you need a Time Machine partition on your boot drive anyway?

Make sure you format it Mac OS Extended (Journaled), GUID. Use CCC to clone the drive. Once you install the new HD make sure you go into System Prefs > Startup Disk, and choose the new boot drive. If you don't do this your Mac will take FOREVER to boot into the desktop. This is a common problem that most people who change the internal drive have.
 
angemon89 said:
If I were you I would get rid of all the partitions. Why do you need a Time Machine partition on your boot drive anyway?
Click to expand...

My Time Machine partition is not on my boot drive; it's on a 1.5 TB external with two partitions: one for Time Machine and one for extra storage. It wouldn't make much sense to have a Time Machine partition on my boot drive anyway, would it? :p

I guess my question is do I need to have my CCC clone on an empty drive or can there be data already on it? And since I don't have another empty drive available but I have space on one of my external's partitions available, is it possible to partition a partition?

I hope I'm making sense somewhat.
 
Ok I see. I was confused when I read your OP.

No, there should not be a problem copying your HD onto the externals extra storage space. I'm pretty sure(not at my computer to test this out) all CCC does is create a new file of your hard drive and it doesn't interfere with other data.

If you have an external hard drive enclosure I would suggest you CCC your internal drive directly onto the 640gb drive that way you don't have to clone twice. But if you don't have one the other method is fine.
 
angemon89 said:
If you have an external hard drive enclosure I would suggest you CCC your internal drive directly onto the 640gb drive that way you don't have to clone twice. But if you don't have one the other method is fine.
Click to expand...

I had not even thought of that! Brilliant!

What are the exact steps I have to take? I have it in the enclosure now; what do I do?
 
-Plug in the drive
-open disk utility
-select it on the left
-format (erase tab) the drive make sure it's mac os extended (jounaled) with GUID partition scheme (click the options button to select guid)
-ccc your internal onto the 640gb drive
-install the drive in your MacBook
-done

-also make sure that you select the drive in startup disk when your new drive is up and running

sorry for the lack of detail I'm typing this on my phone
 
I ran into some problems with the clone... this is what the log shows:

15:27:38 Launched Carbon Copy Cloner [3.3] on Version 10.6.2 (Build 10C540)

13:35:25 Launched Carbon Copy Cloner [3.3] on Version 10.6.2 (Build 10C540)

14:31:01 Launched Carbon Copy Cloner [3.3] on Version 10.6.2 (Build 10C540)

==================== Carbon Copy Cloner (v. 3.3): 2009-12-27 14:31:51 -0500 ====================

Operating System: Version 10.6.2 (Build 10C540)

Hardware:
hw.machine: i386
hw.model: MacBook4,1
hw.logicalcpu: 2
hw.physmem: 2147483648
vm.loadavg: { 0.51 0.66 0.34 }


Task: Disk-to-disk clone (-psn_0_122910)
Source: Macintosh HD (/dev/disk0s2, 427FC4D5-6489-3C83-BFEC-CBA36A590954)
Mount point: /
Filesystem: hfs
Capacity: 107.24 GB
Used: 97.72 GB
Available: 9.52 GB
Mac OS X version: 10.6.2

Target: 640 GB Drive (/Volumes/640 GB Drive/ [/dev/disk3s2, 68EBD823-BF1A-3D7D-B7D7-16EB4A51D90A])
Mount point: /Volumes/640 GB Drive
Filesystem: hfs
Capacity: 639.79 GB
Used: 618.76 MB
Available: 639.17 GB
Mac OS X version: Mac OS not installed

Bootability: This volume will be bootable.

Cloning method: Backup everything
Delete items on target that aren't on the source: No


14:31:51 Enabling ownership on the target volume...
14:31:58 The target volume has ownership enabled.
14:31:58 The target volume has Access Control Lists enabled.
14:31:58 Authenticating...
14:31:58 Initiating synchronization engine...
14:32:00 Cloning...
15:02:23 rsync: write failed on "/Volumes/640 GB Drive/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Photoshop Elements/6.0/Photo Creations/backgrounds/Rectangles.jpg": Invalid argument (51)
15:02:24 rsync: write failed on "/Volumes/640 GB Drive/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Photoshop Elements/6.0/Photo Creations/backgrounds/Rectangles.jpg": Invalid argument (22) (51)
15:02:24 rsync error: error in rsync protocol data stream (code 12) at /Volumes/Home/Users/bombich/Development/Bombich_Software/rsync/rsync-3.0.6/io.c(600) [sender=3.0.6] (51)
15:02:24 CCC Synchronization Engine: Some errors were encountered during the backup., Error code: 51
15:02:26 Sync Engine warnings: (
"rsync: write failed on \"/Volumes/640 GB Drive/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Photoshop Elements/6.0/Photo Creations/backgrounds/Rectangles.jpg\": Invalid argument",
"rsync: writefd_unbuffered failed to write 4 bytes to socket [sender]: Broken pipe (32)",
"rsync: write failed on \"/Volumes/640 GB Drive/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Photoshop Elements/6.0/Photo Creations/backgrounds/Rectangles.jpg\": Invalid argument (22)",
"rsync: connection unexpectedly closed (6560786 bytes received so far) [sender]",
"rsync error: error in rsync protocol data stream (code 12) at /Volumes/Home/Users/bombich/Development/Bombich_Software/rsync/rsync-3.0.6/io.c(600) [sender=3.0.6]"
)
================================================================================

Anybody know what's wrong?
 
Hmmm I have no idea lol. Try again?

I've never encountered a problem when cloning with ccc.

It might be worth restarting your Mac/ reinstalling ccc.
 
angemon89 said:
Hmmm I have no idea lol. Try again?

I've never encountered a problem when cloning with ccc.

It might be worth restarting your Mac/ reinstalling ccc.
Click to expand...

After Googling it seems that there is some sort of copy-protection in place with Adobe files. I've deleted Photoshop Elements (as it was a trial and I never used it) and I am trying again.

EDIT: It did not work. :mad: I'm getting frustrated at this point. I think I'll need to make a new thread.
 
Have you done a Verify Disk and Repair Disk Permissions with Disk Utility on the internal before doing the clone?
 
DewGuy1999 said:
Have you done a Verify Disk and Repair Disk Permissions with Disk Utility on the internal before doing the clone?
Click to expand...

No, I haven't. I'll try that now.

It just gets more and more complicated! :mad::mad::mad:


Ran Verify Disk, said the disk needed to be repaired, booted from SL disc, repaired disk and disk permissions, restarted, and now my dock and the right side of my toolbar is gone! What the hell is happening?! :(

This project was meant to take a few hours. Now it has eaten up my whole day and still needs to be resolved.

EDIT: A simple restart fixed the issue, for now. Going to try to re-clone the drive now that everything is supposed to be fixed. Fingers crossed.

This has been the most disastrous, miserable experience I have ever had with a computer, Mac or PC.

The 4th time I attempted a clone, SuperDuper froze and hour into the process. I tried waiting another two hours to see what would happen. Nothing.

I tried closing SuperDuper and it froze again. Then my browser froze.

I had to reboot. Computer froze during reboot. Rebooted again. Froze.

Rebooted again. By the grace of God it didn't freeze.

Opened Disk Utility to find that somehow magically the drive, once Mac OS Extended Journaled, turned into a FAT32 drive.

What the hell happened?! I am this close to taking an ax to this computer.

This process was supposed to take two hours, not two days. And I'm pretty sure this will take two years off my life. :mad:
 
I can't help, unfortunately, but I have a question that may bring some answers that can help. :eek: Is it true that the different cloning apps have different success rates? I've always been afraid to completely trust a bootable clone, and this thread is confirming my vague suspicions.

If the OP tries yet another cloning app, is there any chance this might work? :confused:
 
annk said:
I can't help, unfortunately, but I have a question that may bring some answers that can help. :eek: Is it true that the different cloning apps have different success rates? I've always been afraid to completely trust a bootable clone, and this thread is confirming my vague suspicions.

If the OP tries yet another cloning app, is there any chance this might work? :confused:
Click to expand...

Well, I've been using CCC for years on my LeCie D2 Firewire HD and I've never had an issue and the clones have been bootable when I've need them. I'm beginning to think that the OP issues may be related to the particular external HD he's using.
 
Could it perhaps be the way I have the drive installed in the enclosure? It was my first time installing a hard drive onto anything, coupled with the fact that there were no instructions. Needless to say, I'm not confident in the job I did.
 
MaskedPhantom said:
Could it perhaps be the way I have the drive installed in the enclosure? It was my first time installing a hard drive onto anything, coupled with the fact that there were no instructions. Needless to say, I'm not confident in the job I did.
Click to expand...

I've only installed a HD into an enclosure 1 time (not the LeCie), so I don't have a lot of experience, but as I remember it was pretty much plug and play. Since you're having problems with both CCC and SuperDuper, I'm thinking that the problem may be related to one of the HDs. Has Disk Utility given you a clean bill of health on both drives?

If I recall correctly CCC has pretty good documentation on setting up the HD for cloning, have you followed it? Also, CCC has a forum where you can also get help if need be with specific issues, you can find it here:

Bombich Software Forums

Sorry, I can't be of any more help.
 
MaskedPhantom said:
Opened Disk Utility to find that somehow magically the drive, once Mac OS Extended Journaled, turned into a FAT32 drive.
Click to expand...
I don't believe you can clone to a drive that is in a different format as your source drive. Try reformatting your partition to Mac in Disk Utility and see if that works.

Also Disk Utility has it's own cloning and restoring tool if you click on the Restore tab. http://www.macinstruct.com/node/147 It's just another option if CCC doesn't work again.
 
EndlessMac said:
I don't believe you can clone to a drive that is in a different format as your source drive. Try reformatting your partition to Mac in Disk Utility and see if that works.
Click to expand...

I am well aware of that, but the thing is the drive was Mac OS X Extended (Journaled), but when I restarted my computer and checked Disk Utility, the drive magically reformatted to FAT32. See the issue? :confused:
 
MaskedPhantom said:
I am well aware of that, but the thing is the drive was Mac OS X Extended (Journaled), but when I restarted my computer and checked Disk Utility, the drive magically reformatted to FAT32. See the issue? :confused:
Click to expand...
So you are saying that you tried reformatting the partition again and it still shows up as FAT? That is a weird issue. I don't really know what would cause that.
 
EndlessMac said:
So you are saying that you tried reformatting the partition again and it still shows up as FAT? That is a weird issue. I don't really know what would cause that.
Click to expand...

No, I didn't try reformatting again because I was baffled that the drive changed formats without any input from me. Who's to say it won't happen again and I lose all the data?
 
MaskedPhantom said:
No, I didn't try reformatting again because I was baffled that the drive changed formats without any input from me. Who's to say it won't happen again and I lose all the data?
Click to expand...
You might have somehow formatted to FAT32 without you knowing it. Anyway if your Time Machine backup is good then try installing the new hard drive and restore from that. Since you are not overwriting your current old drive then leave it alone after upgrading your new hard drive in case you need it.
 
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