SuperDuper Cloning Question

In general I have mixed results with a USB disk connected via a hub v. one connected directly to the computer. For example, I have a Western Digital Passport drive that is powered by USB. It doesn't like hubs even though the hubs I have are externally powered by AC adaptors.

I use SuperDuper and when I boot off the USB disk (painfully slow, btw), I connect it direct. However, when I do backups with superduper, I go via a more conveniently located hub port with no problems.

 

With the Intel Macs you can boot to a USB disk. A superduper-clone on a USB drive works just fine.

So, if your internal boot drive dies:

1. Replace drive/have drive replaced
2. Connect USB drive with superduper clone to mac
3. Power on mac and during boot process hold the specific key combo (I forget what it is)
4. Select the icon that represents your usb drive
After OS loads, start superduper and do a "backup" but swap drives (your backup disk is the source, the internal disk is the destination).

Worked flawlessly when Apple sent me a replacement system when my less-than-1-week-old-mac died.

If you have a PPC system, then...no, booting to USB is not an option. I think the Targeted Disk Mode works only with firewire.

 

I don't want to worry you, but I'm afraid that there are no chances... It's not even Tuesday.

 

That is correct if you have a PPC Mac you can only boot from external FW.

 

Booting off a Firewire external disk

I've got a G5 tower running OSX 10.4 and have tried all sorts of things to try and get it to see a Super Duper clone on either of my firewire drives.

I need to repair my system drive, which has some errors but still boots up most of the time, but I bought my computer 2nd hand from a company with no system disk to boot up on.

I have a My Passport external drive with Firewire 400/ Firewire 800 connections on it and have cloned a disk image of the operating system drive to it - no matter what I do I can't seem to get the mac to see it in the boot up stage, or my other firewire drive.

Any advice gratefully received.