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unable to restore using carbon copy cloner

J

jnt168

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 8, 2009
10
0
External hard drive FreeAgent Pro 750GB with Firewire 400
Mac Mini OS X 10.5.6 120GB 2GB ram

Created a MAC HD image on FreeAgent Pro 750 gb external drive but did not make it bootable.Now I cannot restore from the external drive where the macHD.dmg is stored.I believe I should have made the Image bootabe on the external drive ,but too late.Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks
 
OK, I'm confused a bit-- which version of CCC are you using that would be able to make a Disk Image file out of the backup?:confused: I ask because a normal run of CCC sure doesn't create a .dmg file as the result so I am trying to figure out what is going on.

Normally a disk image would be created in Disk Utility, then restored using the Disk Utility that is available in the menus when the system is booted from an OSX installer disk, so in order to offer any suggestions we need a little more info please.
 
I used version 3.1.3 Dec8 2008.I remembered selecting backup all files to my external drive and I got Macintosh HD.dmg on my Seagate external drive.On my external hard drive I also got other folders and files in there , but I didn't create a separate partition for the backup.
 
Yes, you should have made it bootable, but we're beyond that now...

How big is this MacintoshHD.dmg?

Will it fit on a DVD, or Dual Layer DVD?

Perhaps you can burn it to a DVD and then use that to re-install the OS as it was when the backup was created.

If not, then you may can use the Command line method of 'sudo bless', though i don't know the syntax right off hand. Maybe someone else could provide it.
 
jnt168 said:
External hard drive FreeAgent Pro 750GB with Firewire 400
Mac Mini OS X 10.5.6 120GB 2GB ram

I now remembered that under TARGET DISK I selected New DISK IMAGE ;and for choosing a location for my backup,I selected save as MacIntosh HD and under WHERE I put Seagate.Under Additional Disk Image I selected Create a Read-Only Image.
If I were to do another backup again and want to make the drive bootable for recovery,should I partition my external drive so that one is for CCC backups and the other for other files like Pictures and Music etc ?Under Target disk I should select Seagate and Cloning options would be backup everything.
Would appreicate you walking me through this and you seem to know quite a bit about CCC.
Thanks
Click to expand...
 
bmcgonag said:
Yes, you should have made it bootable, but we're beyond that now...

How big is this MacintoshHD.dmg?

Will it fit on a DVD, or Dual Layer DVD?

Perhaps you can burn it to a DVD and then use that to re-install the OS as it was when the backup was created.

If not, then you may can use the Command line method of 'sudo bless', though i don't know the syntax right off hand. Maybe someone else could provide it.
Click to expand...
The Macintosh HD.dmg is about 75 GB.
 
jnt168 said:
jnt168 said:
External hard drive FreeAgent Pro 750GB with Firewire 400
Mac Mini OS X 10.5.6 120GB 2GB ram

I now remembered that under TARGET DISK I selected New DISK IMAGE ;and for choosing a location for my backup,I selected save as MacIntosh HD and under WHERE I put Seagate.Under Additional Disk Image I selected Create a Read-Only Image.
If I were to do another backup again and want to make the drive bootable for recovery,should I partition my external drive so that one is for CCC backups and the other for other files like Pictures and Music etc ?Under Target disk I should select Seagate and Cloning options would be backup everything.
Would appreicate you walking me through this and you seem to know quite a bit about CCC.
Thanks
Click to expand...

OK I just saw the info and read up on CCC and making disk images. I learned something new about CCC by doing that so thanks for the info as I like learning something new each day! I have never stumbled onto that as I just use the standard CCC cloning method for 7 drives on my system with no disk images being created.

SO- yes, the simplest way to make it bootable in order to restore the clone is to partition your external with 1 partition being about the same size as your internal drive and reserve that for your true clone and then one or more additional partitions for your other use.

I might note that if your external is formatted as Mac OS Extended and it has a GUID partition table map, you can add a partition without losing anything that is already on the drive. If it has never been formatted for Mac and had the correct partition map type established, the only way to repartition will involve erasing it. If you would like a hand checking the current format/partition table type or in repartitioning, just shout.

When you have a partition set aside for cloning the drive, then it is a simple matter of selecting the drive you want to clone as the "Source" drive and the destination (which would be whatever the partition reserved for cloning was named) would be selected as the "Target". Then select "Backup everything" in the cloning options and click "Clone". To update the clone after the first run to continue to use as a backup, the only change is to select "Incremental backup of selected items" in the Cloning options and re-run.

When it is complete you can reboot and press and hold the Option key right after the startup chime and you will see a window appear that will list all bootable drives on your system. Select the new partition there and hit enter to boot from it.
Click to expand...
 
jnt168 said:
The Macintosh HD.dmg is about 75 GB.
Click to expand...

By the way- you COULD still restore the existing CCC .dmg file by getting another small external drive, installing OSX on it and booting from it too, but didn't suggest that earlier because of additional cost.
 
I am going to partition the 750 GB into 3 partitions-400 gb for the Time Machine,one for CCC and the third one for miscell files.I have a 160 GB Macintosh HD.I am a little uncertain how much I should reserve for CCC since I have never used it before.I suppose the initial backup would be everything ;do you repeat "backup everything "periodically or do incremental backup?How much room do you need.
Is Superduper easier to work with than CCC?
By the way,I spent a couple of years in NH back in 1973.It was too cold for me.Hope you are having better weather.
Thanks
 
jnt168 said:
I am going to partition the 750 GB into 3 partitions-400 gb for the Time Machine,one for CCC and the third one for miscell files.I have a 160 GB Macintosh HD.I am a little uncertain how much I should reserve for CCC since I have never used it before.I suppose the initial backup would be everything ;do you repeat "backup everything "periodically or do incremental backup?How much room do you need.
Is Superduper easier to work with than CCC?
By the way,I spent a couple of years in NH back in 1973.It was too cold for me.Hope you are having better weather.
Thanks
Click to expand...

That sounds like a pretty good plan for the drive. The only thing that will remain unbacked up are the files on the third partition so just make sure you don't store anything too important on it!;) With your layout plan, you technically could backup those files to the Time Machine but it would wind up being a waste of space since the TM backup is on the same drive though, so if the drive dies both copies of those files die too.:(

OK, since you are going to use TM and CCC (a method which I personally like and I do the same thing for my boot drive only), you can safely make the CCC partition roughly equal to the full capacity of your HD since it will not grow larger than a straight 1:1 clone/copy of your drive. After the initial clone, the "incremental backup" is all you will need to keep the CCC backup up to date- and it will vastly speed up the process too. To insure that the clone never grows larger than your hard drive, just be sure that the "Delete items that don't exist on the source" checkbox is checked. Since you are doing a TM backup too which will allow you to retreive old versions of files there is nothing to be gained by archiving old files in the CCC backup too.

I own the registered/paid full version of SuperDuper and use it on occasion but I actually prefer CCC myself in the long run. I have timed both and CCC wins the speed contest but only by about 5% so that doesn't matter- I just prefer the simplicity of the CCC interface, but either is good. Mostly depends on what a person "grew up" with as the features are quite similar (except for the price tag!;))

OK, one final thing- when you partition the drive make darn sure that after you select how many partitions you want that you then click the "Options" button at the bottom- that will open a window that will allow you to select GUID for the partition table map which will be essential for CCC (or SuperDuper for that matter) to make a clone on the drive. Whoops- I just noticed that you are backing up from a Mini- so if it is an Intel based Mini, the GUID is right, but if it is a G4 PowerPC Mini use APM (Apple Partition Map) instead- you can see the details of why when that window opens.

Thanks but no luck on the weather here- after all it supposed to be spring right? So somebody needs to figure out why we got 15" of snow last Monday and another 6" today!:(
 
CCC isn't like SuperDuper. SuperDuper is able to make a bootable clone of your OS X while CCC makes a clone of your OS X (non-bootable). So what you need to do is stick in your Leopard DVD, reinstall ur OS X all new and then use CCC to do a restore.

What I suggest is, from now on use SuperDuper and Time Machine. Make two separate partitions on ur external. Use one partition for SuperDuper and the other for Time Machine. That way if your laptop/desktop's hd fails on you, you can boot into SuperDuper and restore. And the reason for Time Machine is so you have incremental copies of files in the event that the copy of file/files on the SuperDuper image isn't what you're looking for.
 
sushi said:
This is incorrect.

Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) makes great bootable backup clones to external hard drive.
Click to expand...

Absolutely... and it works like a charm!

Woof, Woof - Dawg
pawprint.gif
 
I stand corrected, memory served me wrong. It does make bootable clones, however it may not be an identical clone to your hard drive. It misses metafiles and certain apps may run differently. But that is something the old CCC did, not certain if the newer versions are still plagued with that problem.

Take a closer read to this thread and do some digging: https://forums.macrumors.com/archive/index.php/t-553788.html

Whether it's CCC/SD, you should still do a comprehensive backup with a bootable clone AND incremental.:apple:
 
n8236 said:
I stand corrected, memory served me wrong. It does make bootable clones, however it may not be an identical clone to your hard drive. It misses metafiles and certain apps may run differently. But that is something the old CCC did, not certain if the newer versions are still plagued with that problem.

Take a closer read to this thread and do some digging: https://forums.macrumors.com/archive/index.php/t-553788.html

Whether it's CCC/SD, you should still do a comprehensive backup with a bootable clone AND incremental.:apple:
Click to expand...

Please read the statement from the author of CCC regarding the metadata issue on the front page of the CCC website. There is a link there to the article in which the metadata issue was originally reported on in March 2006.

And yes the best is to do both CCC and TM just as the OP intends to do- you do a bootable clone for the initial pass and then do incremental updates to it periodically to maintain an up to date bootable clone- and a TM backup for old file retrieval capability.
 
Thanks very much for all your help.I have got things working and thanks Sickmacdoc for the great detailed instructions.
 
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