Why Should I Create a Bootable Copy of OSX Yosemite

[Ray&Paula]

Hi, I'm just about to pull the trigger on the new iMac 5K. I have a newbie question...... Why should I create a bootable copy of OSX Yosemite? If I have a problem with Yosemite, couldn't I just re-download it from Apple without being charged? I'm sure there is a reason, I'm just oblivious LOL.... Thanks, Ray

 

[F1Mac]

Hi, I'm just about to pull the trigger on the new iMac 5K. I have a newbie question...... Why should I create a bootable copy of OSX Yosemite? If I have a problem with Yosemite, couldn't I just re-download it from Apple without being charged? I'm sure there is a reason, I'm just oblivious LOL.... Thanks, Ray

Well for starters it will save you 5GB of download time and you don't need to go to the app store. Just insert your usb stick and that's it. Also imagine that for some reason, you crash and your system won't boot then you need to reinstall, or check your disk(s)... How are you going to do that if you don't have a separate installer?... It's a time saver, and to an extent, a life saver too

 

[Weaselboy]

You can clone the existing drive including the OS and everything to another disk so that if your internal drive dies, you can boot to that external and keep on working if that is important to you.

But if you are asking about making a bootable Yosemite installer, there is not much need to do that unless you think you might need to reinstall Yosemite somewhere that you have poor or no Internet access.

I never bother with the bootable installer either for the reason you mentioned.

 

[jbarley]

One reason would be 'time', and that's your time. With a boot-able copy on hand you can get right down to business, otherwise you'll be at the mercy of your wi/fi-internet setup.
I'm sure there are more and even better reasons.

 

[Weaselboy]

How are you going to do that if you don't have a separate installer?

I think what the OP is getting at is Internet recovery would do this, unless of course Internet access is unavailable.

 

[KALLT]

I think what the OP is getting at is Internet recovery would do this, unless of course Internet access is unavailable.

Or the hard drive is toast or the volume is corrupted. I had this problem the other day when I screwed up an installation of Ubuntu on an external drive with rEFInd. I couldn’t boot anymore, not even into recovery. Without a bootable copy, another installation on a separate hard drive or even another Mac, you can’t set up your system from scratch without external help, since you can download OS X only on a Mac itself (Mac App Store).

Just get yourself a small thumb drive (8 GB was enough for me) and set up a bootable installer. It’s inexpensive and can save you a lot of trouble. It’s not like you have to do this often, doing this for every major release of OS X should be enough.

 

[Ray&Paula]

You can clone the existing drive including the OS and everything to another disk so that if your internal drive dies, you can boot to that external and keep on working if that is important to you.

But if you are asking about making a bootable Yosemite installer, there is not much need to do that unless you think you might need to reinstall Yosemite somewhere that you have poor or no Internet access.

I never bother with the bootable installer either for the reason you mentioned.

Thanks for the replies...... Please correct me if I'm wrong...... I believe that Time Machine will backup everything including the OS (Yosemite). If not, please explain. As for slower internet access, this may be the case on occasion due to another location that I plan on using the iMac. With that being said along with your other reasons, I feel that it would be a good idea to backup Yosemite to usb 3.0 thumb drive or a portable hard drive. Can this backup be done with other (non-related) backups on the same portable drive? Thanks again to all of you..... I sincerely appreciate it. Ray

 

[Taz Mangus]

Hi, I'm just about to pull the trigger on the new iMac 5K. I have a newbie question...... Why should I create a bootable copy of OSX Yosemite? If I have a problem with Yosemite, couldn't I just re-download it from Apple without being charged? I'm sure there is a reason, I'm just oblivious LOL.... Thanks, Ray

I have a bootable copy of OS X on a external hard that is just the basic installed Yosemite with DiskWarrior. I use this as my rescue hard drive which I have had to use in the past. I have done this with every OS X version since Snow Leopard. Sometimes I need to investigate an issue that requires me to not be booted to the primary OS X install.

 

[KALLT]

Thanks for the replies...... Please correct me if I'm wrong...... I believe that Time Machine will backup everything including the OS (Yosemite). If not, please explain. As for slower internet access, this may be the case on occasion due to another location that I plan on using the iMac. With that being said along with your other reasons, I feel that it would be a good idea to backup Yosemite to usb 3.0 thumb drive or a portable hard drive. Can this backup be done with other (non-related) backups on the same portable drive? Thanks again to all of you..... I sincerely appreciate it. Ray

Time Machine can only be used by a Mac for restoration purposes and won’t help you when you can’t boot into it anymore. You’d need either a thumb drive with the installer or a separate copy of OS X on an external drive from which you can boot (as Taz Mangus said). The choice is yours.

Regarding your last question, I think you can launch from a partition in both cases. I have a 1 TB external drive on which I have 3 partitions, one for files, one with Time Machine and one with an older version of OS X (Snow Leopard). I can boot from the Snow Leopard partition just fine, so I assume it should be possible to do the same with a bootable installer partition. You can try this of course. ;-)

 

[Taz Mangus]

Regarding your last question, I think you can launch from a partition in both cases. I have a 1 TB external drive on which I have 3 partitions, one for files, one with Time Machine and one with an older version of OS X (Snow Leopard). I can boot from the Snow Leopard partition just fine, so I assume it should be possible to do the same with a bootable installer partition. You can try this of course. ;-)

Yes you can boot to an installer image on a separate partition. I have an external hard drive that has 3 partitions, 1 for a bootable Yosemite installer, 1 for booting into Snow Leopard and the last for booting into Yosemite.

 

[Weaselboy]

Or the hard drive is toast or the volume is corrupted.

That is not the case with newer Macs. If the drive dies you can pop in a new drive and command-option-r boot to Internet recovery and download the recovery system itself over the Internet then format the drive and install the OS.

Thanks for the replies...... Please correct me if I'm wrong...... I believe that Time Machine will backup everything including the OS (Yosemite).

You are a correct. TM backs up the entire disk including the OS. If you have a drive failure, you can install a new disk then option key boot to the TM disk and access recovery from there to format the new disk and restore the OS and all your data.

As Taz Mangus mentioned, you can partition the drive and use it for multiple purposes.

 

[crjackson2134]

You are a correct. TM backs up the entire disk including the OS. If you have a drive failure, you can install a new disk then option key boot to the TM disk and access recovery from there to format the new disk and restore the OS and all your data.

Yes, I just booted from a TM backup yesterday. It gives you the recovery tools needed to fully restore a blank drive. I didn't realize that the TM was actually bootable until yesterday. It's a great tool.

 

[Ray&Paula]

Awesome! There are two things that I will definitely do.
1) Use TM as a full backup.
2) Make a bootable copy of OS X Yosemite on a 3.0 thumb drive and/or external hard drive.
Knowing me, I'll probably make a backup of my backup......LOL
I do have another question or two;
1) When you use TM does it back up your media RAID drive/s as well? In my case, I'll have thunderbolt 2 linked to the iMac 99.9% of the time due to video editing. I'm assuming that it would backup whatever you may point it to.
2) How often do you use TM? Can a backup be assigned at a given time?
You folks here at MacRumors are awesome...... and I sincerely appreciate all of your help. Thanks, Ray

 

[Weaselboy]

1) When you use TM does it back up your media RAID drive/s as well? In my case, I'll have thunderbolt 2 linked to the iMac 99.9% of the time due to video editing. I'm assuming that it would backup whatever you may point it to.
2) How often do you use TM? Can a backup be assigned at a given time?
You folks here at MacRumors are awesome...... and I sincerely appreciate all of your help. Thanks, Ray

TM by default will exclude external drives from the backup. Just go into the TM options and remove the external from the excluded list and it will be backed up along with everything else.

By default, TM backs up every hour when the drive is attached. There are some third party utilities I have seen that will allow you to change this, but I have not used any of them so don't have one to recommend.

 

[Ray&Paula]

By default, TM backs up every hour when the drive is attached. There are some third party utilities I have seen that will allow you to change this, but I have not used any of them so don't have one to recommend.

Wow...... That seems like a lot of background running. I'm not sure if that's a good thing while video editing. I do know that on a PC running Sony Vegas Pro that it is a problem especially while viewing in real time. BUT, that's on a PC........ Thanks, Ray

 

[Weaselboy]

Wow...... That seems like a lot of background running. I'm not sure if that's a good thing while video editing. I do know that on a PC running Sony Vegas Pro that it is a problem especially while viewing in real time. BUT, that's on a PC........ Thanks, Ray

Nah... it is pretty transparent and you won't even notice it.. At least I never do.

 

[jbarley]

There are some third party utilities I have seen that will allow you to change this, but I have not used any of them so don't have one to recommend.

I can recommend "TimeMachineEditor", I've used it now for several years over several OS X versions and it has never once let me down.
I've tried many different backup schedules, but for my needs I find twice a day at 8AM and 8PM works well.

 

[Ray&Paula]

Thanks..... Good to know that there are some alternatives if you don't want it running in the background. The real test will be once I get up and running to see if it's not hindering my editing process. Like you said, you don't really notice it therefore it will probably be fine. If not, I'll download TimeMachineEditor and setup a schedule. Thanks for the help and the link. Ray

 

[Ray&Paula]

I have a bootable copy of OS X on a external hard that is just the basic installed Yosemite with DiskWarrior.

Is DiskWarrior software for backing up Yosemite to a thumb and/or hard drive? If so, is this the best solution for doing so? Thanks, Ray

 

[Taz Mangus]

Is DiskWarrior software for backing up Yosemite to a thumb and/or hard drive? If so, is this the best solution for doing so? Thanks, Ray

DiskWarrior isn't for backing up, it is used to repair hard drive structure.

 

[scaredpoet]

Thanks..... Good to know that there are some alternatives if you don't want it running in the background. The real test will be once I get up and running to see if it's not hindering my editing process. Like you said, you don't really notice it therefore it will probably be fine. If not, I'll download TimeMachineEditor and setup a schedule. Thanks for the help and the link. Ray

In most cases, it won't be noticed because you're not doing full backups every hour. Time Machine builds on the previous backups, and only stores changes to your data going forward. This is also how it saves space.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP asked above:
[[ Why should I create a bootable copy of OSX Yosemite? If I have a problem with Yosemite, couldn't I just re-download it from Apple without being charged? ]]

The reason for doing this -- for having a bootable cloned backup close-at-hand -- is because if you ever get into an "I can't boot!" situation, there is NOTHING ELSE which will get you back up-and-running as quickly and easily. Just connect the backup, and reboot.

From that point, you can decide what to do next, but again, the "object" is to get re-booted again quickly from another source.

 

[Ray&Paula]

Thanks for the replies....... It's good to know that once your initial backup has been done through TM, it's only making changes from that point forward. As I stated earlier, I will definitely do the following;
1) Use TM as a full backup.
2) Make a bootable copy of OS X Yosemite on a 3.0 thumb drive and/or external hard drive. Knowing me, I'll probably make a backup of my backup.
Thanks again, Ray