Bootable backup software

First of all, what's a bootable backup? I have a WD 320GB Mybook (fire wire/usb) backup drive. WD said that their included software doesn't create a bootable drive. I asked them because I told it to back up everything and it did except for 168 files. I guess I want a bootable drive because if I lost everything, I could restore everything? What do you recommend? Is WD backup software enough? If I need a bootable backup software, what free or low cost one would you recommend? Hope that all makes sense?

Hello! AS has been mentioned a "bootable backup" is a "clone" or "exact copy" of your main drive and one that will be bootable in an emergency. It can be on an external firewire drive or it can be on a separate "volume" of your main drive or reside on a secondary physical drive. SD and CCC have been mentioned but you can also use the Apple Disk Utility to produce one following Kappy's advice. Tom
Kappy's Steps to Produce a bootable clone
Prep external FW drive:
1. Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
2. Select the backup or destination volume from the left side list.
3. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (journaled, if available) and click on the Erase button. This step can be skipped if the destination has already been freshly erased.
4. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
5. Select the backup or destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
6. Select the startup or source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
7. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
8. Select the destination drive on the Desktop and press COMMAND-I to open the Get Info window. At the bottom in the Ownership and Permissions section be sure the box labeled "Ignore Permissions on this Volume" is unchecked. Verify the settings for Ownership and Permissions as follows: Owner=system with read/write; Group=admin with read/write; Other with read-only. If they are not correct then reset them.
For added precaution you can boot into safe mode before doing the clone.

Similar Messages

  • Software for bootable backup

    Hi, I need to make a bootable backup of my Powerbook G4 hard drive on an external hard drive. Does anyone know of any free software for doing this?
    What is the procedure for re-copying the backup back to the hard drive? Basically, I want to archive the contents of my hard drive onto an external hard drive. Then, I want to be able to copy the backup copy back to the internal hard drive, if necessary.
    Thanks very much for any assistance.

    Hi John, welcome to Apple discussions! If you already have a Firewire back-up drive, (it has to be Firewire, not USB, as USB will not allow your G4 Powerbook to boot from it), I use "SuperDuper" shareware back-up program - free to try its basic back-up utility and it's easy to use too. Download the program here..http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html Load the program and follow its set-up, in the free to try version, you can only use its full back-up option, but if you wish to use its incremental back-up, you must purchase this..$27.95. Hope this helps, Robert.
    iMac G5, Powerbook G4 12" Mac OS X (10.4.9)
    iMac G5, Powerbook G4 12"   Mac OS X (10.4.9)  

  • Do I need to partition my external hard drive for a bootable backup

    Hi - First, I apologize for asking a question that's already been discussed so much.  I did try to read everything I could, but I remain confused.  Here is my precise situation:
    I have an iMac, and I purchased a year's worth of Carbonite's online backup and breathed a sigh of relief.  Then I read some people have problems with Carbonite, and the best advice was to buy an external hard drive, which I did.  It just arrived, I plugged it in, and Time Machine backed up my computer on it...so I breathed another sigh of relief. 
    Then I read that my wonderful new 2T external hard drive isn't good enough, that I should partition it so as to have one backup, and one "bootable backup."  Is this really necessary?  And what is the difference between a backup, and a bootable backup?  If it is necessary, how do I do it?  Is it a problem that I've already used it to create a backup on Time Machine?
    I use my computer for things like email, Facebook, pictures, eBay, stuff like that.  I have no unusual needs.  My computer is an iMac OS X 10.6.8.
    Thank you in advance for any help you can offer!

    I prefer a clone/bootable backup ovver Time Machine myself.
    For TM you need a running OS, then time to restore, with a clone you can boot from that & keep working while doing the other when time is better. And you can test a clone before you need it.
    Get carbon copy cloner to make an exact copy of your old HD to the New one...
    http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html
    Or SuperDuper...
    http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/
    You would need to Partition your drive though.
    How to format your disks...
    http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/partitioning_tiger.html
    (To Install OSX on an IntelMac the Drive it needs the GUID Partitioning scheme mentioned at the bottom.)
    Thanks to Pondini, Formatting,  Partitioning, Verifying,  and  Repairing  Disks...
    http://Pondini.org/OSX/DU.html

  • Need help setting up automatic bootable backup

    Hello
    I need to set up a bootable backup on a second drive on a G4 XServe running OS X Server 10.3.9. This has to run automatically when no user is logged in to the server, so as far as I can tell, commercial backup software will not run. I'm hoping there's a command line way to do this, that can be invoked as a cron job. In poking around, perhaps ditto or rsync can be used for this, but I'm not familiar enough with these commands to even try. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
    G4 XServe   Mac OS X (10.3.9)  

    You can use rsync for sync'ing or ditto for a complete clone (among other options)
    But here's an anternative.
    http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html
    This new vesion of SuperClone is a good solution (previous versions were more limited in use)
    It handles smart-updates (syn) and scheduling just fine.
    Here's the only catch when running it on a server.
    It creates the schedule by adding a user cron job which calls an Applescript.
    Because this is a user cron job, it only works when that user is logged in.
    The author tells me that if you create the schedule while logged in as the root user, that it will work just fine without a user logged in. (cron job is root)
    You could probably do the same by just moving the cron from user to root.
    Jeff

  • In need of backup software

    Hello there. Does anyone have a recommendation for good backup software? I need something that can syncronize some of my folders to an external hard drive. Thank.

    My personal recommendations are (order is not significant):
    1. Retrospect Desktop (Commercial - not yet universal binary)
    2. Synchronize! Pro X (Commercial)
    3. Synk (Backup, Standard, or Pro)
    4. Deja Vu (Shareware)
    5. PsynchX 2.1.1 and RsyncX 2.1 (Freeware)
    6. Carbon Copy Cloner (Freeware - 3.0 is a Universal Binary)
    The following utilities can also be used for backup, but cannot create bootable clones:
    1. Backup (requires a .Mac account with Apple both to get the software and to use it.)
    2. Toast
    3. Impression
    4. arRSync
    Apple's Backup is a full backup tool capable of also backing up across multiple media such as CD/DVD. However, it cannot create bootable backups. It is primarily an "archiving" utility as are the other two.
    Impression and Toast are disk image based backups, only. Particularly useful if you need to backup to CD/DVD across multiple media.
    Why reward points?(Quoted from Discussions Terms of Use.)
    The reward system helps to increase community participation. When a community member gives you (or another member) a reward for providing helpful advice or a solution to their question, your accumulated points will increase your status level within the community.
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  • Need backup software for Seagate external hard drive

    I need a little handholding here. I have an iBook G4 running 10.4.10. My husband bought me a Seagate external hard drive to use to back up the hard drive on my iBook. The only problem is that I don't think the external hard drive came with any software. I'm looking for something that I can set once that will automatically back up my hard drive periodically. Does such a thing exist?
    Thanks for any advice you can provide.

    Hi there-
    Most good backup software allows you to schedule backups. I've tried a number of programs and the two best I've found are SuperDuper and Synk.
    Both are very user-friendly--good for simple folks like me.
    http://www.decimus.net/
    http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html
    SuperDuper is my favorite because it easily allows you to "clone" your hard drive, giving you a bootable backup in case the worst happens to your computer and you need to restore everything. It's MUCH faster than reinstalling everything. You need to make sure your external hard drive is capable of being booted from, however.
    Synk is also very user friendly and you can try it for 30 days for free. I would highly recommend either of these.
    Hope this helps.

  • What is a bootable backup and do i need one? what are partitions good for?

    hello,
    please excuse my ignorance...
    i just got a new lacie external firewire hard drive and it has some software which i was wandering if i have any use for... - SilverKeeper and LaCie Backup Software. i'm not sure if they can give me anything that time machine doesn't do better... SilverKeeper gives the option of cloning a bootable backup. i'm not exactly sure what's the advantage of this and in what case i may need it.
    when i got my last computer i was able to transfer everything from the old computer, including applications, to the new one without having to find all the serial numbers and reinstall them. i thought that time machine will be able to do the same thing if i lose all the data on my computer. is that not so? is that what a bootable clone is for? or what is it for?...
    my other question is what are the advantages of making partitions in my new drive (i understand i have to if i want a bootable backup, but is there any reason to partition otherwise?
    thanks!
    dannah

    SilverKeeper gives the option of cloning a bootable backup. i'm not exactly sure what's the advantage of this and in what case i may need it.
    A bootable backup is an exact copy of your hard drive's contents on another drive, that can be used for booting up the machine. The advantage of a bootable backup is that, in the event something bad happens to your internal drive, you can very quickly get up and running with the backup drive, and can copy that back to a replaced/fixed internal drive very quickly. Time Machine backups are not bootable.
    The disadvantage of a clone of any kind, bootable or not, is that there's only one version of any particular file stored. So if a file gets damaged and then backed up, you're pretty well screwed with the clone, while Time Machine stores many versions of the file, so you just "roll back" to the last working copy.
    when i got my last computer i was able to transfer everything from the old computer, including applications, to the new one without having to find all the serial numbers and reinstall them.
    Bad idea... while this will work for most apps, different machines have different architectures, so some apps may not be installed correctly for the new machine, plus you may not have properly copied some components. You should have reinstalled them.
    i thought that time machine will be able to do the same thing if i lose all the data on my computer. is that not so?
    If you have Time Machine back up the entire hard drive, without excluding anything, then Time Machine should be able to restore your drive to exactly the way it was at any particular moment in time at which it made a backup, including apps, system files, preferences, etc.
    my other question is what are the advantages of making partitions in my new drive (i understand i have to if i want a bootable backup, but is there any reason to partition otherwise?
    You do not have to partition to make a bootable backup. However, you'll be using the entire drive... trying to store additional files on the same drive as a bootable clone is confusing at best. Using a partition allows you to create multiple "virtual" drives... say, one for a bootable backup, one for a Time Machine backup, one for movie files, etc. Of course, this is only advisable if the drive is much larger than the one you're backing up, and note that if you store original files on a partition (like a bunch of movie files), you need a backup of those somewhere else.
    Time Machine will want it's own full drive or partition to play with, which should be larger than the drive being backed up, and will eventually fill it. A bootable clone probably also should go onto its own partition, but you wouldn't need to make this partition larger than the drive being cloned. Other than that, don't worry about partitioning unless you have a specific need.

  • Bootable Backup First Timer

    I want to make a bootable backup of my computer on a external drive. How do I do it with the disk utilities that come with my imac? I've read about Super Duper but I thought I read somewhere that I can do this with my disk utilities. I already have data on the external drive and I didn't partition it when I got it, so is there a way to do a backup without erasing what's on the external drive already?
    Also what about Carbon Copy Cloner? Has anybody had good results? I'm trying to do this as cheap as possible. ( I know $27.99 is cheaper than a hard drive migraine, but I'd like to try my options first.)
    Thanks

    *Hi tedzig, Welcome* to Apple's Users Help Users Forums.
    If there is room on the internal HD, you could copy to it from the external and then be free to reformat. You have excellent helpers already.
    To help you along the way, here are the SD and CCC sources.
    http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html
    Purchase at $27.95 will allow smart backups that look at the bu files and only move over new ones. It's quick at ~7 mins to change ~1 gig out of 20.
    Be sure to test that the clone boots and apps behave properly.
    Here are other popular cloners.
    http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html
    http://www.prosoftengineering.com/products/drivegeniusinfo.php?PHPSESSID=909c070fb2e13b35097fa9cc1340bfc0
    Good Luck, JP

  • What is on a bootable backup disc?

    While I'm pretty sure what a bootable disc is...( I think) It allows one to startup their computer in cases where for whatever reason their computer is not responding. I've read in the discussion pages that I should have a bootable backup for when I update software . So my question is what is on a bootable backup disc? and for that matter what is generally on any backup disc and what kind of disc is used? Sorry to seem so dense but I'm not very techno-savvy as you can obviously tell by my questions.
    Thanks in advance for your help

    Hi jopaglke,
    Your first and most safely reliable boot disc is your Mac's original install DVD. It has Disk Utility on it, and Terminal, and the Hardware Test!
    Personally I also keep a duplicate of my Mac's original install DVD, just in case.
    - With Disk Utility, create an image of it while it's inserted. Choose "CD/DVD Master" kind of image, the one that ends with .cdr (not .dmg), and burn it on a blank DVD.
    This works for those whose original DVD is small enough in size.
    Another safe and handy solution:
    - partition your external hard drive
    (you DO have an external for backup purposes, right?),
    and assign 10 GB to one of the partitions where you'll install (Custom-Install)a light version of your original OS.
    You can perform the Software Update updates, and install your favorite utilities on it
    (TechTool Pro, DiskWarrior etc)
    so this bootable partition will be always ready for an option-boot (alt-boot) in case of a problem.
    For those who own an original DVD that exceeds usual blank DVD sizes, the partition solution is the other simple and genuine one still possible.
    Then there are bootable discs solutions by third-party softwares that you can buy (some of them are really good utilities).
    Axel

  • The best backup software for mac os 10.4.8?

    Hi,
    I'm new on mac, I just got tired of PC and windows so I decided to make a change, a really good change.
    First of all to say that I've been looking for an answer of this question around the forums, but havn't got what I'm looking for. What I've found is that people prefere freeware, I just want good stuff.
    I'm not sure if this is the right forum to place my topic, but is not a bad one either.
    Anyway, here is my question.
    I need to clone and do incremental backups, but I have to be extremely sure that the software I use is completly trustfull and secure, so I do not care if I have to pay 100€ (not much more thouh), just want to be sure I get everything works right.
    I also prefere software that only does clone and backups than a multitask soft.
    Well, if u have any question just ask, u're the ones who really know about this things.
    Thanks, everything is wellcome here.

    You will find information on backup in this:
    Kappy's Personal Suggestions for OS X Maintenance
    For disk repairs use Disk Utility. For situations DU cannot handle the best third-party utilities are: Disk Warrior; DW only fixes problems with the disk directory, but most disk problems are caused by directory corruption; Disk Warrior 4.0 is now Intel Mac compatible. TechTool Pro provides additional repair options including file repair and recovery, system diagnostics, and disk defragmentation. TechTool Pro 4.5.2 is Intel Mac compatible; Drive Genius is similar to TechTool Pro in terms of the various repair services provided. The current version, 1.5.1, is Intel Mac compatible.
    OS X performs certain maintenance functions that are scheduled to occur on a daily, weekly, or monthly period. The maintenance scripts run in the early AM only if the computer is turned on 24/7 (no sleep.) If this isn't the case, then an excellent solution is to download and install a shareware utility such as Macaroni, JAW PseudoAnacron, or Anacron that will automate the maintenance activity regardless of whether the computer is turned off or asleep.
    OS X automatically defrags files less than 20 MBs in size, so unless you have a disk full of very large files there's little need for defragmenting the hard drive. As for virus protection there are few if any such animals affecting OS X. You can protect the computer easily using the freeware Open Source virus protection software ClamXAV. Personally I would avoid most commercial anti-virus software because of their potential for causing problems.
    I would also recommend downloading the shareware utility TinkerTool System that you can use for periodic maintenance such as removing old logfiles and archives, clearing caches, etc.
    For emergency repairs install the freeware utility Applejack. If you cannot start up in OS X, you may be able to start in single-user mode from which you can run Applejack to do a whole set of repair and maintenance routines from the commandline.
    When you install any new system software or updates be sure to repair the hard drive and permissions beforehand. I also recommend booting into safe mode before doing system software updates.
    Get an external Firewire drive at least equal in size to the internal hard drive and make (and maintain) a bootable clone/backup. You can make a bootable clone using the Restore option of Disk Utility. You can also make and maintain clones with good backup software. My personal recommendations are (order is significant):
    1. Retrospect Desktop (Commercial - not yet universal binary)
    2. Synchronize! Pro X (Commercial)
    3. Synk (Backup, Standard, or Pro)
    4. Deja Vu (Shareware)
    5. PsynchX 2.1.1 and RsyncX 2.1 (Freeware)
    The following utilities can also be used for backup, but cannot create bootable clones:
    1. Backup (requires a .Mac account with Apple both to get the software and to use it.)
    2. Toast
    3. Impression
    4. arRSync
    Apple's Backup is a full backup tool capable of also backing up across multiple media such as CD/DVD. However, it cannot create bootable backups. It is primarily an "archiving" utility as are the other two.
    Impression and Toast are disk image based backups, only. Particularly useful if you need to backup to CD/DVD across multiple media.
    Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQs on maintenance, optimization, virus protection, and backup and restore.
    Additional suggestions will be found in Mac Maintenance Quick Assist.
    Referenced software can be found at VersionTracker or MacUpdate.
    Why reward points?(Quoted from Discussions Terms of Use.)
    The reward system helps to increase community participation. When a community member gives you (or another member) a reward for providing helpful advice or a solution to their question, your accumulated points will increase your status level within the community.
    Members may reward you with 5 points if they deem that your reply is helpful and 10 points if you post a solution to their issue. Likewise, when you mark a reply as Helpful or Solved in your own created topic, you will be awarding the respondent with the same point values.

  • I'm wondering about bootable backup strategies

    I'm wondering what people use and recommend for backup strategies, and especially the utility of "bootable" backups.
    I have an early-2011 15" MBPro, running fully updated Yosemite.  My computer is apparently one of the "victims" of the recently publicized graphics system problems that has resulted in Apple's recent out-of-warranty repair offer for machines in this category.  Over the past 10 months my machine has been in for repair 4 times, resulting in the replacement of my display, main logic board (x 3!!) and hard drive.  These 4 repairs were the result of incidents that started with the screen graphics going crazy and ending, eventually, in an un-bootable state.  Two of the 4 times I was returned a working machine with a clean new-install of OS 10.  (all "free" I might add, thanks to still being on Apple Care when the whole process started!)  Hopefully, my last repair will "do the trick" as it was AFTER Apple's announced repair offer for these machines.  My Apple Store "genius" opined that this time my main logic board was probably an "improved" item, since the first two replacements didn't solve the problem.
    So twice in the recent past I have had to completely restore my machine from my Time Machine (to Time Capsule) back-up.  Both successful, thankfully!  But this experience has focused my attention very sharply on my backup strategy, and made me wonder how "exposed" one still might be with "just" a Time Machine backup.
    Talking informally with several more knowledgeable and experienced "Mac" people that I know, I discovered that many people don't rely on Time Machine, at least not solely.  I was persuaded that the really most secure situation is to have a second back-up, preferably a bootable "disc image,"  stored on a separate device (and maybe preferably off site).
    So, I've been looking into the options, services, etc..  There are MANY!  I love the ease, automaticity and utility of having a Time Machine back-up.  But I'm wondering, for those (probably few) out there that do something MORE than that: what back-up strategies do you use?  Is is POSSIBLE to have a "bootable" backup on an online/cloud device (maybe not)?  What systems work well and are complementary/supplementary to Time Machine? 
    I know, from my own experience, that HAVING a backup is fairly easy.  But I've also learned that RESTORING a backup (mine's around 400 GB) is NOT "easy", at least very time consuming, and probably fraught with potential problems which won't appear until it's too late to do something else!  So I'm particularly looking at the restoration features of backup software and services.  Frankly, those are often largely ignored in the promotions, which mainly focus on how easy it is to DO the backup but never talk much about doing the restore!!
    Any and all opinions are welcomed.  I am definitely considering some redundancy in my backups after "dodging the bullet" twice in the last 3 months!

    ... how "exposed" one still might be with "just" a Time Machine backup.
    Just one backup isn't enough. Two or more are preferable. Time Machine can back up to as many external devices as you wish. Purchase two or more inexpensive USB hard disk drives and store one of them offsite at all times. Time Machine will back up to each one "in rotation" when they're available. If the backup device it's expecting isn't available, it looks for the next one, etc.
    If you want to augment Time Machine with another backup strategy, consider "clone" software such as Carbon Copy Cloner. It will create bootable copies of your existing installation if you consider that a valuable option.
    "Bootable" is fine but not really necessary. Consider the possibility in which it's impossible to boot your Mac for whatever reason, or if should happen to be lost, stolen, or irreparably damaged. Consider the circumstances applicable to the way you use your Macs that might cause that event. If your disaster recovery plan addresses that contingency, it's a good plan. Recovering 400 GB is going to be time consuming no matter what method you use. An external HDD with a Thunderbolt interface would be fastest, followed by USB3, followed by USB2, followed by a directly connected (Ethernet cable) Time Capsule, followed by a wireless Time Capsule — for which a TM restoration might take an unacceptable amount of time (days).
    Obviously I don't know the circumstances of the repairs you required, but I question the necessity to replace the hard disk. It's possible the same one could have been re-used, saving you the inconvenience of having to perform a restoration.

  • Bootable backups - disk utility and which external drives

    hi all
    (maybe) a simple question
    i have been using time machine for my back ups but i am now planning to have a second backup program. i'm looking at using a bootable clone in this regard.
    i started looking at super duper and ccc however a few stumbling blokes have just popped up (well at least warning signs that may be of no issue at all - hence this question)
    * can ALL external drives be used for bootable backup purposes?
    I have a couple of western digital ones - my book essential and my passport.
    On the western digital website, it does not have my model numbers listed - does it matter?
    Is it a case of any usb connected external drive can be used for intel macs? - i am getting conflicting views on various postings i have seen re this question
    second part/question is:
    i also understand disk utility can be used for cloning (no updates, just full clones) and as a bootable back up.
    if, just for the purposes for having a back up bootable drive, can i set up a clone without too much regard for recloning it (say every 2 months) and if i need to use it, then boot the mac back up with it and then do a full restore using my up to date time machine backups? am i missing something with that method? is that too simple?
    feedback much appreciated on these 2 areas
    cheers
    peter t

    Crows2012 wrote:
    1) there is no way to make a BOOTABLE clone using disk utility or time machine whatsoever, right? DU will only allow me to make clones and Recovery HD essentially allows me to restore the system (ie software) AFTER booting up?
    Correct with respect to TM; all you get is a copy of the Recovery HD.
    Disk Utility will make a bootable clone, but there are downsides.  First, it can only do a whole copy;  unlike a specialized cloning app, it won't copy just what's new or changed, so takes a long time.  Second, as I understand it, it won't copy to a smaller volume, even if there's plenty of free space on the internal.  For example, if you have a 1 TB internal with only 400 GB on it, DU won't copy it to a 500 GB drive.  I may be wrong, but I've seen that posted here by folks who seem to know.
    does file b here mean aliases of file b in each backup?
    It acts sorta like that, but no.
    There's one copy of the actual file, but two hard links to it, one in each folder.  The file actually "belongs" to both folders at the same time!  The good part of that is, if you delete either backup folder, the other one remains intact.  The downside is, how the heck do you count the size of each folder accurately?
    that was a great read to understand TM workings and attain some level of piece of mind re my question of incremental v differential backups
    It is a bit hard to get your head around!    I've been revising and editing that for several years trying to make it clear.
    And remember, this only applies to TM as far as I know, at least for consumer-level backup apps.
    While it may be possible to boot your computer to an external hard drive, Western Digital does not provide technical support for booting your computer using an external hard drive. If you intend to make a copy of your boot drive, or install your operating system, please use a second internal drive (EIDE or Serial ATA), rather than an external drive.
    Yup.  WD doesn't exactly have a good reputation for support. 
    i guess i'll trial CCC or SD and see what happens with the drives that i have re BOOTABILITY
    I use CCC myself -- it's a great product with great support.
    I downloaded SD a couple of times, but never got around to experimenting with it.  Lots of folks swear by it, and say it also has excellent support.  To a large degree, it just seems to be a matter of which approach and GUI you prefer, but CCC does allow "archiving" of changed and deleted stuff (differently from TM), and can copy Recovery HDs.  I don't think SD does either, but it may have other advantages.
    4) and, i think one final question, and a simple/naive one at that.....if my internal hard drive physically collapses then what are the benefits of that bootable clone v not having one?
    You can start up from the clone and run normally (but likely a bit more slowly), although you probably won't be as up-to-date as you would after restoring to a new or repaired internal, or an external, from TM.  The reason is, running a clone backup, even an incremental one, takes much longer and far more CPU than one of TM's quick incrementals, which it will do hourly if you let it.  Few folks using a clone for an OSX drive do it more than once per day, many only once a week. 
    The downside is, if you run from the clone, you no longer have a backup -- the clone has the only copy of your stuff.  That's one reason many folks who use only a cloning app have two (or more) externals with them.
    Apart from (obviously) being able to start up immediately to do whatever i wanted to do at the time, after i replace the hard drive (if that was to be the case) are there further expenses or much inconvenience suffered due to not having a bootable drive in getting things all sorted internally on the mac? what is the process in that regard, generally speaking
    Just clone the external to the new internal, and you're back in business.
    thanks heaps for your time to answer these and previous questions and to build up my understanding of these topics
    You're quite welcome. 

  • Laptop to run bootable backup

    I have an Intel iMac running 10.6.8. I've made a bootable backup using CCC that connects via USB. I'm looking for a used or refurbished laptop that can start up and run from the bootable backup. Does the laptop have to be running 10.6.8? What other specifications does it need to meet? TIA

    Okay, things are becoming clearer - but also not because: what you are wanting to do actually violates the SLA (software license agreement) which states that you can run it on one computer and are allowed a backup. However, if you want to use that backup to run another machine, it then becomes a violation. And, according to the ToU here, we are not allowed to discuss anything like that, sorry.
    2. Permitted License Uses and Restrictions.
    A. Single Use License. Subject to the terms and conditions of this License, unless you have purchased a Family Pack or Upgrade license for the Apple Software,you are granted a limited non-exclusive license to install, use and run one (1) copy of the Apple Software on a single Apple-branded computer at a time. Youagree not to install, use or run the Apple Software on any non-Apple-branded computer, or to enable others to do so. This License does not allow the AppleSoftware to exist on more than one computer at a time, and you may not make the Apple Software available over a network where it could be used by multiplecomputers at the same time.

  • Best backup software?

    Best backup software that will make a clone?

    Kappy wrote:
    Backup Software Recommendations
    Carbon Copy Cloner
    Data Backup
    Deja Vu
    SuperDuper!
    Synk Pro
    Tri-Backup
    Others may be found at VersionTracker or MacUpdate.
    Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on backup and restore.  Also read How to Back Up and Restore Your Files.
    Don't forget that you can make full clones with the Restore option of Disk Utility.
    Which of these (other than Synk, which I have) will make a bootable clone?  And, are they all compatible with OS10.8, Mountain Lion?
    Thanks!
    Message was edited by: GeneMike

  • Suggestions for Backup Software

    Hi, I am looking for backup software that is easy to use, with full backup each time and that is reasonably priced - your recommendations. Thanks - Bob61

    Hi
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    Hi Bob61
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    and really like it. It's priced at around $29 and as
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    looking for. You can get it here:
    http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/13803
    Good luck and happy new year!
    Rick

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