Cloning drive to external & partitioning using Disk Utility.....!

Hi,
I wonder if someone is able to answer my questions and offer some advice and help.....?
I am purchasing a new external drive and would like to know how to clone the internal drive of my Power Mac G4 using disk Utility to the external drive, so that it is also bootable. I have seen that there seems to be more then one way of doing this within disk utility, but would like to know which is the best way?
1. Please could you take me thorough the steps as I have never done this before?
2. Would it be wise to partition the external drive to keep the cloned bootable system seperate from the rest of the content that will be placed on the external drive or not? If so again please could you take me through the steps on how to do this (partition external drive)?
3. Prior to partitioning the drive is it necessary to delete the new external drive even though there is nothing on it? As I read someone that this need to be done, but didn't quite get that!
Any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance

Hello,
Hopefully it'll be an External Firewire drive, as USB cannit be booted from on PPC Macs.
I wouldn't use Disk Utility, there are easier ones for free.
I strongly recommend that you get a good Firewire drive to Clone your Internal drive to...
http://eshop.macsales.com/search/firewire+drives
Many of those come with Backup SW, or...
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/
2. It depends how big the new drive is & how much space is used on the current drive.
OSX loves lots of free space on it's boot drive for VM & other temp files, I don't feel 50% is too much free space to leave.
3. Normally isn't needed to Zero the Drive, but you may have to foprmat it...
How to format your disks...
http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/partitioning_tiger.html
Thanks to Pondini, Formatting, Partitioning, Verifying, and Repairing Disks...
http://web.me.com/pondini/AppleTips/DU.html

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I erased my windows partition using disk utility then realized I should have used boot camp, because now I can't resize the original partition and seem to be stuck with a ghost unusable space. Boot Camp now doesn't give me the option to install or re

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Hi, Ralph,
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Turns out it is possible:
Maxtor Support..
I would use your Disk Management utility within Windows to repartition and reformat the drive. To access Disk Management, right click on My Computer, go to Manage, and then choose Disk Management. Within Disk Management the drive should show in your list of disks (Disk 0,1,2 etc etc). I would delete any partitions that are on the drive. To delete a partition, just right-click on the partition and choose delete. Make sure you’re deleting the correct drive. Once the entire drive says unallocated then the drive should be ready to partition and format. Just right click within the Unallocated Space on the drive and choose the New Partition or New Volume option to set up the drive.
I followed the instructions and everything worked.

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Hey there,
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I have Ubuntu installed on a separate partition on my internal hard drive (using a Hybrid GPT - MBR Setup). Because of this, the Mountain Lion Installer wasn't able to install the Recovery Partition.
What is the best way to get Disk Utility to repair the disk in this situation. I know that I could boot another OS X install from an external hard drive and use that to repair the disk. This is a bad option for me because I don't really have a spare external hard drive that I could use (or partition)... Other than that, I'm clueless
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Unless you install Mountain Lion properly you'll not have a Recovery HD partition. Your options are to install Mountain Lion on another drive from which to boot the computer should you need to use Disk Utility. Or you can try this:
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Resized partition using Disk Utility and now Windows 7 will not boot

Hi,
Hopefully someone can help me!!
I had previously used Boot Camp to install Windows 7. However, I later realised I had not given myself anywhere near enough disk space as I started using Windows for things I hadn't originally planned on using it for.
Anyway, long story short, to solve the problem I uninstalled some applications on my Mac OSX and used Disk Utility to decrease the size of my Mac partition. My plan was then to reboot to Windows and use a Windows application to increase the size of the Windows partition. However - I coudln't even get that far.
Upon decreasing the size of my Mac partition (succesfully) I restarted my Mac in order to boot to Windows. However, I was greeted with a message along the lines of "unable to boot to Windows please insert boot disk and press any key" (I can't remember the exact message).
I was wondering if anyone knows of any way to restore my Windows partition, retaining all of my previously saved files on my Windows disk. It's probably a long shot, but the thought of losing everything I have been working on for the last few months is a sickening one.
What does give me a bit of hope is that, if I click Boot Camp it seems to recognise that Windows 7 is installed as the option that appears is to uninstall it.
Furthermore, if I view partitions in Disk Utility, a "DISK0S4" is listed. However, it's only at 20gb - if this WAS my BootCamp partition previously, it was originally at something around 60gb (I think - either way, definitely bigger than 20gb!).
On top of this, my current Macintosh HD parition is at 260gb and with the DISK0S4 partition at 20.21gb, there seems to be some space missing... I'm hoping this is the files I've been working on over the last few months!
Anyway, I've done some searching on the net and it *seems* that GPT fdisk *might* be my savour. I've downloaded it but have no idea how to use it and don't plan on playing about with it as I could no doubt do some real damage. If it is likely to solve my problem however, I'm certainly more than capable of being walked through what I need to do.
Please help!

Hi Christopher,
I also have problems with Windows rebooting after partition resize trying to reduce Mac side and increase Windows side. I do not see the BootCamp partition labelled as such while running disk utility. The Windows partition shows up when I boot up while pressing the ALT key. However, when I try to run Windows, it says " error loading operatig system".
I also followed instruction and went through to run gdisk successfully. Results towards the end.
What can be done? Windows still does not boot and It shows ? Suspicious MBR at sector 0.
Below is information based on typical questions you ask.
diskutil list
/dev/disk0   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE        IDENTIFIER
   0:              GUID_partition_scheme                        *120.0 GB     disk0
   1:                                           EFI                         209.7 MB     disk0s1
   2:                         Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            78.5 GB     disk0s2
   3:                       Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB     disk0s3
   4:                   Microsoft Basic Data                         31.7 GB      disk0s4
sudo gpt -r -vv show disk0
gpt show: disk0: mediasize=120034123776; sectorsize=512; blocks=234441648
gpt show: disk0: Suspicious MBR at sector 0
gpt show: disk0: Pri GPT at sector 1
gpt show: disk0: Sec GPT at sector 234441647
      start       size            index       contents
          0          1                             MBR
          1          1                             Pri GPT header
          2         32                            Pri GPT table
         34          6
         40     409600           1            GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
     409640 153240016      2            GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
153649656    1269544     3            GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
154919200   17628896
172548096   61892608    4            GPT part - EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7
234440704        911
234441615         32                       Sec GPT table
234441647          1                        Sec GPT header
sudo fdisk /dev/disk0
Disk: /dev/disk0 geometry: 14593/255/63 [234441648 sectors]Signature: 0xAA55
         Starting       Ending
#: id cyl hd sec - cyl hd sec [     start -       size]
1: EE    0   0   2 - 1023 254 63 [         1 - 172548095] <Unknown ID>
*2: 07 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [ 172548096 -   61892608] HPFS/QNX/AUX
3: 00    0   0   0 -    0   0   0 [         0 -          0] unused
4: 00    0   0   0 -    0   0   0 [         0 -          0] unused
sudo gdisk /dev/disk0
GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 0.8.7
Warning: Devices opened with shared lock will not have their
partition table automatically reloaded!
Partition table scan:
MBR: hybrid
BSD: not present
APM: not present
GPT: present
Found valid GPT with hybrid MBR; using GPT.
Command (? for help): r
Recovery/transformation command (? for help): h
WARNING! Hybrid MBRs are flaky and dangerous! If you decide not to use one,
just hit the Enter key at the below prompt and your MBR partition table will
be untouched.
Type from one to three GPT partition numbers, separated by spaces, to be
added to the hybrid MBR, in sequence: 4
Place EFI GPT (0xEE) partition first in MBR (good for GRUB)? (Y/N): y
Creating entry for GPT partition #4 (MBR partition #2)
Enter an MBR hex code (default 07):
Set the bootable flag? (Y/N): y
Unused partition space(s) found. Use one to protect more partitions? (Y/N): n
Recovery/transformation command (? for help): o
Disk size is 234441648 sectors (111.8 GiB)
MBR disk identifier: "DELETED INFO"
MBR partitions:
Number Boot Start Sector   End Sector   Status      Code
   1                               1    172548095   primary     0xEE
   2           *     172548096    234440703   primary     0x07
Recovery/transformation command (? for help): w
Final checks complete. About to write GPT data. THIS WILL OVERWRITE EXISTING
PARTITIONS!!
Do you want to proceed? (Y/N): y
OK; writing new GUID partition table (GPT) to /dev/disk2.
Warning: Devices opened with shared lock will not have their
partition table automatically reloaded!
Warning: The kernel may continue to use old or deleted partitions.
You should reboot or remove the drive.
The operation has completed successfully.

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I have been attempting to partition my hard drive so that I can install windows 7 to my computer (Late 2010 Macbook Pro, 13inch, currently using Mavericks), but Bootcamp was not working for whatever reason. I instead tried to partition my hard drive using Disk Utility, and after getting about half way through the partition process, realized that I had not changed the size of the new partition to the size I wanted (automatically, the new partition takes up half of the hard drive, but I wanted it to take up much less than that). I closed out of Disk Utility in an attempt to cancel the partition process, and a pop up told me that I had "unsaved changes" to the partition that would be lost. Thinking that I wanted to lose the changes, I clicked accept, and exited out of the program. However, now, Disk Utility is claiming that I only have about 12 GB of space left on my hard drive, even though I had over 200GB left before. How do I get this space back?

Last login: Thu Apr 10 18:03:08 on console
wr-130-64-184-253:~ betsyk$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *320.1 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            319.2 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
wr-130-64-184-253:~ betsyk$ diskutil cs list
No CoreStorage logical volume groups found
wr-130-64-184-253:~ betsyk$ mount
/dev/disk0s2 on / (hfs, local, journaled)
devfs on /dev (devfs, local, nobrowse)
map -hosts on /net (autofs, nosuid, automounted, nobrowse)
map auto_home on /home (autofs, automounted, nobrowse)
wr-130-64-184-253:~ betsyk$ df -m /
Filesystem   1M-blocks   Used Available Capacity iused   ifree %iused Mounted on
/dev/disk0s2    304425 274476     29698    91% 70329971 7602931   90%   /
wr-130-64-184-253:~ betsykirtland$

Problems transferring Backups to new External HD using Disk Utility restore

I'm having issues using Disk Utility to transfer my backups to a new disk.
I am transferring data from a 250GB external harddrive to a new completely zero'ed 1TB Iomega external harddrive. Both Harddrives are connected via USB. On my old 250GB HD i have a few folders containing about 100GB of data (raw video footage) that are not in the "Backups.backupdb" folder.
I follow the tutorial in item 18 of the FAQS on this forum exactly (except i didnt check erase destination) but i get an error message each time after about 3 minutes:
"Could not restore - Operation not permitted"
This is what my log says:
2009-12-27 17:12:32 +0000: Restore Disk
2009-12-27 17:12:32 +0000: Source: “Darkers HD”
2009-12-27 17:12:32 +0000: Destination: “Untitled”
2009-12-27 17:12:32 +0000: Erase Destination: No
2009-12-27 17:12:32 +0000:
2009-12-27 17:12:32 +0000: Starting Restore…
2009-12-27 17:12:32 +0000: Validating target...
2009-12-27 17:12:32 +0000: done
2009-12-27 17:12:32 +0000: Validating source...
2009-12-27 17:12:32 +0000: done
2009-12-27 17:12:32 +0000: Validating sizes...
2009-12-27 17:12:32 +0000: done
2009-12-27 17:12:32 +0000: Copying
2009-12-27 17:14:01 +0000: could not copy /Volumes/Untitled/Backups.backupdb/Mac/2009-04-15-054708/Macintosh HD/Applications/Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Professional/Acrobat Distiller 7.0.app/Contents/Frameworks/AdobeACE.framework/AdobeACE; Operation not permitted
2009-12-27 17:14:01 +0000: Bom copy exited with error 1
2009-12-27 17:14:01 +0000:
2009-12-27 17:14:01 +0000: Could not restore - Operation not permitted
2009-12-27 17:14:02 +0000: Could not restore - Operation not permitted
2009-12-27 17:14:02 +0000:
I can see from this that it is having issues with a file in the destination:
/Volumes/Untitled/Backups.backupdb/Mac/2009-04-15-054708/Macintosh HD/Applications/Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Professional/Acrobat Distiller 7.0.app/Contents/Frameworks/AdobeACE.framework/AdobeACE
This file is in the first Backup i ever made and all subsequent backups. So i went and looked at this backup through the time machine application and deleted this file from the backup and all subsequent backups. However when i then did the restore again i got the same error message and when i looked at the log it was identical except it had issues with a different "AdobeACE.framework" file from another Adobe CS3 program. I dont want to go through and delete all these types of CS3 files from my backups for obvious reasons, i would much rather understand what the issue is and know whether there is a way round it.
It may well be simply because i have not checked the "erase destination" box before restoring but somehow i doubt this is the issue as the new 1TB HD has already been "zero'ed" as explained earlier.
Any help would be appreciated guys.

check the box to erase destination. the fact that you zeroed it out makes no difference. this is a known issue and checking that box was recommended for a reason.

To Shrink a filevault 2 partition using Disk Utility, decrypt it first

Just a tip for others: while trying to enlarge a bootcamp partition, I discovered that Disk Utility under Mountain Lion 10.8 will give you a strange (and misleading) error if you try to shrink a partition that's encrypted with filevault 2.
The solution is to turn off encryption, let the drive fully decrypt.
Then reboot (if you don't reboot, Disk Utility seems confused and shows a duplicate ghost version of your drive).
Then use DU to resize the partition.

Click the partioned disk > Hit Erase Tab >
Under "Format" Select "MAC OS Extended Journaled, Encrypted
Click "Erase"
Set Password ..
Done

Restoring Partition Using Disk Utility....

I am trying to restore a partition as an emergency data recovery, and I need to restore the whole partition as-is, so I used Disk Image to create a .dmg. Now I keep running into the error "Could not validate source - Device not configured". The partition is not in an Apple format, but I need it restored none the less. Is there a way to disable the validate so it just simply copies the contents of the Disk Image to my other drive?

Yes i do as well as my old Mac using friends do this also. Having a bootable clone before big updates is a greatest way to save a state of OS X just before a big update! This way if something goes wrong you have a backup to boot or copy back over to your drive. This way you are always safe, bonus that in OS X you can boot from these "clones"!
Time Machine has it place to but to bring it back over you have to have the current install disk to do that.

If leopard won't boot from dvd, use disk utility mount to partition

wanted to share a way that i successfully installed os 9, tiger, and leopard on 1 hard drive. first of all, leopard was the only installation that i had difficulty with. it would not boot off the original dvd, no matter if i held down the 'c' key or the option key, so this is what i did after a lot of reading on the internet to try and troubleshoot this issue.
First thing i did was partition my internal hard drive in 3 partitions using disk utility. the 3rd partition was around 9gb. I installed os9 first on the 1st partition, i then installed tiger on that same partition. then i put in my leopard dvd, and opened up disk utility. and clicked on "restore", and dragged the dvd image as the "source", and chose the 9gb partition as the destination, and clicked on restore. then, i changed the "startup disk" to start from the 9gb where i just restored the image, and rebooted, and went through the leopard setup and chose the 2nd partition as the place to install. this should work with the dvd, or if you made an image from the dvd. I hope this helps someone else whose dvd won't boot, because it was very frustrating after you purchase a faster processor, and faster video card so that your system meets the requirements, and then the dvd won't boot.

Two ways. Use another computer to restore the install disc to one of those ext HD. Then, use it to boot the other machine. Get an ext CD/DVD reader and use it to read the install disc and boot the machine. However, if both the HD and optical reader are kaput, then a trip to an Apple repair station is in order.

Using Disk Utility to partition drive

After downloading a system update yesterday my mac mini hard drive is no longer bootable. The recovery HD is unbootable, too.
When I boot up using the install CD I can run Disk Utility and see that there are no problems reported with the hard drive, but I cannot repair permissions (No valid packages).
If I restore the operating system from the CD my only option is to erase the hard drive.
But what if ...
I create a new partition using Disk Utility?
There's loads of free space on the drive, but if I attempt to create a new partition will I wipe out existing data?
If I succeed in creating a new partition would I be able to restore the operating system there without erasing the hard drive?
Would it be possible then in some way to restore my user account data?
I'm just trying to avoid the hassle of re-installing my applications and recovering my data files from backup. It seems like the data is still all there on the hard drive except that something went wrong during the system update that renders the disk unusable.
Any help appreciated.

Yep, that is too old...
Mac mini
Mac OS X Install Disk 1
Mac OS X version 10.4.7
AHT version 3A102
Disc version 1.1
2Z691-5887-A
Mac OS X Install Disk 2
Disc version 1.0
ZZ691-5860-A

How can you change the primary partition in Disk Utility?

I have made another partition using Disk Utility to install Snow Leopard. On my main partition Lion is installed but when i boot into Snow Leopard and try to delete the Lion partition it comes with an error "This operation requires a newer version of Mac OS X for this disk". I tried deleting the partition from Recovery HD but it says it couldn't unmount the disk.
Is this because Lion is the main partition, can you even delete the main partition?
And if I do delete the main partition will i be able to move the Snow Leopard partition "upwards" in Disk Utility?

ralphfromhome wrote:
1) First of all what is GUID.
It's the "partition map scheme" Apple uses so your firmware knows what is what on your boot drive, what partitions there are and what format they contain.
2) Secondly, would I just be able to make a new image in disk utility and use that instead of an external hard drive?
No, you need something to boot off of and remove all data off the internal drive that's going to be reformatted with a new parttion, that's why you use the free Carbon Copy Cloner, it does both in one shot and it "blesses" the drive to make it bootable.
3) When I use Carbon Copy cloner will it only copy Snow Leopard Installation or all of my files also?
It copies everything in your Snow Leopard partition to the external drive, files, programs the OS everything except whats in the Trash.
4) In your 8th step you mentioned repairing permissions on both. Both of what?
Both drives, the internal and the external clone in Disk Utility (ignore the long list that appears)
It's a safety check to make sure your permissions are set back to original settings, I think the newer version of CCC now does this, but I havent' checked, doesn't hurt to do it again.
5) If you still feel like typing can you tell me how long this whole process might take?
Formatting a external drive
You should Erase with Zero option first, that will take a hour per 500GB
Formatting shoud be rather fast, a few minutes.
Cloning Snow Leopard to the external drive should take about a hour per 500GB
Formatting the internal drive a zero erase first for safety should take another hour per 500GB
Reverse cloning Snow Leopard back onto the internal drive should take another hour per 500GB
Good thing about it, it's pretty much all ciick and go watch TV while it works.
I was actually planning to make a Genius Bar appointment to fix it, by the way does that cost much?
No idea, but you don't have to pay if you get a external drive for $70 or so, CCC is free.
You get to keep the external drive and use it later for cloning as hard drives die all the time, the clone would get you back to using the computer.

Why have my Ext. USB2 HD's Failed to Mount after using Disk Utility in 10.8.1 on Retina Pro

I am having issues with USB 2.0 External Hardrives and my 15inch Retina MacBook Pro running OS 10.8.1. I was able to read write to the drives fine prior to using disk utility to erase and reformat the drives. Both drives show up in the side bar of Disk Utility, but fail to mount. Both drives Verify and Repair without issue, but still fail to mount. I have tried switching USB Ports, powering on/off, etc. I tried seeing them through terminal, but they do not show.
I first lost my Lacie 500GB HD when reformatting it with Disk Utility. I gave me an error message, but I can't remember what it said.
Thinking my drive died, I plugged in a McAlly external USB 2.0 500GB drive that originally worked fine, but then locked the entire computer completely, forcing a power button reset after 10 min of total freeze. Now that drive is unusable as well and fails to mount.
I am unable to Partition either drive because they will not mount.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Chris

I called Apple Support after getting no usuable help through the Apple Forums. The rep felt is was a problem with the two older USB 2.0 drives compatablility with the Retina Macbook Pro's USB 3.0. He kindly offered to send me a Compatable USB 3.0 Drive, but could not offer a solution.
FYI, I tried using different cords and both USB 3.0 ports on my Retina MacBook Pro and both are self powered.
Thanks,
Chris

Can't create a 3rd partition in Disk Utility

Long story short I have used Boot Camp to get Windows, so I have 2 partitions. But, I need to create another partition to install another copy of Windows on it, but Disk Utility has grayed out the '+' to allow me to create a new partition. All I can do is delete the 'BOOTCAMP' partition which I don't want to do. I tried another way by going into Boot Camp Assistant and installing Windows through there. I have a bootable USB drive and I know how to install it, all that's stopping me is the partition issue.
Any ideas?
If it helps, I'm using a Late 2013 MacBook Pro with a 15" Retina Display, 2.5 GHz, 512 GB SSD, 16 GB RAM and a NVIDIA GT 750 M.
Thank you for your help

Good thing to mention that, I forgot to do that.
Unfortunately it did not help.. The screen to remove the existing Boot Camp partition does not pop up, it just tries to create the new Boot Camp partition.
The partition I'm trying to create it 150GB. The 50GB mentioned above was on the stock Fujitsu 250GB disk.
Edit:
I'm actually trying to avoid using Boot Camp Assistant.. I became to dislike the utility due to problems creating a partition on my previous HD.
I would like to create a partition using Disk Utility and then install Windows 7 by selecting that DVD to boot from.
Thank you for the tip though, I'll post it there as well!

Cloning drive to external & partitioning using Disk Utility.....!

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