How do I backup and reformat my hard drive?

I have a gray loading bar during startup and it forces me to wait 5-10 minutes for my computer to start. This happens during every startup but does not happen when I start up using Windows 7 on my Bootcamp partition. I researched the problem and it told me to run Disk Utility. First, I verified and repaired the disk to see if that was the problem. Disk Utility fixed some errors, but the problem persisted. I verified disk and it said that my disk needed to be repaired. I booted up using my Mac OS X Snow Leopard disk and ran repair disk. It said that I should backup my data and reformat my disk. How do I do this? I've never done something like this before. I know that an external hard drive is required, so I'm prepared to order one. Additionally, how would I also backup my Bootcamp partition? I have researched that and found out about a program called WinClone that backups your partition somehow. I would appreciate it if someone could explain this to me as well. I have a Windows 7 partition. Lastly, how do you format an external FAT32 external hard drive into HFS+? And would you be able to use a HFS+ formatted hard drive on Windows 7 to store data? (Not necessarily backup)
Thanks!

Basic Backup
Get an external 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 not significant):
Carbon Copy Cloner
Data Backup
Deja Vu
Silver Keeper
Retrospect
Super Flexible File Synchronizer
SuperDuper!
Synchronize Pro! X
Synk Pro
Synk Standard
Tri-Backup
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on backup and restore. Also read How to Back Up and Restore Your Files.
Although you can buy a complete external drive system, you can also put one together if you are so inclined. It's relatively easy and only requires a Phillips head screwdriver (typically.) You can purchase hard drives separately. This gives you an opportunity to shop for the best prices on a hard drive of your choice. Reliable brands include Seagate, Hitachi, Western Digital, Toshiba, and Fujitsu. You can find reviews and benchmarks on many drives at Storage Review.
Enclosures for FireWire and USB are readily available. You can find only FireWire enclosures, only USB enclosures, and enclosures that feature multiple ports. I would stress getting enclosures that use the Oxford chipsets especially for Firewire drives (911, 921, 922, for example.) You can find enclosures at places such as;
Cool Drives
OWC
WiebeTech
Firewire Direct
California Drives
NewEgg
All you need do is remove a case cover, mount the hard drive in the enclosure and connect the cables, then re-attach the case cover. Usually the only tool required is a small or medium Phillips screwdriver.
Drive Preparation
1. Boot from your OS X Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (for Intel Macs) or APM (for PPC Macs) then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
Steps 4-6 are optional but should be used on a drive that has never been formatted before, if the format type is not Mac OS Extended, if the partition scheme has been changed, or if a different operating system (not OS X) has been installed on the drive.
When formatting has completed quit DU and return to the installer. Complete the OS X installation.

Similar Messages

Time to Backup and Reformat My Hard Drive... Guidance Appreciated

Hello everyone, I'm hoping for a bit of moral and tech support... I have a 1.8 GHz powerPC G5, currently with 1GB of RAM (I have another gig, but was crashing with it so it's out for the moment). I installed Leopard a few days after it was out and made the mistake of not doing an archive and install. Initially I was having kernel panics, most of my Apple (mail, safari, ical, ichat...) and non-Apple apps were crashing too (quicken mostly). I removed one of my new ram chips and that helped some - the kernel panics seem to be gone, but the apps still crash daily.
As I type this, I'm doing a time machine backup to an external hard drive and am thinking that it's probably time for me to wipe my hard drive clean and do a fresh install of 10.5. So, what all should I do, besides backing everything up, as I reformat my hard drive and start fresh with Leopard?
Thanks for your help. I love so much about Leopard but can't get much done with my applications shutting down on my all the time.

I have just been through this hoop and there are two main options after you have erased and installed:-
1. Reinstall all your apps and data manually. This is the most sure fire way of avoiding problems but the most work.
2. Import apps and data from the Time Machine back up at the end of the erase and install process or with Migration assistant. Less work but you may be reimporting problems.
I actually erase and installed and then imported apps and data from a clone, and it seems to be good so far.
There is an option at the end of the erase and install, before creating a user account, to import user account etc from another machine, disk or TimeMachine. This seems easier than creating a user account and then running Migration assistant to do the same thing. Don't know if there are any pros and cons between these.
It might be worth running the Apple Hardware test from you original install disk to check there is nothing else wrong.

I interrupted a software update and my macbook pro will not boot. I have tried to reboot using the startup disc, I have tried to verify the disc, and repair the disc. It tells me I need to erase and reformat the hard drive then reinstall the operating sys

I interrupted a software update and my macbook pro will not boot. I have tried to reboot using the startup disc, I have tried to verify the disc, and repair the disc. It tells me I need to erase and reformat the hard drive then reinstall the operating system. I do not have a back up of all my applications, my garageband music and other things. I also do not have time capsule set up on this machine, but I do have a 2 TB time capsule.
Is there anyway to back up this corrupted drive so I can restore my applications later?

There's an old saying. If you don't have a backup disc, then there must be nothing important to backup. That's just lesson #1. Lesson #2 is to never interrupt a software update. Not a good thing.
OK, I'm sure you know this. It just upsets me to read your story, knowing you have a lot of important stuff on your hard drive, and didn't use time machine.
You're pretty much in a bad place. My only hope for you is to boot to your Installation Disc, then using disk utility see if you can save the internal hard drive (by fixing what can be fixed). You might be able to see your user folder and some of your apps. I wouldn't even consider copying the library, because who knows what's been corrupted in there.
Good luck.

I have 750gb of photos on external hard drives from my pc. how do I download then to my Mac and reformat the hard drives as backup drives for my Mac?

I have 2 Seagate 1T hard drives that I used as auto backups on my old PC. I now need to organise my photos on my iMac and need to reformat the hard drives to backup my photos again from my new computer.
Does anyone have any suggestions that will help me get there??

First, this article discusses migrating documents to your iMac.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2518
Next, for organization of photos, I use iPhoto, which is part of the iLife suite.
http://www.apple.com/ilife/iphoto/
Next, this thread discusses the formatting of the drive:
https://discussions.apple.com/message/12859938?messageID=12859938
while this page discusses setting up Time Machine which is a pretty easy backup solution that you can use.
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1427
Good luck

How to restore playlists and ratings after hard drive format

Several people have reported problems restoring paylists and ratings after reformating a hard drive. Here is what worked for me and what did not.
I had to reformat my hard drive. Before doing that I exported my playlists from itunes to another hard drive as an xml file. I also copied the folder with all my songs to another drive. (Also of course had it backed up on DVDs.)Then I copied the itunes library files (see url http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93732) to anoher drive.
After reformating my hard drive and installing the lastest verion of ITunes, I copied the actual songs back into a subfolder in my music folder. I then told iTunes to import the subfolder with the actual music. That resulted in a restored library that lacked playlists and ratings.
Don't do this
I purchased Anapod ($30.00) because its web page said (http://www.redchairsoftware.com/anapod/):
"Anapod CopyGear is an easy-to-use, compact utility for copying music tracks, playlists, podcasts, photos, and videos from your iPod back to your PC."
Well, I did transfer 104 playlists back to my iTunes library through the Anapod backup function. However, the transfer also put more than 20 gigs of duplicate songs into the library. All of the songs listed in the playlists were duplicated in iTunes. I could find no way in Anapod to simply copy the ratings and the playlists. Anapod documentation was outdated. For example the online help pages said that playlists could not be backed up. This was confusing because I had just done that.
"In a future release we will be adding the ability to backup your iPod playlists. This will allow you to generate backup files of your iPod playlists on the computer. These files will not be usable on your computer though. They can only be used to restore playlists at a later time on your iPod (assuming it still carries all the audio files referred to in that playlist)." This text is from url http://www.redchairsoftware.com/anapod/support/tome/tx2pc.php#5.1.2
I sent requests to Anapod for help today, but they have not been answered yet. Docs truly did not seem to help. Would have been good if there was a pdf file rather than just an online help html file that seemed outdated.
This worked for me:
I ended up having iTunes wipe out the entire library because of all the dups Anapod made. (Made sure that iTunes only wiped out library and did not delete actual songs from hard drive. Then I had iTunes import my subfolder with songs again. That brought me back to where I was before wasting money and much time on Anapod.
After I had my iTunes library up (without ratings and playlists and after finding Anapod did not meet my needs.
1. I imported the xml file to which I had exported playlists before reformating hard drive. That gave me the playlists back although an error message said some items not copied because the music tracks listed in playlists were not in my iTunes library. --Possibly I deleted songs after playlists were downloaded some time ago to iPod. Importing the xml file is probably not necessary because of what I did below.
2. Quit iTunes
3. Because my song ratings were still missing, I then moved the iTunes library files made by the new version of iTunes into a different folder.
4. Then I put my old version 4 library files into the place where the library files should be.
5. Then I crossed my fingers and restarted iTunes. It took awhile to start and said it was updating my library files. Now I have back most or all of my playlists and ratings.
If problems develop, I will probably wipe out iTunes library and use Anapod to move everything from my iPod into a folder and tell iTunes to import that folder. That approach might avoid the dups that Anapod makes when restoring playlists to iTunes.
So my message is keep your actual songs backed up somewhere (such as DVD's and anotehr hard drive) and keep a duplicate copy of your library files somewhere not on your hard drive. With these items you should be able to restore iTunes library to its former status.
Sorry for the length of this message. Hope it helps someone.

The simple version of above:
iTunes Files to Backup (anytime you make additions or changes to the Music or Library that you want to retain)
1) All music files in their current folder structure (usually located in and under the ‘iTunes Music’ folder)
2) The Library database file: ‘iTunes Library.itl’ located in the ‘iTunes’ folder
3) The Library XML file: ‘iTunes Music Library.xml’ located in the ‘iTunes’ folder
4) Any XML playlist files created for Playlist retention
5) The two iTunes.pref files (optional)
-- C:\Documents and Settings\<your username>\Application Data\Apple Computer\iTunes\iTunes.pref
-- C:\Documents and Settings\<your username>\Local Settings\Application Data\Apple Computer Inc\iTunes.pref
6) The XML file of Ratings, Play Counts and Last Played attributes saved from the main Library and created by Otto’s SaveRatings script (also optional, but recommended):
“Download this: http://ottodestruct.com/itunes/SaveRatings.zip . It's a program, just run it like any other program. Run it on the machine where you're copying the info from BEFORE you move the files to the new machine. Click the "Save Ratings" button and it'll create a ratings.xml file. Now when you move the files, move the program and this file as well. Then after you make your new iTunes library, run it again and click the "Restore Ratings" button. Voila, all your information is back in the Library. Well, most of it anyway, it's not perfect. It'll tell you what songs it couldn't figure out though, and there's usually not very many.”

How can I use Time Capsule for backups and an external hard drive?

I have a large file/program on my iMacs hard drive that is 62GB and I would like to keep only things I need on my iMac. I have a 2tb time capsule currently used for backing up. It has roughly 1.66 TB free. How can I move the 62GB program onto my Time Capsule and still use it for backups? Also, is this stable? And don't worry about backing the program up because it came on 8DVD discs.
Thanks.

1. Mount the Time Capsule as a drive and drag the application over to it. If the application requires system components, those won't be transferred; if those are only data files, you may be able to drag them over as well and then create a symlink or alias to a folder enclosing their current location.
2. The application may work slowly if this is done. Note that Time Machine will eventually use up all the free space on the Time Capsule that isn't reserved by being allocated to a disk image.
(66649)

How do I format and mount a hard drive?

I was successfully using Time Machine to back up my MacBook Pro to an iomega USB portable hard drive. I was doing it the low-tech way by simply plugging the HD into the USB port of my laptop and letting Time Machine run to its heart content. Then I decided to get smart, or dumb. I plugged the HD into a Netgear Router thinking I could use the wireless network to access the iomega for Time Machine backups. That didn't work as well as I expected so I tried to revert back to the old low tech system of plugging the HD into the USB port. Unfortunately, now the disk won't mount and all efforts using disk utility to verify and repair the disk have failed. How do I get back to where I was? Or, have I messed this up to the point where I shoud just buy a new HD at the Apple Store and start from scratch?

Drive Partition and Format
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Apply button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Security button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
The drive should now be properly partitioned and formatted for the Mac. You can now use it as you wish.
Note that you cannot us Time Machine to backup to an external drive connected to a router unless it's an 802.11ac AEBS model. Prior to that model Time Machine was not reliable when used to backup to a drive connected to the AEBS even though it seems to work. You could consider replacing the Netgear Router with a Time Capsule.

How do I backup without an external hard drive?

Well, the first time I asked this question it was deleted as a "rant."
Seriously, how do I backup my iTunes library without an external hard drive? My HD is hanging on for dear life and I've been trying to backup my library. For years, I just used the DVD ROM backup incrementally and it worked well. iTunes 10.xxx decided to delete that option and I'm hosed.
So, how do I backup my library, purchases and apps (without dropping $100 for an external hard drive)?
Secondly, how do I restore my backup DVDs?

Press the eject key, or open a program like iTunes and eject it, or drag the desktop icon to the trash.
https://discussions.apple.com/community/notebooks/macbook_pro?view=documents

How do you erase and reinstall a hard drive without a disc? I bought this mac book pro under a year ago and am pretty sure i downloaded mountain lion from the app store. Basically Im having startup issues and this is the final step Ive reached

when I start my laptop it loads a third of the way and shuts down automaticallyI've tried to safe boot, repairing discs and clearing RAM but nothing has worked. basically I've come to the final step of having to a erase my hard drive and reinstall mountain lion however Apple support suggest that I install from a disc however I installed mountain lion from the App Store. can anyone help me go about this?

Install or Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion from Scratch
Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Erase the hard drive:
1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
2. After DU loads select your startup volume (usually Macintosh HD) from the
      left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
3. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Optionally, click on
        the Security button and set the Zero Data option to one-pass. Click on
      the Erase button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion and click on the Install button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible
            because it is three times faster than wireless.

IMac 5,1 Backup and extension of hard drive strategy

I have an iMac 5,1 500 GB, 20-in running Time Machine on a Seagate 1TB FreeAgent. Both have worked great since I got them. I recently decided I needed a more robust backup strategy and also needed to consider extending my hard drive space. After researching this site, CNET, Amazon and others, I narrowed it down to four including LaCie Rugged 1T, WD My Passport Studio 1T, G-Drive 1T and OWC Mercury Elite. I decided on buying two external drives. One is the 1.0TB (1000GB) OWC Mercury Elite Pro High Performance 7200RPM FireWire 400+USB2 Solution, and the other is 2.0TB (2000GB) OWC Mercury Elite Pro 'Quad Interface' 5900RPM 64MB Cache Solution with eSATA/FW800/FW400/USB2.
My question is, what is the best way to make use of these three external drives to have redundant backup and to extend my hard drive, which is now 40G from its limit? What I want to accomplish is
a TM backup
a clone
a second clone
more usable hard drive space
My thought was to do the following:
Keep TM the way it is with the Seagate 1TB
Partition the OWC 1T such that I can clone onto it and also have some usable space to extend my hard drive
Partition the OWC 2T such that I can clone the iMac and clone the 1T partition that is hard drive extension, if that makes sense.
Am I making this too complicated? Is there a better way? Is it OK to partition an external hard drive for both clone use and extra usable space? Can I clone from the 1T to the 2T as I suggested?
Thanks for your suggestions. This is my first post that I hope doesn't get me thrown off the boards.

I implemented the backup plan I outlined above but have experienced an issue I can't resolve. For some reason, the OWC Elite AL Pro 1T will not boot with the FW400 connection even though it appears in the Startup options. I does not appear as an option when I hold the Option key on startup. If I connect via USB, it works fine and boots as expected.
So, I called OWC Support and they did not have a solution. I decided to return the OWC 1T and bought another 2.0TB (2000GB) OWC Mercury Elite Pro 'Quad Interface' 5900RPM 64MB Cache Solution with eSATA/FW800/FW400/USB2. The other one I bought cloned and booted just fine.
So now I am experiencing the same issues with the new 2T drive that I experienced with the 1T. Connecting via USB works fine, but connecting via FW400 will not boot. The drive is recognized in Finder and otherwise works as expected when connected via FW.
Anyone have any ideas as to solution?
Thanks.

How do I backup itunes to enternal hard drive?

How do I backup my iTune library to an external harddrive? I have never done it before.

The user tip Backup your iTunes for Windows library with SyncToy gives a way to efficiently update the backup with changes over time.
tt2

Log in after buying a new computer and reformatting old hard drive

Hi,
I just reformatted old laptop and bought and new laptop. Both are completely newly installed windows 7. I did not back up my bookmarks from before, but I thought using a username/password, I can relog onto firefox sync and have all my bookmarks restored. I am finding this very difficult since every time I try that, the firefox sync asks me to add a device from the main computer. Well this IS my main computer!!
I have an android phone with firefox and old bookmarks all saved... is there a way to restore my bookmarks from my Android firefox back onto my new laptop?
Thanks

Are you talking about emails?
Because the list of emails is saved in email provider

How to transfer NTFS files to HFS+ hard drive?

I have multiple large video files on NTFS formatted harddrive so read only. I have time capsule backup, and two external hard
drives (1) older WD TB NTFS with 500 GB of video files almost all larger than 4 GB. Have new Seagate 3 TB hard drive. I want to have
both external hard drives formatted HFS+. Set up Seagate with 1.5 TB HFS+ and 1.5 TB FAT 32 with idea to copy over all the
video from NTFS to the FAT 32, then copy them over to HFS+, downsize the 1.5 FAT 32 to zero, and then reformat the WD to HFS+
and viola, all would be in HFS+ and life would be good. Did not know about the 4 GB transfer file limit in FAT 32. Have spent a great deal
of time reading about solutions but everything seems to be built around making NTFS read and write but I want to get everything into
HFS+. I have looked at software solutions (Paragon) for example but it does not seem to be set up to a simply one-way transfer of files from
NTFS to HFS+. I also explored idea of cutting up video files some of which are quite large due to original film but that is both very cumbersome
and also worries me about trying to pull everything back together after transfer.
System Macbook Pro 2011, 8GB---thanks in advance for any suggestions and sorry for such a long posting.
Sandy

I didn't spend hours looking, but video pros on Adobe's forums can't really think of a use for the small index or .scn files. A .avi file is the combined video and audio. It will play on its own.
To test, copy any .avi file from the NTFS drive to an HFS+ drive and double click to play it. I can't think of any reason why it wouldn't work.

How do i reformat imac hard drive and restore time machine backup?

How do I reformat my iMac internal hard drive and restore from a Time Machine backup?
I have an iMac 20" Mid 2007 with a problematic hard drive.
IntelCore 2 Duo, Processor speed 2 Ghz
800 Mhz Bus speed
4 GB RAM
250 GB Western Digital Hard Drive
10.6.3
Was getting a question mark upon booting up, so I booted from a 10.6.3 Snow Leopard CD and ran disk utility. Repair disk was interrupted with an error message. 'Disk utility can't repair disk. Backup files, reformat disk and restore backed up files.'
1. Should I select Erase, Mac OS Extended Journaled, Erase?
2. If I do this, won't I lose my networkability, and therefore lose access to Time Machine backups?
3. If it were you, would you go ahead and replace the hard drive? Not sure I should trust this hard drive!
4. If I need to replace the hard drive, can you send instructions?
Thanks!

Clean Install of Snow Leopard
     1. Boot the computer using the Snow Leopard Installer Disc or the Disc 1 that came
         with your computer. Insert the disc into the optical drive and restart the computer.
         After the chime press and hold down the "C" key. Release the key when you see
         a small spinning gear appear below the dark gray Apple logo.
     2. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue
         button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
         After DU loads select the hard drive entry from the left side list (mfgr.'s ID and drive
         size.) Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window. Set the number of
         partitions to one (1) from the Partitions drop down menu, click on Options button
         and select GUID, click on OK, then set the format type to MacOS Extended
         (Journaled, if supported), then click on the Apply button.
     3. When the formatting has completed quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed
         with the OS X installation and follow the directions included with the installer.
     4. When the installation has completed your computer will Restart into the Setup
         Assistant. Be sure you configure your initial admin account with the exact same
         username and password that you used on your old drive. After you finish Setup
         Assistant will complete the installation after which you will be running a fresh
         install of OS X. You can now begin the update process by opening Software
         Update and installing all recommended updates to bring your installation current.
Download and install Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1.
If you have your Time Machine backup drive connected, then you can use Setup Assistant to migrate your Home folder, application support files, and third-party applications and system preference files. I recommend doing this via the Setup Assistant when the option appears.

HT201250 I have an Time Capsule (1 TB) and do not know how to get my data from it after reformatting my hard drive.

Due to multiple problems with Lion, I decided to reformat my hard drive with Snow Leopard (10.5.8) and now am unable to retrieve my data from my time capsule (1T). I tried to import but ended up with 342 pictures of mainly clip art and downloads from emails. Help. I don't know how to get to the time capsule. When I open time capsule, it shows only the dates since I reformatted on Sunday.

I don't think this helped me! I am afraid to do the Terminal thing if it can't be undone! I cannot afford to lose the time machine backups. When I open the time machine now, it shows only backups from Sunday when I reformatted the disk!!!
I did open disk utility which is as follows:
                              Capacity: 464.8 GB (499,113,885,696 Bytes)
                              Available: 441.6 GB (474,187,837,440 Bytes
                               Used: 23.2 GM (24,926, 048,256 Bytes)
                               Number of Files: 634,969
                              Format: Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
                              Owners Enabled: Yes
                              Number of Folders: 159,926
It gives me the option to restore, but then wants a source and destination. Is this the right place to be? I have Version 10.5.8.

How do I backup and reformat my hard drive?

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for