How do I clone a Cube ?

Question

I've just bought a working Cube, 1.5G RAM, OSX 10.3.9, 20G HDD - and am unable to find an installable version of Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper to clone the OS + applications to a bigger 120G HDD.  Every time I download what I think is old version software I get "failed to mount" or "corrupt image"
Can anyone suggest a remedy ?  Either can you find me a usable cloner or tell me how to do the transfer using the OS or Terminal ?
Dan.

Answer 1

Yes. You should do this while booting from the Cube (that is, boot from the external hard drive connected to the Cube – or put the larger drive inside the Cube before doing the OS upgrade). Swapping a drive into a Cube is extremely easy as long as you have the right screwdrivers. http://www.cubeowner.com will have illustrated instructions.
If this were my Cube or one I were preparing for someone, I'd leave it with 10.3.9 or I'd put 10.5.8 on it.
10.3.9 will feel fast and there are decent email clients and web browsers that will run well in 10.3.9 yet are up to most modern standards. I think 10.3.9 is the best version of Mac OS X for any one-processor G4 Mac that is able to run it. Here's a recent and pretty good blog article on the topic:
http://www.nathanson.org/davesays/2011/best-web-browser-old-macs-panther/
With 10.5.8 you'll have an OS that is still getting security updates from Apple, will allow you to run the latest iTunes and very modern builds of Safari and Mail, at the cost of real and perceived performance. On a non-modded Cube it's also a little tricky to install because 10.5 “technically” requires an 800mhz or faster processor, but the http://www.cubeowner.com site covers workarounds for that pretty well. Even if your Cube is the slightly slower 450mhz model, your maxxed-out 1.5gb of RAM will make a big difference so while Leopard will chug a bit it will not be an unpleasant experience.
10.4.11 will be slower than 10.3.9 yet provide you with relatively few benefits unless using Safari and Mail specifically are very important for you - but they'll still not be terribly modern versions. I think 10.4 was a good OS for its time, but for a stock Cube's specs it's a poor compromise of speed vs modern utulity compared to either 10.3 or 10.5.
You could partition your 120gb drive and install both 10.3 and 10.5. Personally, I think 120gb is small enough (and it's right up against the maximum size possible – 128gb – for a Cube's internal drive) that I wouldn't want to break it down into smaller components.
By the way, if you enjoy older software, the Cube will run Mac OS 9 really well either in the Classic Environment or by booting to it. You don't even have to create a separate partition for Mac OS 9 as long as it's installed on the same partition of a Mac OS X version earlier than 10.5. If you decide on 10.5 for your Cube, you can create a quite small partition for a Mac OS 9 boot volume; 10gb should be more than enough.