How to make a bootable backup on external hard disk?

Hi guys, I want to ask how can make a backup of entire C(windows) drive on my external hard disk.I tried using backup option in my transcend hard drive
software but it gave me some errors..So I used backup option C:>properties and made a backup on my hard disk.But I am not sure if I can restore from it if my windows crashes coz I don't know if I can use this backup file from boot.So here's what I need
1)To make backup in hdd without having to wipe the it.
2)To make the backup bootable incase my windows crashes, I should be able to restore all my C drive..

Hi... I agree with your Number "2". I think that it is much better for you to install a backup tool e.g.aomei backupper (http://www.backup-utility.com/features/) and to forget about any possible troubles at all as the tool will backup everything you need and how you need, creating the whole image of the disk c which you can easily restore in case you have the crash.

Similar Messages

How to make a bootable backup of the operating system

Hi,
I am given the task to make a bootable backup of the OS (Solaris 9). I know I can use ufsdump to backup the system in single user mode. However, to make a backup bootable, shall I backup the file system to a DVD? Any advice will be greatly appreciated!
Cinderella

i call it cloning the disk . you can install boot block as mentioned in second solution of cloning disk
e.g
# /usr/sbin/installboot /usr/platform/`uname -i`/lib/fs/ufs/bootblk /dev/rdsk/c1t2d1s0
################## solution 1 ####################################
dd if=/dev/rdsk/c0t1d0s2 of=/dev/rdsk/c0t4d0s2 bs=2048
############### solution 2 #####################3333
Now this is through but if the disk are from the same vendor (I tested also
dd on disks with different vendors and it function well) and if it the disk
are the same size my opinion is to use the dd command because it is easier
to be done. Anyway if the disk are not from the same size or vendor it could
be done also with ufsdump and ufsrestore. Here how it works and what I did
if your would like to clone a disk with ufsdump and ufsrestore:
For testing we have two disks:
     c1t2d0     (Source Disk)
     c1t2d1     (Destination Disk)
The source disk has the following layout (slice 4 and 5 are for Disksuite
metadb's but are not initialized or configured):
     0 root wm 0 - 634 471.29MB (635/0/0)
965200
     1 var wm 635 - 2014 1.00GB (1380/0/0)
2097600
     2 backup wm 0 - 2732 1.98GB (2733/0/0)
4154160
     3 swap wu 2015 - 2704 512.11MB (690/0/0)
1048800
     4 unassigned wm 2705 - 2718 10.39MB (14/0/0)
21280
     5 unassigned wm 2719 - 2732 10.39MB (14/0/0)
21280
     6 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0)
0
     7 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0)
0
On our testsystem the disk are the same size. Firstable the layout/label
from the source disk must be copied to the destination disk because with
ufsdump and ufsrestore this information will not be transfered to the
destination disk because this commands are based on filesystem. This is also
a difference between dd and ufsdump because dd copies also the information
from labels and layouts because this command is based on blocks and not on
filesystem. Here it is how it wors to copy the information from
layout/label:
     # prtvtoc /dev/rdsk/c1t2d0s0 > /tmp/z
     # fmthard -s /tmp/z /dev/rdsk/c1t2d1s0
     fmthard: New volume table of contents now in place.
The slice 0 from the destination disk has now the same layout like the
source disk. This could be controlled with the command:
     # format
To transfer the information from slice 0 source disk to the slice 0
destination disk the destination disk must be prepared to work on it. It
means at the moment there is no filesystem on this disk. To do this use the
command newfs. No option are neccessary because for default the filesystem
would be ufs. Only the raw device/slice must given to the command that newfs
knows what exactly must be don:
     # newfs /dev/rdsk/c1t2d1s0
     newfs: /dev/rdsk/c1t2d1s0 last mounted as /
     newfs: construct a new file system /dev/rdsk/c1t2d1s0: (y/n)? Y
Now we have a filesystem on slice 0 and we could mount the slice 0. This
would be made with the command mount and option -F for filesystem = ufs and
-o for read or write = rw and at least which slice = 0. At the end of the
command is the device with the slice which must be mounted:
     # mount -F ufs -o rw /dev/dsk/c1t2d1s0 /mnt
Now the device is mounted. With the following command ufsdump 0f = slice 0
and / = partition the filesystem / would be dumped. The whole dump would be
piped (I hope this is the correct english word) to the command ufsrestore
which would be executed in the mounted directory ufsresore and extracts the
dump.
     # ufsdump 0f - / | ( cd /mnt ;ufsrestore xvf - )
     Add links
     Set directory mode, owner, and times.
     set owner/mode for '.'? [yn] y
     Directories already exist, set modes anyway? [yn] y
     DUMP: 405886 blocks (198.19MB) on 1 volume at 406 KB/sec
     DUMP: DUMP IS DONE
After given the command, the partition / from source disk and / from the
destination disk looks based on files absolutly the same but there is a
information which MUST be changed and it is the information in "/etc/vfstab"
because on the destination disk in this file are the information from the
source disk (it means source disk will be mounted on the device c1t2d0 and
the destination diks on the device c1t2d1). This information must be changed
in "/etc/vfstab" on the destination disk:
     # vi /mnt/etc/vfstab
     ---------- /mnt/etc/vfstab ----------
     #device device mount FS fsck
mount mount
     #to mount to fsck point type pass at
boot options
     #/dev/dsk/c1d0s2 /dev/rdsk/c1d0s2 /usr ufs 1 yes
     fd - /dev/fd fd - no -
     /proc - /proc proc - no -
     /dev/dsk/c1t2d1s3 - - swap - no -
     /dev/dsk/c1t2d1s0 /dev/rdsk/c1t2d1s0 / ufs 1
no
     /dev/dsk/c1t2d1s1 /dev/rdsk/c1t2d1s1 /var ufs 1
no
     swap - /tmp tmpfs - yes -
     ---------- /mnt/etc/vfstab ----------
Now we changed the information and the work is done on slice 0. We can now
umount the slice 0:
     # umount /mnt
Proceed with the other slice similar like explained before. In our example
it would be:
     # newfs /dev/rdsk/c1t2d1s1
     newfs: /dev/rdsk/c1t2d1s1 last mounted as /var
     newfs: construct a new file system /dev/rdsk/c1t2d1s1: (y/n)? y
     # mount -F ufs -o rw /dev/dsk/c1t2d1s1 /mnt
     # ufsdump 1f - /var | ( cd /mnt ;ufsrestore xvf - )
     Set directory mode, owner, and times.
     set owner/mode for '.'? [yn] y
     Directories already exist, set modes anyway? [yn] y
     # umount /mnt
Slice 4 and 5 are in our example not importante because this slice as
explained are for Disksuite metadb's and on the source disk there are at the
moment no information and no filesystem because Disksuite was not
initialized or configured.
It is a good idea to check the slices which where transfered files before.
This could be done with the command fsck:
     # fsck /dev/rdsk/c1t0d1s0
     # fsck /dev/rdsk/c1t0d1s1
     # fsck /dev/rdsk/c1t0d1s2
     # fsck /dev/rdsk/c1t0d1s4
     # fsck /dev/rdsk/c1t0d1s5
Now it seems that all what done but something is missing!? The destination
disk looks now like the source disk with one exception; there is NO
boot-block on the destination disk. If you don't create a boot-block the
destination disk would never be bootable. To do this the system where it
must be done must be from the same architecture like the source disk it
means if the source disk is based on sun4m and you give now the command from
a architecture like sun4u to the destination disk the boot-block would not
work. This is what by me happens by the test (source disk based system on
sun4m > to install boot-block I tried to give the command from sun4u based
system and after I tried to boot the destination disk > result = destination
disk was not able to boot). Ok we set now the command for boot-block to the
destination disk to create there a boot-block:
     # /usr/sbin/installboot /usr/platform/`uname -i`/lib/fs/ufs/bootblk
     /dev/rdsk/c1t2d1s0
Now you could boot the destination disk with the correct alias or the
correct device alias. If you don't know what the alias is give on the system
the following command:
     # ls -la /dev/dsk/c1t2d1s0
     /dev/dsk/c1t2d1s0 ->
../../devices/iommu at 0,10000000/sbus at 0,10001000/SUNW,soc@
1,0/SUNW,pln at a0000000,753a58/ssd at 2,1:a
End the OS with init 6 and stop the system reboot if the banner of OBP
appears with stop + A. After that you are on the ok prompt. To set an alias
give following command:
     # nvalias clone1 /iommu at 0,10000000/sbus@
     0,10001000/SUNW,soc@,0/SUNW,pln at a0000000,753a58/ssd at 2,1:a
Use the alias with:
     ok boot clone1
Have fun with you new clone...! I hope I did not forgett something but I
tested it several times and it worked every time absolutly nice with no
errors.

How do I backup an external hard disk ( Lacie ) attached to my Mac to time capsule

I have an 2TB Lacie External Hard Disk attached to my Mac using a Thunderbolt cord.
I recently purchased Time capsule and the Technician setup my Time Machine to backup my Mac.
I want to now Also Backup my Lacie ( external Hard Disk ) to my Time Capsule ??

Open the Time Machine pane of System Preferences and remove it from the list of items set to be excluded. It needs to be formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
(111304)

How can i copy files from one external hard disk to another using macbook pro with retina display

How can i copy files from one external hard drive to another using macbook pro with retina display?

That's odd - if you open Disk Utility (Applications->Utilities) and select the disk(s), how are they formatted? If you're only going to be used with your Mac, they should be formatted as "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)".
Clinton

How to use i pod mini as external hard disk?

please, how is it possible to activate my i pod mini as an external hard disk? @ i tunes? please help i didn't find it out!

thank you for your quick response!!
unfortunately it doesn't work.. there are only following tabs:
- general
- effects
- to import
- to burn
- utilize together
- store
- extended
so, there's no tab named 'i pod', and 'enable disc use' wasn't to find too
kind regards, divi

How to move Pictures/Music folders to external hard disk?

My hard disk is almost full. How do I move Pictures/Music folders in my /Users/myAccount to external hard disk?

For music see this: http://www.macworld.com/article/46248/2005/08/shiftitunes.html.

Time Machine backup of external hard disk

Since it is possible to use my iTunes Library on an external hard disk I wonder if it is possible to include this iTunes Library (on an external drive) into my TimeMachine backup!

Have a read here http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/2.html
Stefan

How to Export pictures from iPhoto to external hard disk? Newbie here! Please help!

Need your help guys. Just bought a new Macbook Pro. Loved using the iPhoto but after managing a lot of my photos, realised that I cannot export an edited photo from iphoto to my external hard disk. I am not sure what iphoto version I am running right now but my Mac is brand new and comes with the pre installed softwares. Whenever I try to export an event, folder or even a picture, I will get this message unable to create/Volumes/FreeAgentDrive/ after going thru the Export process in iphoto. Please help!!!

Your Mac can "read" data from an NTFS drive, but can't "write" files to it.
If you intend to use this drive only on Mac computers, then, use Disk Utility to erase it and format for Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
If you want to be able to write files to the external drive AND still use it with Microsoft Windows computers, then, format it as MS DOS. (Or, on a Microsoft Windows computer, format the drive as Fat32. However, if you use Windows XP, be aware that the largest size you can do this with is 32Gb. Vista and Windows 7 doesn't have this limit.)
Another option, do you have to use an external hard drive? What about a flash drive?

How to make a bootable backup?

I apologize in advance if a)i am not using the right terminology and b)this question has been answered already (i couldn't find it).
I am about to create a backup in which two computers backup onto a single external hard drive. my understanding is that if i have to restore the entire drive, i have to boot the computer with an install disk and then get it to recover from the backup drive. i can only imagine how long a restore will take with a computer running off the install disk.
is there a way to have the backup drive somehow have an OS so i could boot from it so that it is running my computer AND restoring to it at the same time?
Thank you.

yes it's possible but won't speed things up by much. It will mainly speed up the booting time of the backup not the restore process itself. I've done it and I see no difference in time. to do this you can make a clone of the leopard install DVD on your hard drive. create a small partition on one of your internal drives. next insert the install DVD and open Disk Utility. click on "restore" tab. select the DVD as the source (the name not the model) and the partition you've made as the target. click 'restore". Once finished you'll have a bootable copy of the install DVD on your hard drive. You can boot from that and do a full system restore from TM of your main hard drive. Of course this is only needed when doing full system restore. normal restore from TM doesn't require booting from TM and is done simply by activating TM.
P.S. You can also make a bootable clone of your entire hard drive using CCCloner or Superduper! that's a different backup mechanism from TM but is often helpful.
Message was edited by: V.K.

How to make arch bootable after shifting the hard drive?

I have two hard drives, each having an OS installed (Arch on sda, Win on sdb). I change the boot order in BIOS to switch between the OS's, and it works fine. Grub is installed in mbr.
But now I wanna change the connection of these two drives (Arch=>sdb, Win=>sda). After doing that, however, windows is still bootable, while Arch not any more.
I can sucessfully see Grub, but errors occur after that. I'm not sure what I should do to make Arch bootable. Can anyone give me some ideas?

If you can see Grub, then the system is reading it OK, but you'll need to boot the system and fix your /boot/grub/menu.lst and /etc/fstab files to refer to hd(1) and sdb respectively.
To boot the system, you have 2 options:
1) When Grub shows up, press 'e' to edit the "ArchLinux" entry. Then press 'e' again to edit the 'root' line and then change hd(0,0) to hd(1,0) (the second number might be different depending how your partition table is setup). Then you can press 'b' to boot.
2) Use an install CD to boot, then mount your Arch partition and edit the files from there

How do you transfer last backup from external hard drive to a new internal hard drive?

Hoe do you transfer last backup on an external hard drive onto a newly installed internal hard drice?

What utility do you use to make backups?

How to restore library from backup on external hard drive

I am helping my wife move her library to a new computer after the old one crashed. I backed up my wife's music library to an external hard drive by simply copying and pasting all the files in her My Music >> iTunes folder into the external hard drive. When she got a new laptop, I tried placing those same files from the external hard drive into the My Music >> iTunes folder on the new computer (overwriting the few default files that were there), but that didn't seem to work. iTunes does not acknowledge that any songs have been added. I also noticed that almost all of the files say "(protected)", although I'm not sure if that is having an impact on the failure.
Additional information: some of the songs are iTunes purchases and some are from CDs we imported. Because restoring involves more than just iTunes purchases, I can't simply plugin her iPod to the new laptop and use the import purchases feature.
Finally, I see a great deal of information in customer support about restoring from a CD or DVD, but not from an external hard drive, although an external hard drive is mentioned as one way to backup iTunes music, so I believe there must be a valid way. Any literature on that would be helpful as well.
Thank you.

EmmanIsaac,
Do you just want a new drive that can be read by Macs and PCs? I would suggest taking a look at MacMall and shopping for, at least, a 1TB drive (they're cheap these days) and, when you get it, format it as FAT32 on a PC. Then you'll be able (with some limitations) to share the drive on both platforms.
For the limitations on using FAT32, see here.
Good luck,
Clinton

How do I Access purple backups from external hard drive for Time Machine

My hard drive crashed and I installed a new one.
Did internet recovery and upgraded to my previous OS.
I am trying to get my data but the backup is purple that I need and I cannot access it.
How do I do this.
Also if I did something wrong, how do I setup Time machine to restore my whole system and set it up so the backups are accessible instead of purple.
Thanks in advance.
I am using Mavericks
External hd connected with USB

donavonknight
Very impressive that it is that easy but trying to get my data is a pain.
Time Machine is a backup of your computer SYSTEM, not idealized as a data archive.
Consider other options for the future >
Data Storage Platforms; their Drawbacks & Advantages
#1. Time Machine / Time Capsule
Drawbacks:
1. Time Machine is not bootable, if your internal drive fails, you cannot access files or boot from TM directly from the dead computer.
2. Time machine is controlled by complex software, and while you can delve into the TM backup database for specific file(s) extraction, this is not ideal or desirable.
3. Time machine can and does have the potential for many error codes in which data corruption can occur and your important backup files may not be saved correctly, at all, or even damaged. This extra link of failure in placing software between your data and its recovery is a point of risk and failure. A HD clone is not subject to these errors.
4. Time machine mirrors your internal HD, in which cases of data corruption, this corruption can immediately spread to the backup as the two are linked. TM is perpetually connected (or often) to your computer, and corruption spread to corruption, without isolation, which TM lacks (usually), migrating errors or corruption is either automatic or extremely easy to unwittingly do.
5. Time Machine does not keep endless copies of changed or deleted data, and you are often not notified when it deletes them; likewise you may accidently delete files off your computer and this accident is mirrored on TM.
6. Restoring from TM is quite time intensive.
7. TM is a backup and not a data archive, and therefore by definition a low-level security of vital/important data.
8. TM working premise is a “black box” backup of OS, APPS, settings, and vital data that nearly 100% of users never verify until an emergency hits or their computers internal SSD or HD that is corrupt or dead and this is an extremely bad working premise on vital data.
9. Given that data created and stored is growing exponentially, the fact that TM operates as a “store-it-all” backup nexus makes TM inherently incapable to easily backup massive amounts of data, nor is doing so a good idea.
10. TM working premise is a backup of a users system and active working data, and NOT massive amounts of static data, yet most users never take this into consideration, making TM a high-risk locus of data “bloat”.
11. TM like all HD-based data is subject to ferromagnetic and mechanical failure.
12. *Level-1 security of your vital data.
Advantages:
1. TM is very easy to use either in automatic mode or in 1-click backups.
2. TM is a perfect novice level simplex backup single-layer security save against internal HD failure or corruption.
3. TM can easily provide a seamless no-gap policy of active data that is often not easily capable in HD clones or HD archives (only if the user is lazy is making data saves).
#2. HD archives
Drawbacks:
1. Like all HD-based data is subject to ferromagnetic and mechanical failure.
2. Unless the user ritually copies working active data to HD external archives, then there is a time-gap of potential missing data; as such users must be proactive in archiving data that is being worked on or recently saved or created.
Advantages:
1. Fills the gap left in a week or 2-week-old HD clone, as an example.
2. Simplex no-software data storage that is isolated and autonomous from the computer (in most cases).
3. HD archives are the best idealized storage source for storing huge and multi-terabytes of data.
4. Best-idealized 1st platform redundancy for data protection.
5. *Perfect primary tier and level-2 security of your vital data.
#3. HD clones (see below for full advantages / drawbacks)
Drawbacks:
1. HD clones can be incrementally updated to hourly or daily, however this is time consuming and HD clones are, often, a week or more old, in which case data between today and the most fresh HD clone can and would be lost (however this gap is filled by use of HD archives listed above or by a TM backup).
2. Like all HD-based data is subject to ferromagnetic and mechanical failure.
Advantages:
1. HD clones are the best, quickest way to get back to 100% full operation in mere seconds.
2. Once a HD clone is created, the creation software (Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper) is no longer needed whatsoever, and unlike TM, which requires complex software for its operational transference of data, a HD clone is its own bootable entity.
3. HD clones are unconnected and isolated from recent corruption.
4. HD clones allow a “portable copy” of your computer that you can likewise connect to another same Mac and have all your APPS and data at hand, which is extremely useful.
5. Rather than, as many users do, thinking of a HD clone as a “complimentary backup” to the use of TM, a HD clone is superior to TM both in ease of returning to 100% quickly, and its autonomous nature; while each has its place, TM can and does fill the gap in, say, a 2 week old clone. As an analogy, the HD clone itself is the brick wall of protection, whereas TM can be thought of as the mortar, which will fill any cracks in data on a week, 2-week, or 1-month old HD clone.
6. Best-idealized 2nd platform redundancy for data protection, and 1st level for system restore of your computers internal HD. (Time machine being 2nd level for system restore of the computer’s internal HD).
7. *Level-2 security of your vital data.
#4. Online archives
Drawbacks:
1. Subject to server failure or due to non-payment of your hosting account, it can be suspended.
2. Subject, due to lack of security on your part, to being attacked and hacked/erased.
Advantages:
1. In case of house fire, etc. your data is safe.
2. In travels, and propagating files to friends and likewise, a mere link by email is all that is needed and no large media needs to be sent across the net.
3. Online archives are the perfect and best-idealized 3rd platform redundancy for data protection.
4. Supremely useful in data isolation from backups and local archives in being online and offsite for long-distance security in isolation.
5. *Level-1.5 security of your vital data.
#5. DVD professional archival media
Drawbacks:
1. DVD single-layer disks are limited to 4.7Gigabytes of data.
2. DVD media are, given rough handling, prone to scratches and light-degradation if not stored correctly.
Advantages:
1. Archival DVD professional blank media is rated for in excess of 100+ years.
2. DVD is not subject to mechanical breakdown.
3. DVD archival media is not subject to ferromagnetic degradation.
4. DVD archival media correctly sleeved and stored is currently a supreme storage method of archiving vital data.
5. DVD media is once written and therefore free of data corruption if the write is correct.
6. DVD media is the perfect ideal for “freezing” and isolating old copies of data for reference in case newer generations of data become corrupted and an older copy is needed to revert to.
7. Best-idealized 4th platform redundancy for data protection.
8. *Level-3 (highest) security of your vital data.
[*Level-4 data security under development as once-written metallic plates and synthetic sapphire and likewise ultra-long-term data storage]

Unable to backup to external hard disk drive (HDD)

I am a new Mac user. I have been using a Samsung 200GB HDD as an external backup for my old PC and there have been no problems between the HDD and the PC which runs on Windows XP.
However, when I connect my Mac to the HDD, the Mac has Read Only rights for the files in the HDD. When I transferred the files in the HDD to the Mac I could Read and Write. However, I am now unable to transfer the files back to the HDD. The message 'HDD cannot be modified' appears. I have tried re-formatting the HDD but to no avail.
I know this probably has more to do with setting up the HDD correctly than with the Mac but can someone help? Thanks
MacBook Pro2,1 Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Actually FAT32 partitions support upto 2TB. The 32GB limit idea comes from that fact that the windows XP format utility simply does not give you the option for FAT32 for partitions larger than 32GB. The reason for this is after 32GB, the cluster size doubles, and if you have many small files the filesystem loses efficiency, and microsoft basically wants you to use NTFS instead! It is still possible to format using various 3rd party utilities or under other OS's (e.g. Mac OS).
Like the other replies in this thread, if you intend to use the disk only with mac os definetly format it as MacOS Extended. However FAT32 still is the best (and only) fully supported FS across vaious OS's (Mac OS, Window, Linux etc.) - so if you do need to share the drive FAT32 is the way to go. You can format upto 2TB so partition size should be no problem however another very important point is the 4GB filesize limit with this filesystem. FAT32 does not support files larger than 4GB. this should not affect most people, but if you are working with video, you may come across files larger than this... and trying to write such files to FAT32 will simply cause your application (e.g. video editing or backup software) to fail.

Backup on a extern Hard disk

Hi,
If any body can tell me the steps how to take a back on a externe Hard Disk.
and then not of all schema,s.just two schema,s.
Thanx
Navneet kaur

Take an export backup of the database in the externam hard disk
while importing use fromuser and touser option for bothe schema?
other than this i am not very sure

How to make a bootable backup on external hard disk?

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for