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.

Similar Messages

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

Creating a bootable backup for upgrade to Lion

I've read some articles and watched some videos on how to create a disk of my drive from the disk utility. Is that a good way to create a bootable backup of my Mac Mini? I also want to have all my applications transferred over to Lion, though I know how to do that in the installation of the OS. But I want a fresh install over Snow Leopard and reinstall my apps from that bootable disk, again is that possible? If this can work, how can I know for sure if the backup works?

Spinland wrote:
Then what CSound1 said: use CCC to clone your drive to another disk for safekeeping, then install Lion and enjoy. All of your apps will still be there after the upgrade.
Have you checked to make sure your apps are Lion compatible? This guide can help you find out:
http://fairerplatform.com/2011/07/are-your-apps-lion-compatible-how-to-check/
Hi Spinland
That is not what I said exactly ......
1 Clone the SL (internal) to the external.
2 Boot from the external and install Lion on it.
3 Run Lion from the clone until you know it works (and you can identify any incompatible apps).
4 Clone the Lion external back to the internal.
5 You're done.

Can't reboot to my bootable backup.

Two days ago I received my new Mac Mini, which is replacing my five-year-old iMac. So far I'm very pleased, with two minor issues just barely dampening my enthusiasm:
1- The video has "blinked out" a few times. I'm running video via HDMI->HDMI, and I understand this is a fairly common problem generating a lot of user reports here in the forums. I've only seen it three or four times in the two days I've had my Mini, and the "out" time is very brief, about a second, so I can live with this until Apple issues the expected fix.
2- More serious issue: When I attempt to boot from the bootable backup I created on an external drive, I get the following:
"You can't change the startup disk to the selected disk. Building boot caches on boot helper partition failed."
I can't restart to my external drive using the preference pane. I can reboot while holding the option key and then choose the external drive, but the Mini never fully boots after that; it just keeps spinning away on the grey Apple screen forever until I shut it down.
Any help here would be appreciated, as I don't feel fully comfortable with my data hostage to a single physical device. I'm sure all my personal data is there, but I'd like to be able to get at it by booting from that external drive should the drive* inside my Mini fail.
Do I need to install Mountain Lion directly onto the external drive to create the "boot helper partition" and then use rsync to complete my bootable backup? Because all I did was format the drive and then use rsync, which is what I've been doing for years now to create bootable backups.
* = Technically it's two drives, as I have the Apple-installed Fusion Drive. But it is one volume.

D'oh!
The external I'm using is a new virgin drive. I had never installed any version of OS X on it before. So yes, it was missing the behind-the-scenes/under-the-carpet magic. I suppose I could have installed Mountain Lion over its contents, but I just did a Carbon Copy Cloner clone operation instead, which has done the trick. I should be able to rsync for my backups to it from here on out.
Thanks, BD and Linc. Sorry to have wasted your time. I should have known better than to have just partitioned, formatted, and started the rsync backups without first either doing a proper volume clone or an OS X install.
Best wishes,
John H

Can't erase anything on an external hard disk partition of bootable backup ____error message -50 "Error in user parameter"

I am using MACOSX 10.6
The data on the disk partition on my Iomega 2Tb external hard disk drive (labeled "Bootable Backup") was written by Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC ver. 3.37)
I have had problems with overwriting this using CCC, and I have also had troubles changeing the data on my "Versioned Backup" partition, using either CrashPlan or CCC
A third partition that was virgin ("Half-Tb Volume") on the same external disk drive, however, DID accept the latest CCC bootable backup of my Macintosh HD...which is the reason I want to recover rthe space on the first bootable backup partition.
I have not found any links to this error using Google search, apart from the definition.
Anyone

Do a backup using Time Machine or a clone. Then boot into the Recovery Volume (command - R) on a restart. Run Disk Utility Repair disk. If it can't repair the disk, then select the erase tab and reformat using Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Also click the Option button and select GUID. When complete, reboot normally and restore your data.
Please update your profile to reflect the OS you are running.

Upgrade question for laptop to run PPro CS6/CC

All,
I've spent the last several days reading, researching and generally getting up to speed on what my options are re hardware moving forward, and though I've been a lurker/user of these forums (and others) for years, this is my first time engaging directly now that I feel I know a bit more. I must also say how incredible a resource the regular users like Harm Millard have been to self-taught but enthusiastic newbies like me - thank you!
I've been a longtime self-taught, relatively light but still barely pro Premiere Pro user for the past ten years. For the past couple of years, I've been barely getting by using CS4 on my once-top-of-the-line Dell Precision M6500 laptop running Win7 Pro 32-bit. The M6500 is by far my favorite PC I've ever owned and is still rocking, even with older specs (listed below), but it is time to grow up, bite the bullet and (hopefully) upgrade this machine so that I can take advantage of CS6/CC and do a bit more heavy lifting (basic color correction, light After Effects, etc).
I currently shoot on a Sony AX2000 in AVCHD, but am starting to do more work on my Canon t3i and am close to moving up to a Canon 5D mk3, so will be using more HD MOV files in the near future, possibly alongside the old AVCHD footage. Most of my exports are for HD web uploads, but also occasionally export to DVD. I do not anticipate stepping up to Red footage or the like in the near or mid future.
My current laptop specs are as follows:
Win7 32-bit
4GB RAM
Intel i7 quad core M620 (2.67GHz)
500GB 7200rpm HDD
Nvidia Quadro FX 2800M
I've already ordered a RAM upgrade to get me to 16GB, have Win7 64-bit ready to install, and just bought 2 x 750GB 7200rpm HDD (Western Digital). Instead of investing in an all new machine (laptop or desktop), and considering the amazing stability and longevity (so far) of the M6500, I'd like to try and see if I can get this machine to a place where I can take advantage of CS6/CC and have it run stably and somewhat fast. I realize it's not the best option, and that getting an all-new tricked out desktop is the preferred option, but for budget reasons, that's not possible right now.
Here's my plan:
Upgrade so that system will be:
Win7 64bit
16 GB RAM
2 x 750GB 7200rpm HDDs (internal)
rest of the system listed above would remain the same as above - namely CPU and graphics card
The machine can also support a mSATA mini SSD (up to 256GB), but I haven't splurged for that yet. I'm trying to figure out whether to use the two new HDDs in RAID 0 and have the OS, project files, cache, source footage and export files all on those two RAIDed drives, or whether it would make a truly huge difference to add another internal SSD as the boot/OS/Program Files drive and leave the RAID 0 configuration to handle all video and project files. I've read enough to assume that adding the SSD is the preferred option, but it's pricey, and what I'm trying to determine is whether or not it's really worth the cost vs a straight 2-HDD RAID 0 configuration.
I've read a lot about the dangers of RAID 0, but am not too concerned about failures since I use an online backup system (Sugarsync) for all my document files (this machine doubles as my main work PC) and I regularly back up all source and exported video files.
On a separate note, I realize that my graphics card is not listed among the supported cards for CS6/CC - is that going to cause stability and/or significant performance issues, or will it work since I won't be doing 4k/Red files? Is the CUDA hack an option for me? I have the option of upgrading the card to a supported card (Nividia M5000), but it's hugely pricey (close to $2k) and unless it will make the machine an absolute stud for years to come, it's not worth it.
So in short (yeah right ), here are my questions:
Does my proposed new system have the juice to handle what I want to do?
Which HDD setup is preferred, and by what degree (do I absolutely have to get the SSD to make this work?):
2 x 750GB 7200rpm HDDs in RAID 0 for the entire machine
1 x SSD (what size is minimum recommended?) as boot/OS plus 2x750GB HDDs in RAID 0
Will my existing Quadro 2800M graphics card make the other RAM/HDD upgrades a waste of money?
Is my existing CPU powerful enough to warrant these other upgrades?
Sorry for the long post, and thanks for any help you guys can provide!
Van

Van,
Tough love - I'm going to give you my honest opinion here, but it does make me feel bad since you seem to have already ordered parts before you posted.
1. In a word no. Your processor is dual core. You really want at least quad core + hyperthreading for the media that you will be pushing around. The Quadro 2800M only has 96 CUDA cores and DDR3 (slow) memory. BTW, task manager shows 4 "cores" when you have a dual-core + hyperthreading.
2. I'd choose 2. - much nicer - worth the cost
3. yes
4. no
So what to do if you cut bait on your current plan and get a new laptop. Check out recent (< 6 mths old) threads here for lots of discussion at various price points. Gamers laptops and Sager/Clevo models definitely offer the best bang for the buck for laptops to run Premiere, mostly due to the GTX video line trouncing the Quadro line for performance for the price. I loved the Dell M6500 in its time. If you want to replace it with something current day the M6700 is good, but I like what HP is doing for the 17" workstation class even better in 2013. If you can buy a few months, I suspect the new smaller die size 22nm Intel cpus will be really help for laptop performance (desktops have just about all the cpu cooling capacity required, but in laptops cooling through tiny tiny coolers and tiny, tiny, quiet fans is way limited - so, the new lower wattage, cooler 22nm cpus should be much larger boost for laptop users than workstations).
I suspect that I would really enjoy editing on a well thought out $1500 Asus, even better on a $2200 Sager, and would have similar performance with the support of HP or Dell at closer to a $3000 price point for the media you mention above. ADK sells Sager/Clevo laptops and has much better support for video (and audio) editors than HP or Dell ever dreamed to provide; prices would be a bit more than www Sager dealers but ADK is a no-brainer if you want "real" support and a machine that is tweaked for Adobe.
Regards,
Jim

Does Time Machine make bootable backups?

I used a beautiful backup program called Backup Simplicity in Tiger that made a bootable Exact duplicate of my HD into my external drive. That's really I want to do.
This morning I tried Time Machine for the first time. It only put a backup folder on my external drive. That's not what I want to do.
So here's my question, if I totally erase my external drive will Time Machine make a bootable duplicate of my HD on my external drive also?
Also, is there a way to schedule Time Machine for backups manually?

No, TimeMachine doesn't create a bootable backup, nor can it be controlled manually. The purpose of TimeMachine is to work behind the scenes backing up changed files. Later, when you realize something is amiss, you can 'go back in time' and fix the problem. Admittedly, I'm a little shaky on the details of just how flexible the retrieval system is since I've not yet played with that feature yet. But as I understand it, if you installed a new program and your computer suddenly started going nuts, you'll be able to use TimeMachine to restore your computer to the point before you installed that program. Or, if you realize you improperly edited a file, you'll be able to retrieve the file prior to that editing session.
Apple's team realized three things: 1) most of us don't take the time to perform backups even though we know we should be doing it. 2) most of us don't really understand how to develop a good backup strategy. 3) computers today are so powerful that most of the time the CPU isn't working hard at all and those extra cycles might as well be put to use doing something useful. Hence, TimeMachine's design.
As you noticed, TimeMachine makes a folder and does its incremental backups inside. Since I have an external drive that is much larger than my boot/data drive, I'll continue to clone my boot drive to this external once a week, just as I've been doing. If disaster strikes and I need to use the computer right now, I can do so and at worst my data will be one week out of date. (I should then be able to use TimeMachine to retrieve the missing data but the important thing is that I'm up and running again as soon as I've rebooted.) Later (or if I have the time right away) I'll use TimeMachine to restore/replace my boot drive.

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

Bootable Backup on Intel Macs?

I read this on the internet. Has anyone checked this out?
A Bootable Backup for an Intel Mac
Shortly after I got my shiny new 20″ Intel iMac I read in a forum somewhere that booting from an external firewire enclosure was no longer supported on the Intel-based Macs. I was disappointed to hear this, because I’ve used this feature on my PowerMac in the past to great advantage, it makes upgrading your system hard drive very easy, and the same would apply to recovering from a hard drive failure.
I decided to try anyway, so I connected my IoGear Ion external firewire drive to my iMac and started a disk cloning operation using Carbon Copy Cloner, a very popular Mac backup program that works well on my PowerPC based Macs. It kept asking for my Admin password, and it eventually locked up without having finished the backup.
Then I tried LaCie Silverkeeper with no luck either.
Next I bought a shareware license for a program called ChronoSync, which seems to be well written, but also failed at the task of creating a bootable system backup. In a later email exchange with the author of that program I was told that kind of an operation was “not supported”.
Finally I tried Synchronize! Pro X from Qdea, it worked. In only 3 hours it copied 182gb of data across a firewire connection to my external drive, and the OS X Startup Disk preference pane saw the disk as bootable. I’ve done a test boot, and it worked flawlessly.
I like to keep a mirror image backup of all of my computers. It has saved my cookies (literally and figuratively) on more than one occasion. I did have to pay $99 for a license for Synchronize! Pro X, but I consider it to be money well spent.

Well... If you are using CCC, the only way to use it to restore would be to start up from the bootable backup and run CCC from there. Unlike Disk Utility, CCC can clone the disk being used for startup; Disk Utility want the "source" disk to not be "busy." On the other hand, if you are using Disk Utility from the Mac OS Installation Disk, the backup does not need to be bootable. The backup can even be a disk image, which has the advantage of not occupying the entire external drive.
A bootable backup has several advantages. First, running from an optical disk is slow if you are going to be making backups at regular intervals; I'm not sure if want to boot from the Mac OS X Installation Disk so often. Second, the bootable backup will serve as an emergency boot disk to diagnose problems that you may have with the internal drive. If you buy tools like DiskWarrior and TechTool Pro, you can run them from there.
If you want a full identical copy of the internal drive, the following would be ideal... Get an external drive that is larger than the internal drive. Partition it so that it is bootable for Intel and with TWO partitions. Make the first partition about equal in size to the internal drive (it can be somewhat smaller since you will never fill the internal drive to 100%). Make the second partition the rest of the space.
Use CCC to make regular backups of the internal drive to the bootable second partition. As an added precaution, copy just your user directory to the second partition and keep it in sync with the one on the internal drive. You can do this manually, or with a tool like ChronoSync. Why the second user data backup? Because during the time when you are using CCC to clone the internal drive to the first partition, there is risk. At that moment, the previous backup is gone, the new backup is being written, and the "original" is actively being accessed. If there was a internal hard drive failure, or a power failure, you could lose the original and not have a backup. But if you have that user data backup on the second partition, at least you did not lose what's most important. Though inconvenient, you can always spend a day reinstalling the OS and apps from scratch.

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.

Hi there, I have installed iTune on my new Toshiba laptop which runs on Win 8. I can update itune on Toshiba laptop, sync but the iphone Apps still showing app to be updated. Restarted both Itune

Hi there, I have installed iTune on my new Toshiba laptop which runs on Win 8. I can update itune on Toshiba laptop, sync but the iphone Apps still showing app to be updated. Restarted both Itune and iphone....reset phone backup....to no avail.....HELP!

I have removed now all bloatware from laptop, CCleaner run and some more stuff: installed Libre Office, Free Avast, Mozilla Firefox - Spotify was preinstalled. And now this is even better - really simple and fast.
I also removed Ethernet completely, as I don't want to be locked at one place. It's not cool to use laptop on divan sofa. So tired after hour of sitting in uncool position. Wifi speed loss is almost 50%. 95 Mbps I get from 100 Mbps at Ethernet and on Wifi in laptop I get at max 50 Mbps. It's only for end this year this way, then I will slow down my connection anyway as for one person and laptop/smartphone it's way too much of speed for 40 €. With 27€ I can get the same 10M/10M and it will be more than enough. Now I have 100M/10M.
I'm also considering about 50M/10M option for 32.90 €, but I will see what I do. I download now test file 10GB and it loads 30-40 Mbps and sometimes even as fast as 50 Mbps. It depends on server also, but ebven on Google, which works on Ethernet at 95 Mbps, it is on Wifi nothing more than 51 Mbps.
It's also 10GB of 1,100 Offlined tracks, I tested it now. So on trips 32GB card should be enough for my phone. I'm going to one soon :)

Bootable Backup- created and works BUT....

I've got a full bootable backup on my external lacie firewire drive. My PB G4 15" can boot from it, happily.
(tiger, not leopard)
My question is what other macs could boot off the drive? e.g. MacMini, Macbook, Macbook pro (intel)? or is the bootable backup only good for my specific machine?

I can't speak for the Intel-based Macs because I don't have any of those (though my folks and sister have MacBooks, go figure... they have "more powerful" machines than me... I have lots of PowerPC-based apps that I'm still using as well as OS 9 ones in Classic) but I'm sure they are no different with Intel-based Macs.
I know for a fact that you can boot from any machine that supports Tiger and matches the specs of what's on your LaCie external drive.
So, your PowerBook G4 15-inch that's been backed up onto the LaCie, will function as that PowerBook when you boot up on any G4-based Mac mini, PowerMac, iMac, etc.
Though even G3 machines will work. I mean, G3 machine's drives will work as bootup drives in G4. (I never tried vice versa). I have a drive that is the original drive from a PowerMac G3, and I put it inside an older PowerMac G4 model--older than the Dual FW800 model that I have--and it booted up fine.
I'm sure you know how to choose your boot volume at startup? Hold down the OPTION key at startup and it will let you select your startup drive.
The perfect example is this. In April, I sent my 12-inch PowerBook into the Genius Bar to have the LCD screen replaced under warranty. I created a backup of my 12-incher's drive. I was able to connect that to my PowerMac G4 and startup as if I was using my 12-inch PowerBook all along.
You can even do that via FireWire in Target Disk Mode. I can, essentially, if I wanted to, use my PowerMac G4 on my 12-inch PowerBook.
The only caveat there is that of the processor. Let's say you are able to run Aperture on your PowerBook 15-inch. If you plug that LaCie external drive into a 433 MHz PowerMac G4, you won't be able to run Aperture since it doesn't qualify for the minimum system requirements.
But you can do everything else that does qualify (like iMovie, iPhoto, maybe not GarageBand or Pages, if you have those).
Hope that helps.

Help--Bootable Backup?

Just have a question about bootable backups as I've been hearing a lot about them lately. First off, what exactly is a bootable backup? I'm not 100% clear on what it is. Secondly, I have an external USB 2.0 HD. Is it possible to make a bootable backup with a USB drive or does it have to be firewire? If I can make a bootable backup with my USB 2 HD, how do I go about doing it? Do I have to create a partition? How do I do that? Thanks for helping out a (semi)clueless mac fan. By the way, loving the upgrade to Leopard. Everything is running great for me. Thanks for any help!!

Superjudge2,
Ian has already answered your question, and thoroughly. However, bootable backups are somewhat less of a "big deal" now that you are running Leopard.
With Leopard and Time Machine, you can restore everything from your Time Machine backup at any time by booting to the Leopard install disk. Instead of installing a fresh copy of Leopard, the installer will use any of the Time Machine "snapshots" of your system.
Bootable backups still have their uses, though. For example, if your hard drive fails entirely, and simply will not work, you could still boot your Mac to that external containing a bootable OS. This would allow you to continue to use your computer until you could procure and install a working hard drive.
Scott

Can I boot a Mavericks desktop computer with a bootable backup made with OS X 10.4.6?

I used to create bootable backups with SuperDuper and still have one created in 2010 from a white Intel mac (2006-era) running OS X 10.4.6. Would it be possible to boot a brand new 27" desktop running Mavericks 10.9.4 using the old bootable backup? I've never had to boot any of my computers from the bootable backups and I'd have to go searching thru my notes to find out how to do it, but I have no idea if attempting to do so could cause any harm to the new computer. If it could, I won't make the attempt.
The reason I'm considering it: I lost three computers to a lightning strike a couple weeks ago. The white Intel mac was the one I used to create GarageBand projects. I discovered that the new version of GarageBand (10.0.2) lacks many of the instruments I frequently used in my projects. Thus, I figured, if I could easily boot using the bootable backup, I could continue my GarageBand work using the version of GarageBand on the bootable backup. Good idea or totally unworkable?
Secondary follow-up question: any way to install the old version of GarageBand on the new computer using either the bootable backup or the old install disks? Although I'd like to get access to the old version, I won't do it if there's a large risk of creating problems with the new computer.
Any advice?

Bedruthan wrote:
Would it be possible to boot a brand new 27" desktop running Mavericks 10.9.4 using the old bootable backup?
No. Newer machines cannot boot with OSs that precede the one it shipped with.
Secondary follow-up question: any way to install the old version of GarageBand on the new computer using either the bootable backup or the old install disks?
Again, no. Newer machines cannot run PPC apps since they're based on Intel chips and not Motorola ones.
iMac refurb (27-inch Mid 2011), OS X Mavericks (10.9.4), SL & ML, G4 450 MP w/Leopard, 9.2.2

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.

Laptop to run bootable backup

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