Upgrading HD and cloning using Disk Utility

I'm going to upgrade my MacBook Aluminum Unibody with a larger and faster hard drive (500 Go Seagate Momentus 7200.4 SATA 2,5" 7200T 16 Mo).
As you'd probably expect, I will need to clone my current system to the new HD.
To achieve my needs, my strategy is the following:
1) booting up using Snow Leopard install DVD
2) connecting my new drive through a USB enclosure
3) using Disk Utility's "Restore" feature with Macintosh HD as source, and the new drive as destination
4) switching the drives
I came across tons of people in the same scenario as mine during my research for the best solution, but it always ended up with Carbon Copy Cloner or Super Duper. Almost nothing about Disk Utility.
If they seem to work fine for most of us, I find Disk Utility more trustful (1), and I prefer block-to-block to file-to-file copy (2), as the last method will necessarily skip some "uncopyable" files.
I have none of the above software, and according to its documentation, I believed to understand that CCC can't achieve a block-to-block copy running on the source system (which does make sense).
So, considering I only need to clone & switch (no backup purpose or whatever) my hard drives, why would I use CCC/Super Duper over Disk Utility?
Yeah, a file-to-file copy will kind of defragment my system, but is there something wrong with my method? I really don't understand why DU is so underrated.
Any feedback much appreciated!
Thanks,
Mickael

Mickael
I see nothing wrong with using disk utility to do what you want. If I'm correct, you can only create a disk image with disk utility, so it will not be bootable. It will accomplish the same goal as other software to restore as you described. The advantage to cloning you drive with the other applications is that you will be able to boot from the external drive if problems arise. Both applications are free to download.
I used super duper to clone to an external drive as a backup and keep it updated. I always have it to boot from if my main drive fails. The process is up to you.
Note: I though you needed a disk image to restore from, but I was wrong. You can do a restore from the drive itself.
As i said, I see no problem. It's your choice.
Message was edited by: Glenn Leblanc
Message was edited by: Glenn Leblanc

Similar Messages

  • How do I do this:  "This disk needs to be repaired. Start up your computer with another disk (such as your Mac OS X installation disc), and then use Disk Utility to repair this disk?"

    "This disk needs to be repaired. Start up your computer with another disk (such as your Mac OS X installation disc), and then use Disk Utility to repair this disk."

    Stick the disk in, reboot holding c.
    Disk Utility is a menu option about the 2 or 3rd screen in the installer. (don't install OS X!)
    Because your booted form the installer disk, you can repair the disk.
    Quit and exit the installer and reboot.
    If your drive is not repaired, make a note of all what it says, for Apple to use.
    Reboot and get your files off to a external drive,
    Take the note and your comptuer to Apple for a warranty/Apple care call, they will replace the drive.

  • Please help! My LG external hard disk is not showing in finder and trouble using disk utility

    I used my LG external HDD  disk drive on my mac a couple of times but now it's not being recognised by my mac anymore and doesn't show up on finder.
    I found the disk in disk utility and when i verified it, it said:
    Unable to bootstrap transaction group 3164: incorrect block type
    Unable to bootstrap transaction group 3163: incorrect block type
    Unable to bootstrap transaction group 3162: incorrect block type
    Unable to bootstrap transaction group 3161: incorrect block type
    No valid commit checkpoint found
    The volume AE055338-D940-488B-A5E9-0A6F4701832A was found corrupt and needs to be repaired
    Error: This disk needs to be repaired. Click repair disk
    I clicked repair disk and it said:
    Unable to bootstrap transaction group 3164: incorrect block type
    Unable to bootstrap transaction group 3163: incorrect block type
    Unable to bootstrap transaction group 3162: incorrect block type
    Unable to bootstrap transaction group 3161: incorrect block type
    No valid commit checkpoint found
    The volume AE055338-D940-488B-A5E9-0A6F4701832A was found corrupt and cannot be repaired
    Error: This disk needs to be repaired. Click repair disk
    I tried several other times to repair it by clicking repair but the same information kept popping up.
    I'm also unable to erase or partition the disk. I have no important files on it so I don't mind deleting them all but i'm unable to do so using disk utility. Please advice on what to do or the steps to take from here. Thanks

    http://

  • I have tried to repair my disk and this is the message I get: "Start up your computer with another disk (such as your Mac OS X installation disc), and then use disk Utility to repair" How do I correctly perform this action?

    I have a boot disk that needs repair and I would like to know the correct way to repair this disk using another install disc. I guess there is an issue with the volume free block count.
    Please advise.
    Thanks.

    Insert/connect that disk if needed, start up with the Option key held down, tab to it, and press Enter. If it's a Mac OS X install DVD, choose Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. If it's a different Mac OS X installation, open the Disk Utility in the /Applications/Utilities/ folder. Repair the drive.
    (61964)

  • "Error: This disk needs to be repaired. Start up your computer with another disk (such as your Mac OS X installation disc), and then use Disk Utility to repair this disk."

    I'm running Lion on a 15" 500gb Spring 2011 MBP.  Ran Disk Utility and got this message.  Since I don't have an install disk for Lion, what do I do?  Thanks!
    P.S. I searched the database and all questions with this were pre-Lion. 

    Restart your Mac and press command R.
    This brings up the invisible Rescue/Install partition placed on your drive when Lion was installed.
    Alternatively, you can hold down the Option Key at Startup and choose "Recovery HD".
    In either case, proceed as if you had booted from a DVD, answer only the "What Language" question, but do NOT Install. Wait for the MenuBar to be drawn and choose Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.

  • Cloning HD to a new HD using Disk Utility

    Hi,
    I'm trying to upgrade my hard drive (500 GB) to a 1TB hard drive on my Macbook Pro using Disk Utility. Here is what I have experienced so far...
    1) I placed the new HD in the enclosure and reformated it to "Mac OS Extended (Journalized)"
    2) I restart my MBP and holding down to "Command + R" during the initial grey screen comes up - then selected Disk Utility from the menu (I'm currently running Mac OS 10.8.1)
    3) Then the process starts with "Copying Blocking" and it shows that the whole cloning process is estimated to take about 2 days and 6 hours... Is that even possible? I'm using an enclosure that supports USB 2.0
    4) I have read a few other options in cloning a HD using a software called CarbonCopyCloner - and it is said that it will be much faster compared to Disk Utility. But I just don't want to be pay for the software simply for HD cloning; figured disk utility is just as fine as long as the end result is the same as CCC.
    I'm wondering if there is anything that I've done wrong as the approximate time required is simply WAY TOO LONG! Or is it because of the enclosure that I use that is slowing down the process (especially with USB 2.0)?
    Also I'm following the cloning process from another post (https://discussions.apple.com/message/15431074#15431074) - and one of the disk preparation step states:
    5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Optionsbutton, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
    And I don't seem to be seeing the Option button... All I see under Erase is a "Security Option" tab, but that doesn't lead me to a Zero Data button.
    Hope to get some feedback on this soon so I can upgrade my HD asap. Thanks in advance
    Peter

    I've always done my cloning using carbon copy cloner - it is a 30 day trial.
    I've never cloned using disk utility so I couldn't tell you.
    I can however, give you the step by step with carbon copy.
    Click HERE for the steps if you're interested...
    Cheers..

  • Using Disk Utility to clone one FW Drive to another FW Drive

    can I use Disk Utility to clone one external firewire drive to another external firewire drive? How would I go about this? I am using a PowerBook G4, 1.67 Ghz, 17 in, 2 gig ram with Mac OS 10.3.9
    I have both firewire drives connected to the PowerBook.

    Yes, you can use Disk Utility for this purpose.
    1) Open Disk Utility.
    2) In the left hand column, click on one of your Volumes (if your disks are partitioned, this will be one of your named volumes).
    3) In the right hand box, you will now see three buttons: First Aid, Erase, Restore. Click on Restore.
    4) Drag the volume name of the partition that you want to copy to the "Source" box. Its name should appear in the box. Drag the volume name of the partition that you want to overwrite to the "Destination" box. Its name should appear.
    5) Click "Restore" in the lower right corner. You might want to also check the box "Erase destination".
    6) Wait patiently, if all goes well you should have a bootable clone. Be sure to test the clone for bootablity before relying on it. Also, do a "Get Info" in the Finder after cloning to make sure the "Ignore Permissions on this Volume" box is not checked, and then use Disk Utility to repair permissions on the volume.
    Good Luck!

  • Unable to initialize Thumb drive using Disk Utility!

    Hi All,
    I have a 4GB Sandisk thumb drive that works flawlessly till I tried to initialize it using Disk Utility in my MBP.
    Now, whenever I try to connect the drive to USB port, system ask me to initialize the disk but when I try to initialize system goes into an unfinite loop of unmounting the disk.
    And now when I try to format it using Windows, the message appears that "Unable to complete the format". The disk was working in both Windows and Mac prior to I used initialize function.
    Any help would begreatly appreciated.
    Thanks in advance.
    -Ashish Sharma

    Hi Samberl,
    As I already wrote in my initial post that the drive was working before I try to intialize using MBP. Anyways, I already followed your advice and replaced the drive with a new one. But now I am worried if I again use it in my Mac and initialize using disk utility. As of now I have formatted it using Windows and using NTFS-3G in my MAC to read or write the data.
    Anyways, thanks for helping

  • Using Disk Utility to erase Hard Drive

    Hi All
    I just bought a new external hard drive and am using Disk Utility to erase and format it. I did not know for sure if erasing the hard drive was the right thing to do. Anyway I set up the Volume as follows from the mac help instructions:
    1.format OS extended journaled
    2.Install OS9 disk driver.
    3.("Zero all data" and "8 Way Random Write Format"). So it has been running for about 3 hours now and is only 1/8 of the way writing 0's to disk.
    My question is should I continue on and just let it finish up? At the rate it is going It might be done by sometime tomorrow.
    Or can I stop the erasing process without hurting the hard drive.
    Then start disk utility erasing the hard drive without this Zero all data.
    Thanks much

    Just to confirm your impression, S. Frigolett: yes, everything should be fine now.
    Zeroing a drive is advisable if you have reason to believe there may be bad data storage blocks on it; zeroing identifies those blocks and prevents them from being used (because using them would result in lost or corrupt data). A simple erase doesn't do that, but on a new drive straight from the factory there is no reason to think it's necessary.
    The 8 way random write option is for people who have extremely sensitive data to erase from a drive that may pass into other hands, and who want to be sure that no one short of the NSA will have any chance of recovering any of that data. A new, empty drive has nothing on it that even the NSA could recover, so there's no reason to erase it that thoroughly.

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

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

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

  • Cloning Time Machine using Disk Utility

    I understand this is possible, and I have been largely following instructions on pondini.org (great resoruce for a lot of Time Machine related issues) at this link:
    http://pondini.org/OSX/DU7.html
    What I want to do is transfer my current set of Time Machine backups (let's say Drive1) to a different drive (Drive2) and reuse the original drive as a new Time Machine from scratch.
    So what I have been doing is this:
    Repartition the destination drive, Drive2, so it is GUID and then checking OFF "ignore ownership" under the get info window.
    Opening Disk Utility and selecting Drive1, and clicking the RESTORE tab.
    Dragging the VOLUME for Drive1 into the source box.
    Dragging the VOLUME for Drive2 into the destination box.
    Go.
    Everything actually seems fine (well, teh destination drive is slightly less occupied, but maybe that has to do wit .fsevents stores, and indexing) - I'm able to browse other Time Machine files and report to the new Drive2 to see in the Time Machine interface.
    HOWEVER, my issue is this:
    The permissions appears to be all wrong for the new clone on Drive2.
    On Drive1, the proper Time Machine drive, using 'get info' on files on the drive, the listed users and permissions are correct, for example, the listed users are system (read & write), staff (read only) etc, and in terminal, permissions are under root, wheel, etc as I assume they need to be.
    However, on the new Time Machine clone, Drive2, the permissions on all files all list my username (read & write) and staff(read & write). In addition, properties of the volume differ from the source, including things like whether ownership is enabled, or if permissions are repairable (get info in Disk utility pane - yes I understand that in Disk Utility, it used to say 'no' on drives when it sometimes meant yes, but this seems to be rectified in Mavericks).
    In other words, it looks like the cloned volume belongs to my user.
    Now is this all normal? If I were to associate the new Time Machine clone, Drive2 as my TM drive, would it fix this? Would restores from this Drive2, where all the permissions for my user are enabled would restore incorrectly to a new machine? It probably means I can restore individual user files, but would the system be broken?
    Otherwise, did I not do the procedure correctly? Was I supposed to NOT check off 'ignore ownership' on the destination drive? (I'm assuming it doesn't matter as teh clone would inheret properties from teh source). Was I NOT supposed to clone VOLUMES, but use DISKs instead?
    Or was I supposed to use Disk Utility not as my user, but from the Recovery HD or something?
    I'm running 10.9, but a similar procedure I did under 10.8 has the same outcome.
    Any help or insight would be appreciated.

    mrkgoo wrote:
    I understand this is possible, and I have been largely following instructions on pondini.org (great resoruce for a lot of Time Machine related issues) at this link:
    http://pondini.org/OSX/DU7.html
    What I want to do is transfer my current set of Time Machine backups (let's say Drive1) to a different drive (Drive2) and reuse the original drive as a new Time Machine from scratch.
    Please following these instructions from Apple: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5096
    Once your Time Machine data is migrated, you can just erase the old drive and start from scratch.
    Unfortunately, the owner of pondini.org has passed away and there is no one to support any instructions you will find on that site.

  • I need help with boot camp. "Back up the disk and use Disk Utility to format it as a single Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume. Restore your information to the disk and try using Boot Camp Assistant again."

    This message appears every time I try to partition my disk:
    "Back up the disk and use Disk Utility to format it as a single Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume. Restore your information to the disk and try using Boot Camp Assistant again."
    I verified my Macintosh HD disk on Disk utility and then tried to repair it, but I am unable to click the repair button.
    It says it's not available because the startup disk is selected.
    I don't know what to do or how to go about both these problems.
    Please, any suggestions?

    This message appears every time I try to partition my disk:
    "Back up the disk and use Disk Utility to format it as a single Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume. Restore your information to the disk and try using Boot Camp Assistant again."
    I verified my Macintosh HD disk on Disk utility and then tried to repair it, but I am unable to click the repair button.
    It says it's not available because the startup disk is selected.
    I don't know what to do or how to go about both these problems.
    Please, any suggestions?

  • I have an MacBook Pro 10.6, using disk utility I tried to verify my disk, but it came up with the message, please use your start up disk, I tried this, starting the computer up and pressing C, but it ejected the disk, the same thing happened while I runni

    I have an MacBook Pro 10.6, using disk utility I tried to verify my disk, but it came up with the message, please use your start up disk, I tried this, starting the computer up and pressing C, but it ejected the disk, the same thing happened while I running the computer. Is the hard drive damaged as laptop doesn't seem to recognize the start up disk ? If so, I presume I will have to put in a new one.
    There haven't been any problems with the computer, apart from a sticky curser,I have run a permissions programme from disk utility, there were a lot of different ones, but it seem to be able to fix them.
    Any comments or ideas ?
    Thank you in anticipation.

    First backup your users files off the machine to a external storage drive (not TimeMachine!)
    Most commonly used backup methods
    Next to startup from the disk, have it inserted, hold c or option/alt (wired or built in keyboard) and then boot the computer and or select the disk when it appears and click the arrow.
    Disk Utility is under the Utilities menu on the second screen.
    Step by Step to fix your Mac
    If you used the wrong 10.6 disk, it will spit it out or have issues, use the one that came with that machine or if it's defective, call Apple for a new one.

  • Hi, I have a hard disk failure so to recover my data I am using disk utility to restore the data on an external drive while booting from a second external hard drive. When I perform the operation it gives me an input/output error and stops. Any tips?

    Hi, I have a hard disk failure so to recover my data I am using disk utility to restore the data on an external drive while booting from a second external hard drive. When I perform the operation and after having selected both my destination and source drives, the operation begins but soon fails due to input/output error. If I try to create an image of the drive it gives me the same error message. Any help would be much appreciated.

    Disk Utility only creates a image of the drive, so it's no help getting exactly what you want, which is your files. If the file structure is messed up or the drive is failing then it's no help.
    If you have a external boot drive and you can't access the internal non-booting drive though the typical Finder and windows to transfer your files via drag and drop methods, then you need to install Data Rescue on the external boot drive and it will do as best as it can to recover your files. (works on non-encrypted/non-Filevaulted drives only)
    .Create a data recovery/undelete external boot drive
    Are you sure you have hard drive failure, or that OS X isn't merely not booting?
    Because if the drive is working physically, then there is a host of fixes
    ..Step by Step to fix your Mac
    https://discussions.apple.com/community/notebooks/macbook_pro?view=documents#/

  • Resized partition using Disk Utility and now Windows 7 will not boot

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

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

Maybe you are looking for