30 replies to this topic

[rei]

on my normal mac mini, i make an image to another partition or hard drive using superduper and then boot using cd to use the disk utility to restore the dmg file overwriting the boot drive.

i did this the other night only to find out that the jas 10.4.8 boot dvd's disk utility doesn't let me choose/specify anything as the target disk...i could specify source image but could not get it to specify destination.

any ideas?

[digifreak]

I`ve got the same problem here.
I tried hatcheryclone, superduper. It`s no problem to clone the partition, but I can`t restore it afterwards.
The only workaround I found out so far, is to reinstall osx and immigrate the data from the backup partition.

Hopefully someone has a better idea than me on how to back up and (more important) restore a hackintosh succefully.

[BJMoose]

The only thing I've found that works consistently with Hackintosh computers is Norton's Ghost. I've heard that Acronis works, but I've never gotten Acronis to work properly.  The plus for Ghost (currently using Ghost 12) is that I can make an image of the OSX partition right from within Windows.  I've re-installed these images dozens of times already without error.  The minus for Ghost is that unlike how it works on Windows partitions, it images your whole partition, not just the used space.  In other words, I have a 120gb partition for OSX and whether it is empty or full of files, Ghost is going to create a 70gb partition.  It takes about 25 minutes to image the disk and about 20 minutes to restore an image to a partition.  However, it's well worth the time and space since I'm more of an experimenter with my hackintosh, and I'm trying everything that's out there to see how it works.  If I don't like what something's done to my system, in less than a half hour, I've got everything back to normal with all my kexts and settings intact.

Ghost 11 and 8.3 will also work, but only in DOS mode and it takes a little bit longer to save and restore, but they are just as dependable.  I have a registered copy of CopyCatX that I use on my Mac Pro, but because of no EFI on a Hackintosh, I can't get it to boot.  Hope this helps.

[rei]

yeah i have acronis and it won't do it. i'm kind of cloath to use ghost though.

er, i meant loathe. but i'll try my friend's copy i guess.

[Headrush69]

digifreak, on Jul 3 2007, 05:23 PM, said:

I`ve got the same problem here.
I tried hatcheryclone, superduper. It`s no problem to clone the partition, but I can`t restore it afterwards.
The only workaround I found out so far, is to reinstall osx and immigrate the data from the backup partition.

Hopefully someone has a better idea than me on how to back up and (more important) restore a hackintosh succefully.

Were you using Clone Tool Hatchery to restore the image or Disk utility from a bootable CD?

[rei]

disk utility

there's no other way to boot in osx without booting INTO the drive you want to replace/reimage.

[Headrush69]

rei, on Jul 3 2007, 06:53 PM, said:

disk utility

there's no other way to boot in osx without booting INTO the drive you want to replace/reimage.

Not true. (I think it was Rammjet that started a thread about creating a custom LiveCD)

So you are saving the image file on the same disk you want to restore?

[rei]

different hard drive physically altogther. although it did work on same disk, different partition when i was on my real mac.

if i could make an osx boot usb drive and use that when imaging, that'd be  great.

[Headrush69]

rei, on Jul 3 2007, 07:30 PM, said:

if i could make an osx boot usb drive and use that when imaging, that'd be  great.

If your BIOS supports USB booting this should be simple.
I use CloneTool Hatchery V1.09 to backup weekly to a USB drive which boots fine,

Not sure how you restored a partition that also held the backup image.

[rei]

same physical drive (therefore data transfer is slower) but different partition.

[rei]

so if you use clonetool hatchery, it makes a literal partition copy? and a usb (i have 4gb) drive would be bootable? you sure?

[Headrush69]

rei, on Jul 3 2007, 10:24 PM, said:

so if you use clonetool hatchery, it makes a literal partition copy? and a usb (i have 4gb) drive would be bootable? you sure?

Yes I'm sure, I've done it a good 30 times.

[rei]

hmm i can't do it to a thumb drive though since the osx partition would have to be 4gb or less

[asbak]

I've also used Ghost with success. Neither Carbon Copy Cloner nor Super Duper worked for me.

A (free) method to clone the entire harddisk is to use g4l, aka "Ghost For Linux". In RAW mode it will clone the entire drive onto another drive of similar size. This will take some time to complete.

Afterwards you probably want to reboot with the install CD thereafter and do a "repair disk" which will fix minor disk relate issues on the cloned drive.

[Headrush69]

rei, on Jul 4 2007, 12:09 AM, said:

hmm i can't do it to a thumb drive though since the osx partition would have to be 4gb or less

Nothings going to change that.

The one thing about Clonetool Hatchery over Ghost is that you can copy to a smaller partition, (it copies files, not the partition), and you can run it from your running OS X installation.
No need to reboot if you are just doing weekly/daily etc backups.

[rei]

Good news, the Uphuck 1.3 DVD boots and allows me to restore using its Disk Utility. Erasing the partition has to be a separate step from within Disk Utility though and can't be done as part of the restore process. Checking that box just gives an error.

Restoring from a compressed DMG file works best for me.

[thegodfaza]

I've done this before by doing  the following:

1: Boot into the install cd.

2: Open the Disk Utility.

3: Mount the partition you wish to back-up.

4: Select the partition.

5: Click the image button.

Of course you need a compatable drive to back up to.

[rei]

godfaza, the key thing was that the jas install dvds' disk utility was broken in not being able to restore. the uphuck dvd's restore function works is what i found today.

[BJMoose]

Any idea about how long it would take to create a dmg of a 120gb partition and to restore that partition.  Do you know what the compression ratio is...approximately?  This would presume that I have the image on a separate hfs+ hard drive for optimal speed both ways...am I correct?  Thanks.

[rei]

on a 150gb partition, 15gb of actual data, it takes 9min 30 sec to copy across using super duper from one sata wd5000aaks hd to another. medium compression into the dmg takes about 20 more min using e6600 @ 3ghzrestore takes 5-10min.Actually Medium compression takes 15 minutes, reducing 15GB down to 10GB. Much of it was uncompressible data for WoW.