OSX working great! - Now how to clone it to a bigger drive?

[superkona]

Everything is working well enough on my 10.4.8 jas osx86 install.

 

I installed on a 10 GB partition and now would like to move the system over to a new larger non partitioned HD and still retain ability to dual boot XP.

 

What would be the best way to accomplish this? Ghost or similar imaging tool to copy my OSX partition over to a new 2nd HD ?

[boo50]

just make new install on new drive.

after you can trasfer all users/apps/settings to new install with "migration assistant"

[imrazor]

Back when I had a Powermac G5, I used a tool called Carbon Copy Cloner to copy my drive to a backup drive. Worked great when I actually had to boot off my backup drive and copy it back to the original. It doesn't create a bit-by-bit exact copy like Ghost does, but instead copies every file necessary to actually clone a drive (unlike dragging and dropping the System folder.) Best of all, it's completely free. One gotcha: it's still a PowerPC binary, but according to the website it'll run fine on an Intel Mac under Rosetta. See the following:

 

Carbon Copy Cloner

[superkona]

thanks for the suggestions, still working on coming up with the right solution. CCC needs an HFS partition and I get a 'cannot read partition map' error when trying to reformat the larger fat32 partition to HFS journaled from the dvd install disk on 10.4.8.

 

i've also tried diskduper! and clonetool - they have the same problem.

 

does anything for OSX do a bit by bit transfer like ghost where the part formating gets copied also?

[kd4]

I used goodtime's Clonetool alpha. It works great and is pretty simple.

Here's the link:

 

http://art5dog.com/Clonetool/OSx86_HD_Clonetool.html

 

 

Install Clone tool. Reboot.

 

THEN:

Use Clonetools disk utility to Erase as Fat32. Erase again as FAT32 using the DiskUtility. Then Erase as HFS+ Journalling.

 

 

***EDIT: Sorry,

I was in a hurry and completely overlooked where you mentioned you used Clonetool already. Good luck

[Rammjet]

The first step is to solve your formatting problem. The OSX drive needs to be HFS+.

 

Use some Windows/Linux utility to format the entire hard drive (again) as FAT32. Don't use Windows itself because it has a limit of (I forget) something like 32 GB for a FAT32 partititon. Then in Disk Utility, select the primary partition (it is 99.9% of the whole drive) shown below the hard drive icon and format that partition as HFS+.

 

Then I routinely use the Restore function of Disk Utility to clone my partitions. Drag the existing OSX partition icon to the source field and the new hard drive primary partition (not hard drive) icon to the destination field.

[luh3417]

Acronis True Image is everything that Ghost is not. An absolute delight. Not sure if or how it plays on the Mac.

[superkona]

The first step is to solve your formatting problem. The OSX drive needs to be HFS+.

 

Use some Windows/Linux utility to format the entire hard drive (again) as FAT32. Don't use Windows itself because it has a limit of (I forget) something like 32 GB for a FAT32 partititon. Then in Disk Utility, select the primary partition (it is 99.9% of the whole drive) shown below the hard drive icon and format that partition as HFS+.

 

Then I routinely use the Restore function of Disk Utility to clone my partitions. Drag the existing OSX partition icon to the source field and the new hard drive primary partition (not hard drive) icon to the destination field.

 

I managed to get my wannabe new osx 27gb partition unstuck from being fat32 to hfs+ by using a ubuntu install cd and cfdisk. in cfdisk i deleted the fat32 partition and remade it as a type AF / primary. once back in osx the drive is recognized as hfs journaled.

 

thanks to nothingness on #osx86 for showing me how to do this, you really helped me out and i thank you

 

still having a hard time cloning the system.. will report back when that is done.

[Rammjet]

I managed to get my wannabe new osx 27gb partition unstuck from being fat32 to hfs+ by using a ubuntu install cd and cfdisk. in cfdisk i deleted the fat32 partition and remade it as a type AF / primary. once back in osx the drive is recognized as hfs journaled.

Setting type to AF identifies it as HFS+. But you still have to format the partition as HFS+. Select the partition in Disk Utility and click the Erase tab. Set the name of the partition and be sure the format is set to MacOS Extended Journaled then click the Erase button.

 

Then, like I said, I have used the Restore function dozens of times to clone one partition to another (won't work in Disk Utility on install DVD - broken). Drag the icon (from the left pane) of the existing OSX partition to the Source field and drag the icon of the empty new partition to the Destination field.

[superkona]

I have used the Restore function dozens of times to clone one partition to another (won't work in Disk Utility on install DVD - broken). Drag the icon (from the left pane) of the existing OSX partition to the Source field and drag the icon of the empty new partition to the Destination field.

 

This worked! Thanks man.

 

Completed this and booted fine on new 27gb partition. I did not think it worked because acronis boot was not finding the new os to add to boot menu. but when i clicked my old OSX menu in icon and booted up into osx i noticed that my new 27 gb partition was in upper right! tested to make sure by unmounting my old 10 gb while in osx - rebooted again to make sure.

 

1 problem though, I reformatted my old 10 gb osx partition to fat32 so that it can be shared space between xp and osx, after this acronis can't find an os to boot on my 27 gb partion and i cannot boot into osx..

 

the adventure continues.. thanks for your help though, i'm sure will get this fixed.

[Rammjet]

acronis can't find an os to boot on my 27 gb partion and i cannot boot into osx..

Acronis can be finicky. Right-click on the OSX icon and select Properties. Click on Partition on the left. On the right, select the OSX partition and click the Active box.

[superkona]

Acronis can be finicky. Right-click on the OSX icon and select Properties. Click on Partition on the left. On the right, select the OSX partition and click the Active box.

 

i've done that and it still is not picking up osx - i know the osx partition is bootable because it worked before i removed my (original osx install) 10 gb partition with osx.

 

any other ideas?

 

i've uninstalled and deactivated acronis and reinstalled.. still not working.

 

i thought when i removed it that osx/darwin bootloader would kick in but instead i got an os not found msg at boot, my bios let me get back to xp with F12.

 

how to enable darwin boot loader if i can't boot into osx?

[Guest goodtime]

i've done that and it still is not picking up osx - i know the osx partition is bootable because it worked before i removed my (original osx install) 10 gb partition with osx.

 

any other ideas?

 

i've uninstalled and deactivated acronis and reinstalled.. still not working.

 

i thought when i removed it that osx/darwin bootloader would kick in but instead i got an os not found msg at boot, my bios let me get back to xp with F12.

 

how to enable darwin boot loader if i can't boot into osx?

 

I hate to say this, but the easiest solution might be to reinstall OSX. You should be able to reinstall OSX without messing up your Windows Partiton. I did it many times on my laptop.

 

In the future, try to either get a 2nd hard drive, or an External USB 2.0 drive. It's nice to have a 2nd drive to fall back on, plus Clonetool fully supports a 2 drive system. Before I had two Hard drives on my systems, I would usually do it the old fashioned way, erase the target partition, reinstall and fix the drivers again.

 

If you have any important data on your Mac Volume, You can get a program called MacDrive for the PC and you can read data from your Mac volume and copy it to your PC volume. You can even copy the /System/Library/Extensions folder to your PC from Windows. This way you will have your drivers.

 

gt

[Sailfish]

Does this still work??? Wayyyy back in the 10.4.1 and 10.4.3 days. I used to use the Mac "Disk Utility" to make an image (.dmg) of my drive and save it to an external drive. Then I would restore the image onto a new drive; finally go into "Preferences" > "Start Disk" and set the new drive as the "Start Up" drive and reboot. Somewhere along the line (10.4.5 if my memory serves me), it didn't work anymore... Is that still the case or is that a viable option?

[eyemac]

I have been unable to successfully clone my OSX86 installs. I have tried cloning with Carbon Copy Cloner as well as the Disk Utility. I have tried several different variations but to no avail..

Here is the most recent procedures that I used with the same result (will not boot into the OS. Hangs after reading CD.. jumps to next line in boot sequence but will not go any further. Same hangup as is seen if the MBR is not set to active by the way, but SPFDISK reports the partition is active)

1) Partitiion with SPFDISK as FAT32

2) With OSX86 install DVD, open Disk Utility and Partition as single partition with HFS+ journaled.

3) Use either Disk Utility or Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the startup disk to the new disk just partitioned

4) Reboot and try to boot into cloned disk.. hangs up!

5) Used Disk utility again after booting either into DVD or using system on HD to Repair Permissions

6) Reboot with same result

7) Recheck with SPFDISK.. partition IS active!

8) Rewrite MBR without destroying partition with both SPFDISK and FDISK (terminal) and set active

9) Reboot.. same result!!???!!

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

Steve

[Rammjet]

Format the entire hard drive as FAT32. This will create a tiny partition for the boot sectors and a big partition for data. This also establishes MBR

 

Go into Disk Utility and select the partition icon shown below the hard drive icon (do not select the hard drive). Erase the partition as MacOS Extended Journaled. This formats the partition and writes the boot information to MBR and to the partition.

 

Clone your data to the partition.

[eyemac]

I will try that sequence. Thanks. Any difference using CCC vs. Disk Utility restore? I have read about the Bless command. Any need to do that? Also, I read one of your previous posts, in which you indicated that processes need to be killed. I have CrossOver Mac running. I suppose I should kill the disc monitoring process.. ? using Activity Monitor? Interestingly, despite rewriting the MBR with fdisk after my clone and repairing permissions, it didn't load. How does your method differ in terms of the boot process and files involved? Thanks again.

Steve

[JustAnotherIdiot]

Does this still work??? Wayyyy back in the 10.4.1 and 10.4.3 days. I used to use the Mac "Disk Utility" to make an image (.dmg) of my drive and save it to an external drive. Then I would restore the image onto a new drive; finally go into "Preferences" > "Start Disk" and set the new drive as the "Start Up" drive and reboot. Somewhere along the line (10.4.5 if my memory serves me), it didn't work anymore... Is that still the case or is that a viable option?

 

 

this is the question from me too

does it work with 10.4.8

i booted my system using dvd and made an image of osx partition and saved it on a dvd

just a bit curious if i burn that image to any other computer with same config would i be able to run OsX?

[Guest goodtime]

this is the question from me too

does it work with 10.4.8

i booted my system using dvd and made an image of osx partition and saved it on a dvd

just a bit curious if i burn that image to any other computer with same config would i be able to run OsX?

 

What you might be talking about is a Live DVD. It is possible, but some parts need to be made like a RAM disk for the User Directory as you cannot modify files on the DVD for disk cache and user files. I would search for Live DVD. One day Clonetool will support creating a Live DVD from a user's install. But that will be a long time (it is last on my list). The good news is there is an active Live DVD group on IRC and probably on InsanelyMac too.

 

Now, moving your partition to another computer would depend on what it Kext and Frameworks that processor needs. If it is the same chipset or computer. It will run smoothly on that other computer. If it different like Video, Sound, Airport, etc. Then you would have to do some tweaking. Right now I am taking my SSE3 installed system copying it to a USB 2.0 drive using Clonetool and then running it on my Laptop. Next, I install the missing Kexts like ACPI, SSE2 Kernel, Airport drivers etc. Now I have a working SSE2 10.4.8 box using my SSE3 modified system without ever going to my install DVD for the 2nd box.

 

 

gt

Edited December 16, 2006 by goodtime

[eyemac]

I tried cloning with CCC as well as SuperDuper! using Rammjet's suggested method. To reiterate, I am using a Pentium D sse3 system with 10.4.8 updated from JAS 10.4.6 with JAS 10.4.8 with updated sound for ALC880 using AppleHDA.kext and Kernel semthex beta 8 and using SATA HD's. The system itself is very solid.

To do the Cloning:

I formatted the drive with SPFDISK CD and made it active. I then opened it in Disk Utility (OSX) and did NOT repartition but rather erased the current partition and formated as HFS+ journaled per Rammjet (apparently this uses the MBR option in Disk Utility so that the MB Bios can boot it properly... using the other options apparenlty will not allow the BIOS to boot it). After that, I used CCC and also a separate time, SuperDuper! to clone to the new disk. The cloned disk would still not boot...same problem of hanging after CDROM boot attempt with blinking curser as though the partition was not active although again, FDISK, SPFDISK both show it IS active. I have also made sure to repair permissions prior to clone and have used the Terminal and the bless command with -setBoot, at separate attempts, but to no avail. I have yet to try Clonetool DTK.. perhaps that will work. I HAVE succesfully cloned the whole partition but then cannot resize it to take up the larger target drive.

 

VERY FRUSTRATING! Good thing my system is running well. I believe that re-installing on the larger drive, then running 10.4.8 update, then reinstalling proper kernel and Kekts may be the only way to go... I hope someone has a better solution...

Help is GREATLY appreciated,

sg

[Guest goodtime]

I tried cloning with CCC as well as SuperDuper! using Rammjet's suggested method. To reiterate, I am using a Pentium D sse3 system with 10.4.8 updated from JAS 10.4.6 with JAS 10.4.8 with updated sound for ALC880 using AppleHDA.kext and Kernel semthex beta 8 and using SATA HD's. The system itself is very solid.

To do the Cloning:

I formatted the drive with SPFDISK CD and made it active. I then opened it in Disk Utility (OSX) and did NOT repartition but rather erased the current partition and formated as HFS+ journaled per Rammjet (apparently this uses the MBR option in Disk Utility so that the MB Bios can boot it properly... using the other options apparenlty will not allow the BIOS to boot it). After that, I used CCC and also a separate time, SuperDuper! to clone to the new disk. The cloned disk would still not boot...same problem of hanging after CDROM boot attempt with blinking curser as though the partition was not active although again, FDISK, SPFDISK both show it IS active. I have also made sure to repair permissions prior to clone and have used the Terminal and the bless command with -setBoot, at separate attempts, but to no avail. I have yet to try Clonetool DTK.. perhaps that will work. I HAVE succesfully cloned the whole partition but then cannot resize it to take up the larger target drive.

 

VERY FRUSTRATING! Good thing my system is running well. I believe that re-installing on the larger drive, then running 10.4.8 update, then reinstalling proper kernel and Kekts may be the only way to go... I hope someone has a better solution...

Help is GREATLY appreciated,

sg

 

 

I hope Clonetool will work out for you. One thing to be aware of the Destination disk for Clonetool must not have any open files or applications. If clonetool cannot unmount the disk for its erasure process, it may fail.

 

I should be back on development after the Holidays. I've used Clonetool many many times and it's work for me most of the time. But really look at it's verbose output closely, specially until it says, the "clone is being born..." Clonetool will point out problems, but this is a dumb version, if it encounters an error, it likes to ingore it and go on its merry way. Hatchery will be much smarter than this.

 

Happy Holidays,

 

gt

Edited December 18, 2006 by goodtime

[abcslayer]

Here is the comprehensive explain for what you have to do and why you have to do so (in my limited knowledge):

1. Make a standard format x86 HDD, it means that you make a HDD with MBR on sector 0.

2. Make a HFS/HFS+ as a primative partition in that HDD, it means that in MBR's partition table there is an entry with the parameters of the HFS/HFS+ partition.

3. Set that HFS/HFS+ become active partition (in case you need to boot by Darwin bootloader, that is installed in that partion when you install OS X.). Most of advanced boot managers like System Commander or Acronis will recognize new bootable partion when you boot up (some time you have to manually add new entry, in case your new boot partition stay on other HDD than the HDD you installed Acronis/System Commander.

Here is the boot procedure:

I. Standard PC: Power on -> POST -> find default boot device -> find boot sector 0 -> jump to the boot sector of active partion (incase default boot device is HDD, or something that have the same logic structure) -> OS boot loader.

II. PC with some kind of advanced boot managers installed: Power on -> POST -> find default boot device -> find boot sector 0 -> execute the boot manager loader binary -> boot manager start -> boot partion is selected (by user or auto select by boot manager if time out is set) -> boot manager load the selected partion boot loader/boot sector.

That is the procedure for all x86 PC as far as I know. You could use different tools, different methods to achieved the same result. (I hope it could explain why you have to format your HDD in Windows/Linux then reformat it with OS X as Ramjet said -> Windows/Linux make the MBR and partition table then OS X make/format the HFS/HFS+ partion, which like what I described in 1., 2. above)

Once you understand it, you could choose the most effective method/tools which suited with you!

Edited December 18, 2006 by abcslayer

[eyemac]

TO: Goodtime... I used it and it worked like a charm the second time.. first time I used the Disk Utility from my OSX86 10.4.6 JAS upgraded to 10.4.8 (JAS) with updated 8.81 kernel (beta 8), but it failed to laod. I then used Acronis to partition the disk as FAT32, Active and then used Disk Utility to ERASE to HFS+ followed by CloneTool DTK (USB ext drive) and then booted without ANY difficulty!!!!

 

TO: abcslayer... thanks for the info.. however, I think there is something going on in regards to the Darwin bootloader when I used CCC, Disk Utility cloning, or SuperDuper! that prevents proper booting of the cloned disk. Goodtimes CloneTool addresses that issue and IT WORKS!!

 

Happy Holidays

SG

[Guest goodtime]

TO: Goodtime... I used it and it worked like a charm the second time.. first time I used the Disk Utility from my OSX86 10.4.6 JAS upgraded to 10.4.8 (JAS) with updated 8.81 kernel (beta 8), but it failed to laod. I then used Acronis to partition the disk as FAT32, Active and then used Disk Utility to ERASE to HFS+ followed by CloneTool DTK (USB ext drive) and then booted without ANY difficulty!!!!

 

TO: abcslayer... thanks for the info.. however, I think there is something going on in regards to the Darwin bootloader when I used CCC, Disk Utility cloning, or SuperDuper! that prevents proper booting of the cloned disk. Goodtimes CloneTool addresses that issue and IT WORKS!!

 

Happy Holidays

SG

 

Eyemac,

 

I appreciate the nice comments that you made about Clonetool. It's brings me a warm pleasant feeling knowing users have been able to find it useful. I know with testing 10.4.8 on both SSE3 and SSE2, having a backup system disk has saved me many times. If my main install gets messed up from "too mush testing," I can roll back my entire system in 20 minutes flat.

 

gt

[Silvio]

Here's how to install darwin bootloader in 5 minutes after cccloner (Instead of reinstalling):

 

http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/Simple_Dual_Boot