limini Posted January 12, 2007 Share Posted January 12, 2007 It's a real priviledge to get a chance at experimenting with x86; everything works on my sys. I can't help thinking this is a ploy to introduce the mass market to osx Now I'd like to backup the entire disk and I've run into a problem: there's no more than about 20 gigs of data on this 300 gig disk (3 partitions: Windows + OSX basic, no apps + FAT32 partition as a common data disk, practically empty) but Acronis True Image tells me it'll take >60 gigs and more than a day to backup(!). The Windows partition took 8 minutes. I assume Acronis doesn't know how to deal with the OSX partition. A compressed backup of the entire disk really should be less than 20 gigs, and take much less than a day. Has anyone here successfully and efficiently backed up their entire post x86/windows disk? And if yes, what tool was used? If not, any recommendations? TIA Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/38455-done-now-how-to-efficiently-backup-the-entire-disk/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrrjrr Posted January 12, 2007 Share Posted January 12, 2007 Before backing up, you need to open the Mac's Disk Utility on your Mac partition and use the "write zeros to empty space" security feature to zero out all the unused portions of that partition. Then boot over into Windows and run Acronis and it will be able to compress that now really empty space significantly. Acronis does a sector-by-sector backup on the HFS partition because it can't really read that file system, so it considers anything that is not 00000000... as requiring backing up. The Disk Utility step will fill the unused areas with 000000.... I may not have the names of things exactly right because I am not in my Mac right now to actually check, so post back if you need clearer instructions and I will look there for real. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/38455-done-now-how-to-efficiently-backup-the-entire-disk/#findComment-274478 Share on other sites More sharing options...
limini Posted January 12, 2007 Author Share Posted January 12, 2007 (edited) Thanks But I'm looking at the Disk Utility options for any options that look like "write zeros..." and I can't see any. However there is an "Erase Free Space" option on the "Erase" tab so I'm using that... long process (48 minutes!). I'll update this link when I return to Windows and try backing up the disk again. I still have a lot to learn about osx Edited January 12, 2007 by limini Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/38455-done-now-how-to-efficiently-backup-the-entire-disk/#findComment-274510 Share on other sites More sharing options...
limini Posted January 13, 2007 Author Share Posted January 13, 2007 FYI: ended up with a 10 gig archive. After the erase, osx gave me a warning pop-up saying "Startup disk running out of space". even though > 90 gigs are free on the disk. No OS is perfect, I suppose. Back in Windows, Acronis still told me the archive would be 60 gigs in size, but now it was only going to take almost 1 3/4 hours, but it ended up finishing in less than half that. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/38455-done-now-how-to-efficiently-backup-the-entire-disk/#findComment-274649 Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrrjrr Posted January 13, 2007 Share Posted January 13, 2007 The "start disk running out of space" warning is normal. What it is doing is writing a large file filled with 0000000 over and over to the free space on your hard disk until it fills all the free space with these empty files. Then it deletes these files leaving the space still filled with 000000 (which is what lets Acronis basically ignore those sectors) but tagged now as available again. So right before it writes the last one of these files and then deletes them all, your disk is technically almost full. There is a check box to have it not warn you about that disk again, but the setting never "sticks" for me, so I still get the warning every time. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/38455-done-now-how-to-efficiently-backup-the-entire-disk/#findComment-274675 Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlackCH Posted February 2, 2007 Share Posted February 2, 2007 (edited) Hi limini, So your final backup archive was 10gb at the end?... And which version of acronis are you using?....I didnt know you could backup HFs disks with it from within windows. Thats great. Now another question that comes to my head is if you are backuping the hole HD or just the osx partition..... cheers! Edited February 2, 2007 by blackchungo Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/38455-done-now-how-to-efficiently-backup-the-entire-disk/#findComment-291564 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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