Is there any chance of imac help !

[Macette]

Hi all I love using this forum because it is so easy to use. I do have an iPad and have enjoyed using the forum for that purpose, now I have a Mac question and hope someone will answer because I don't want to try and use another forum . Anyway here goes Lion is coming out soon and all advice is to make a bootable copy of my mac as it is now with snow leopard on it. I have never made back ups as such because my mac is mainly recreational and not work. I do copy my photos and music to an external hd. Can I use the external HD I have or does it have to be totally blank with no other stuff on it. I have heard of carbon copy cloner to make a one of copy just in case something goes wrong when I upgrade to Lion. I have tried googleing for an answer but can not find what I'm looking for, it never says if it can be put onto an external with other stuff on it. I am quite new to this so very basic instructions would be great.
I'm hoping there is a mac guru out there.

 

[Gabriel1]

I have bootable clones on external drives with other stuff on but I always have them in their own partitions, i didn't think that you can put a bootable clone on anything other than a clean, formatted partition. If your drive isn't already partitioned I would look at putting it on a new ext HD, they are cheap now after all.

In terms of software, I am not near my snow leopard mac at the moment but I think you may be able to do it with it's own disc utilities however, I have always used super duper which has worked flawlessly for me for many years although I am aware of the software that you mention.

The other bonus of having a bootable clone on an ext HD is that if your internal HD ever dies you can run your mac off of your ext HD.

The Archangel

 

[Poser]

use this for now, but i will be back.
Apple - Support - Time Machine

backup your mac, its easy.

 

[Macette]

I have bootable clones on external drives with other stuff on but I always have them in their own partitions, i didn't think that you can put a bootable clone on anything other than a clean, formatted partition. If your drive isn't already partitioned I would look at putting it on a new ext HD, they are cheap now after all.

In terms of software, I am not near my snow leopard mac at the moment but I think you may be able to do it with it's own disc utilities however, I have always used super duper which has worked flawlessly for me for many years although I am aware of the software that you mention.

The other bonus of having a bootable clone on an ext HD is that if your internal HD ever dies you can run your mac off of your ext HD.

The Archangel

Thank you Gabriel1 for the info. So if I understand you right I first have to buy another external HD and format it,not that I understand how to do that yet. I don't know about partitions I just bought a passport external hd and stuck photos on it. And as for disk utilities WAAAAAAAAA . I'm happy to use super duper I have heard of that one to. After the copy is made and Lion has installed it's self perfectly fingers crossed, can I then wipe the copy I made and make another bootable clone after the Lion installation. does that make sense ? I think I will delay the lion to see if anyone has any problems. I will have to study up on how to format and partition hds. this new upgrade gets more complicated by the minute. Might be easier to stay on snow leopard lol. You have helped a lot thanks 

 

[Poser]

by selecting the partition tab.
you see how it says 1 partition, you can change it to 2, and you will be able to name them and use a slider to change the sizes right in the middle of there, where it says HD, and you see the size is 42.95, you can split that in 2 or whatever range you choose, just by sliding up or down.

use disk utility, under applications, utilities....to partition whatever drive you have mounted.
is it safe to say whatever you have copied to your external hard drive, is on your mac, if so, doing a partition to split the external hard drive in 2-3-4 partitions, what ever you choose, lets choose 2 for now, making it 1 half for clone, and 1 half for backups. Now, you don't need a next external if you are willing to sacrifice on losing what you have on it, because you do still have them on your Mac, by erasing and creating partitions.

 

[Macette]

by selecting the partition tab.
you see how it says 1 partition, you can change it to 2, and you will be able to name them and use a slider to change the sizes right in the middle of there, where it says HD, and you see the size is 42.95, you can split that in 2 or whatever range you choose, just by sliding up or down.

use disk utility, under applications, utilities....to partition whatever drive you have mounted.
is it safe to say whatever you have copied to your external hard drive, is on your mac, if so, doing a partition to split the external hard drive in 2-3-4 partitions, what ever you choose, lets choose 2 for now, making it 1 half for clone, and 1 half for backups. Now, you don't need a next external if you are willing to sacrifice on losing what you have on it, because you do still have them on your Mac, by erasing and creating partitions.

Thank you Poser, I'm going to take some time to absorb the information you just gave me, but I think I'm getting it. Erase my ext. Hd. Partition it using the disk utility into 2 parts. How is the format bit done ? So everything will be cloned from mac to ext.hd . I looked at the bottom of finder and I have only used 55 gb out of 500. So it shouldn't take too long . I must admit I'm bit nervous about doing it. You have helped lots I will read it over and check out the utility window for partitioning and check the process of erasing the ext. Hd.and pray a lot lol. This forum has the nicest people thanks again 

 

[Poser]

hey ask away anytime, if not me, someone else can answer, and don't forget google for answer to confirm. The apple support discussion board helps me a lot when it comes to that kind of stuff.

you see where it says format on the right side, use that format, but don't worry, the disk utility helps you understand, its really simple, its a Mac.

 

[Poser]

i recommend you backup with time machine, so after you partition, use 1 for backups, hey you can make 3 partitions(if you have 500GB, do 200-200-100), use a 200 for backups.

check this

Formatting & Partitioning a Hard Drive in OS X

 

[Poser]

other regular tips, to enjoy using your MAC.
if you didn't know;

UsingMac.com - Mac Tricks and Tips, Wallpapers and Applications for Mac Users

https://extensions.apple.com/

Safari Extensions check older posts at bottom.

tons more....

 

[Macette]

i recommend you backup with time machine, so after you partition, use 1 for backups, hey you can make 3 partitions(if you have 500GB, do 200-200-100), use a 200 for backups.

check this

Formatting & Partitioning a Hard Drive in OS X

Thank you so much I have got the article bookmarked and will study it. I will have to learn to use that apple discussion site. Lion arrives tomorrow but I will hold off till I hear how the downloads go. Can't thank you enough for the help I will get it sorted eventually. Lol

 

[Gabriel1]

Thank you Gabriel1 for the info. So if I understand you right I first have to buy another external HD and format it,not that I understand how to do that yet. I don't know about partitions I just bought a passport external hd and stuck photos on it. And as for disk utilities WAAAAAAAAA . I'm happy to use super duper I have heard of that one to. After the copy is made and Lion has installed it's self perfectly fingers crossed, can I then wipe the copy I made and make another bootable clone after the Lion installation. does that make sense ? I think I will delay the lion to see if anyone has any problems. I will have to study up on how to format and partition hds. this new upgrade gets more complicated by the minute. Might be easier to stay on snow leopard lol. You have helped a lot thanks 

You could delete the snow leopard clone after successful lion installation then make a clone of lion however.......I tend to keep the last clone I make of each OS and each mac.....the reason, sometimes software doesn't work properly with the new OS so I can just boot into my old one and I'm ready to go. At the moment I have an ext HD with various partitions containing bootable clones of my old mac mini running tiger, my MacBook running tiger and my MacBook running snow leopard......only the other week I had to boot back into tiger to run some web authoring software which wasnt stable on snow leopard.

Also, another added bonus, most of my friends have macs.....if they need help with something I can take my WD passport to their house, plug into their mac and boot from any of my iterations of OSX......it's brilliant! In the old days I had to take my mac and fire up in target disc mode.

The Archangel

 

[saphire]

Can you partition after you have done a clone. I formated a new drive and did a clone of SL but didn't partition the drive first.

 

[Gabriel1]

Can you partition after you have done a clone. I formated a new drive and did a clone of SL but didn't partition the drive first.

Apparently yes http://www.peachpit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1395749

The Archangel

 

[saphire]

Thank you Gabriel, that is very useful to know.

 

[Macette]

You could delete the snow leopard clone after successful lion installation then make a clone of lion however.......I tend to keep the last clone I make of each OS and each mac.....the reason, sometimes software doesn't work properly with the new OS so I can just boot into my old one and I'm ready to go. At the moment I have an ext HD with various partitions containing bootable clones of my old mac mini running tiger, my MacBook running tiger and my MacBook running snow leopard......only the other week I had to boot back into tiger to run some web authoring software which wasnt stable on snow leopard.

Also, another added bonus, most of my friends have macs.....if they need help with something I can take my WD passport to their house, plug into their mac and boot from any of my iterations of OSX......it's brilliant! In the old days I had to take my mac and fire up in target disc mode.

The Archangel

Thanks Gabriel1 I can see this bootable copy is going to be a nice safety thing to have. I have started looking for step by step instructions and E How has some using super duper, so when I get it all sorted in my head I will attempt . I can see it's something really worth learning how to do. Watch this space I will post when I have succeeded 