Re: Cloning drives without a boot drive

In article
< mark.org>,
Jeffrey Goldberg <> wrote:

> Can I, booting from install media, format and clone drives if I don't have
> a system drive attached to my system at the time?
>
> OK, now the details and reasons and set-up and all.
>
> I have a G5 PowerMac. This has space for two internal SATA drives. One
> drive is my system drive and the other larger one is my TM drive. I am
> running out of space on my system drive.
>
> I would like to copy/clone my current TM drive content to a newer, even
> larger, SATA drive (which I've purchased). Then copy/clone my current
> system drive to the old TM drive.
>
> The difficulty is that I don't have any external enclosures that take SATA
> drives. (I just got one, and promptly broke the connector from the board
> to the SATA data connector. Maybe I can get some kind of refund, since I
> really don't think I handled things roughly when closing the enclosure,
> which is presumably when the connector got pulled. The problem could
> be addressed with some skill and a soldering iron, but I lake both.)
>
> So, while I could go out and buy (another) enclosure that takes SATA
> drives, I feel a certain bitterness in doing so.
>
> So I'm wondering if I could remove my current (150GB) system drive, and
> put in the new 750GB. Boot from Leopard Install media. Clone the current
> 500GB TM data to the new 750GB drive without having a system drive in
> place. Then I could remove the 750GB drive, reinstall the 150GB drive,
> and clone the 150GB to the 500GB drive. Then remove the old 150GB drive
> and install the new 750GB TM drive.
>
> So my question is about the first steps. Or should I just bite the bullet
> and get a new external enclosure for a SATA drive?
>
> -j

I think you can using the Installation DVD "Disk Utility" from the
menus. Use the Disk Utility "Restore" facility.

You can easily verify that Disk Utility has the "restore" facility
by booting from your Installation DVD, and checking out what the
installation DVD's Disk Utility offers.

Then shutdown, swap drives around, boot from the DVD and go to
town.

Another questionable alternative (meaning I don't know if it is a
workable idea). Do you have another Firewire capable Mac? Could
you put that Mac into "Target" mode (boot it with the 'T' key held
down), and then while it is in Target mode, boot your PowerMac G5
using the disk in the other Mac (boot holding the 'Option' key).

Bob Harris

In < dmark.org>, Jeffrey...:

> Anyway, it looks like the SuperDuper cloning of a TM volume works.
> Last night the cloning to the external finished, and I tested that
> external volume this morning with TM. I was able to restore from it
> using TM and I was able to do an incremental TM back-up to it as well
> (though it took a long time "preparing").

Unfortunately after I'd copied my system disk's content over to its new,
roomier home, TM did not recognize it as the source volume that
corresponding to what it had in back up.

And to top it off, my brand new disk for the TM volume was taking a very
long time to mount and eventually threw up a SMART error. (reallocated
sectors count: 702). So now I'm waiting for the RMA from Macsales/OWC to
replace that disk.

-j

--
Jeffrey Goldberg http://www.goldmark.org/jeff/
I rarely read top-posted, over-quoting or HTML postings.
http://improve-usenet.org/