Question about Carbon Copy Cloner

[Shanegrla]

Hi everybody,
I'm looking to get PT 8 and I need to update to Leopard, so I wanted to backup my system drive first like they say to do using CCC (the plan is to b/up the system drive to my external Glyph drive, the one I put all my PT sessions on). So I'm just about to hit Go when I see a little note at the bottom of the screen that scares me a little bit:

Items on "Glyph" will be overwritten by items at the same path on "Macintosh HD".

Does this mean it will erase everything on my Glyph drive (including all my sessions) and replace it with the copy of my system drive? Do I need to be doing this on an empty external hard drive? I hope not. I don't wanna be spending another couple hundred bucks on a new drive just for a backup. I'd rather be spending my money on ProTools goodies, etc.

Sorry, I'm not a genius when it comes to computer terminology. Maybe someone can clarify this for me? Thanks.

[Rail Jon Rogut]

Yes - create a new partition large enough for the clone or use a new drive.

Backup the drive before repartitioning.

Rail

[Shanegrla]

Can I create a partition when I already have stuff on it? Or should I copy all the Glyph files onto my Mac HD first and then partition?

[Rail Jon Rogut]

There are some utilities out there to let you repartition without losing data.. but I wouldn't risk it.

Rail

[Ben Jenssen]

In Carboncopycloner, under "target", you should create a new disk image on the glyph. Not just select the glyph, that will erase everything.
IHTH

[Shanegrla]

Sorry, I don't really know what that means. Could you please explain? What exactly is a "disk image"?

[Ben Jenssen]

Originally Posted by Shanegrla

Sorry, I don't really know what that means. Could you please explain? What exactly is a "disk image"?

It's just a file containing all the data from your disk.
It can be mounted later and will then show up as if it was a real disk.

Your goal is to backup your disk before you upgrade and install stuff, so you want to create a read-only disk image. Uncheck the "segment" option.

By the way, you were very smart to stop at the point you did.

But don't worry. Create the disk image, save it to the glyph, and back up, or "clone" as it says in CCC (make shure there is enough room on the glyph), then if something gets screwed up, you can restore the entire disk from the disk image.

Good luck.

[Shanegrla]

Gotcha. Thanks.

[Rail Jon Rogut]

It's not a bootable partition though.. which I recommend for your backup. That way if something's wrong with your new install you can hold down the Option key when you boot up and choose to startup off the old partition.

Rail

[mindnoise]

As the note says:
identical items with identical paths will be overwritten.
CCC does a File by File Cloning not a Block by Block Cloning (HardDisk Image)

So you don't need to backup the target, effectively.


if you are still unsure read the excellent manuals of CCC.
The copy will be bootable, also which is really convenient.

BTW: you should ALWAYS have a back of you session files.