OSX Startup Disk Clone question

[drBill]

I installed a second hard drive in my new dual G5 and want to make it a clone of my main internal drive so that I can easily switch to it if anything on the main drive - OS/software/drivers/etc. - start acting up. On the second drive I made a 40 gig partition for OS and software, and a 120 gig partition for working PT sessions & such. I want to be able to keep all my authorizations and preferences from the main HD exactly the same when I copy them to the second drive. You know, an exact replica of the main internal drive.

What's the best way to do this. (I'm new to OSX.)

Phase Two would be then entail reformatting the main internal drive, partitioning it the same way as the second drive, and re-copying everything back onto the main internal.

De-installing everything, partitioning, installing the OS and then my software - starting from scratch - from the CDR's seems like a big PITA.

Is there an easier way that is secure as far as the authorizations are concerned? Is it reliable in terms of not corrupting the OS, applications or drivers? Or should I just bite the bullet and start from scratch? It's critical that the secondary drive as well as the main internal be rock solid.

Thanks for all your help.

Bill

[jimlongo]

Take a look at Carbon Copy Cloner. You can make a compressed disc image of your startup partition and restore it to multiple drives or machines.

[drBill]

Thanks Jim! That's exactly what I was looking for. Bill

[LFOT]

If you want to stay on the cheap with no bugs, you can do the same thing with the Disk Image part of Disk Utilities built into Mac OSX (10.3.xxx)

[jimlongo]

Not to be argumentative, but does DiskImage preserve ownership properly?

I thought it was not so trivial a matter to clone a startup disk.

BTW carbon copy cloner is freeware.

[MAXIMUSIC]

Carbon Copy Cloner does the job flawlessly, I have used it on 6 machines so far without a glitch.
Hope it helps.

[GADGE]

One more thing, you can use CCC to clone to a firewire drive and take it with you to use on any G4 or G5 systems... try that with a PC ......here is the site if you are interested.. http://www.bombich.com/mactips/image.html