Although I'm quite familiar with Windows, I know that Apple computers have their limitations. A bit 'one size fits all'. Again, for consumers and not in business settings: how easy/hard is it to create images ? I'm used to Macrium Reflect for Windows 7. I just plug in my external harddrive, use the bootable dvd when necessary ...
Try Acronis for Mac. Also, SuperDuper! and Carbon Copy Cloner are all OK beside Apple's own time machine. Free one: Clonezilla also works.
How's that for external harddrives ? Can you as easily plug them into a mac as in a pc ? If I'm not mistaken, most Apple computers don't have a dvd player ? Where do you boot from a USB ?
Hi Fly, In addition to using Time Machine (file backup), I use Terabyte's Image for Linux to make (cold) image backups of my MacBook Pro to an external drive. It does this relatively fast and reliably (while I've only restored an image file a few times it has worked perfectly)! Cruise
@Cruise, Thanks. Is the hardware part (connecting the harddrive) as easy an on a 'PC' (Windows) ? Not all Macs have a dvd player ... I'm used to putting a dvd in my computer when I want to restore an image. How does that work on a Mac ?
Why not use your USB ports and an IFL Bootable UFD? Works great on both my MBP and my PC (UFD is much faster than CD/DVD)!
For me the best tool for creating/restoring images in mac is the already included disk utility. How to use: - During boot press and hold down the "Command" and "R" keys. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201314 - In the recovery environment click the "disk Utility". -------Create a disk image-------- - There select your OSX partition (if you want to backup the system partition and the recovery partition that is hidden) or the entire disk if you want to backup all your partitions). - Now click the "New Image" button. Select where you want to store the image and press ok. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lc9uwKlPIxs ------Restore the partition from the image-------- - Select "file"/"open Disk Image" - Double click the disk Image on the side bar to mount it's partition structure - Click on the "Restore" button. - In the restore window DragnDrop the partition from the mounted image in the "Source" box and the real partition of your system in the "Destination" box and press restore. --------Restore Entire Disk------- - Select "file"/"open Disk Image" - Click on the "Restore" button. - In the restore window DragnDrop the image in the "Source" box and the disk in the "Destination" box and press restore. edit: For El Captan the layout is a bit differnet but other than that the functions remain the same Disk Utility (El Capitan): Create a disk image Disk Utility (El Capitan): Restore a disk image to a disk Panagiotis
Panagiotis, Does OS X 10's disk utility provide for building a Recovery UFD (in case of a catastrophic disk crash/failure)? Cruise
Yes and no... Apple installation disks from Leopard ,and probably before that, all included the disk utility, so one could always restore the backup. The Recovery partition was introduced with Lion. Imagine it as an installaion disk/partition without the installation files. Apple for Lion and Mountain Lion gave an utility Recovery Disk Assistance https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1433?locale=en_US that created an ufd with the recovery partition. For El capitan they do not give such an utility but you can create an installation usb https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372 . (which will do that same) If you want, you can also create a copy/duplicate of your system on an external usb drive (hdd, ssd or ufd) and boot it directly. So while restoring or backing-up you can continue using your system as you would normally (navigate the net, listen to music, watch a film, work, play, etc.). ps. You can also create a backup from inside the OS /hot backup (with the partition mounted) but it usually takes much more time and for that I avoid doing it.. Panagiotis
Hmm, that sounds convoluted to me, so I'll stick with IFL for image backups. As I replied to Fly, the same IFL UFD works great for Windows & OS-X, so I don't have to concern myself with learning the intricacies of different imaging programs for Windows and OS-X. Actually, for OS-X I use Time Machine all the time as it runs 'transparently' and I have found it to be very handy for recovering files (usually an older version of an updated file). But TM won't help if my MBP suffers a disk failure (hasn't happened yet, but it endures a lot of bumps on my business trips!) so I make IFL image backups of my MBP on a weekly basis. Since I don't have a TM-like program for Windows, I make IFL backups of my PC on a daily basis (which serves for both file and disaster recovery). Regards, Cruise