Cloning system to new drive

[videojanitor]

Hello! First-time poster here ...

I am running Leopard on a Mac mini and have a 160GB drive that I would like to use to replace (physically swap) the 80GB that shipped with, and is currently in the machine. I realize that SuperDuper! is not yet Leopard-compatible, so I am waiting for that to become available. In the meantime I wanted to make sure that what I have planned will indeed work!

Seems like this is simple enough, but let me know if I am missing anything here. My plan is to connect the new drive via a USB-to-SATA interface, use SuperDuper! to make a bootable clone of the existing internal drive, then swap out the drives. Is it just that easy?

I made bootable clones to FireWire drives under Tiger, and they seemed to work fine, but I wasn't sure if there was anything different to consider when the drive was destined to be the internal.

Any tips, tricks, advice appreciated!

[dnanian]

Assuming it's properly partitioned for your Mac, and you make sure the new drive is named the *same* as the old one, yes. Should work fine.

[videojanitor]

Dave, thanks for the quick and personal response! I setup the drive with a GUID partition table, which I believe is what it should be. I wasn't aware of the naming convention though -- it is OK to give the external drive the same name as the internal during the copy process, or should it be renamed after it's installed?

[dnanian]

Rename it before you try to start up from it.

[mikebore]

Rename it before you try to start up from it.

Could I ask why you recommend this?

I keep a clone on a partition of my internal with the same name as the boot, which means if my boot fails I can switch to it and all aliasses etc will be correct and I could carry right on.

I agree it is potentially confusing have two same name disks. When it comes to saving files etc, there is potential error of saving to wrong one. I actually Keep the clone unmounted to reduce this.

I have booted from the clone to test it without seeing a problem.

I should say I have only been doing this (same name for clone) since Leopard, and until SD is compatible I am using Disk Image to make the clone.

Is your reason for saying re-name the clone a Superduper! specific one, or for any clone?

Thanks

Mike

[videojanitor]

FYI, tonight just for yuks, I decided to try cloning my internal drive to a SATA drive connected via USB using Disk Utility. Although I had named my destination volume as simply "Seagate," as soon as I started the cloning process, Disk Utility immediately changed the name of the drive to "Mac mini HD," which is the name of my internal drive.

When the process was through, I put the cloned drive inside the mini, and so far, it is working great. Haven't noticed anything unusual (which isn't to say that I WON'T ...)

[dnanian]

I recommend the same name because aliases might resolve to the wrong volume if the drive names are different.

[mikebore]

I recommend the same name because aliases might resolve to the wrong volume if the drive names are different.

Understand! I thought you were saying he should rename it to something different.

[camner]

OK, I think I'm a bit confused here about the need/benefit of naming drives...

I've been using SD! for a number of years, and here's what I do:

1. I have a main drive I partition into two: G4 and SC
2. I then do a safety clone from G4 to SC sharing user/apps
3. I boot from SC and I'm happy as a clam
4. When I install new stuff (including incremental OS updates), I apply them to SC. Once I determine the machine is happy (usually days/weeks later), I boot from G4, apply all changes/updates since my last safety clone, and then remake a safety clone onto SC, and cycle back to step 3.
5. Periodically in this process I do a complete backup clone (not safety clone) onto another drive called G4 Backup. This has two purposes: (a) something really gets hosed on the G4/SC drive, (b) horrors! G4/SC physically crashes
6. Just to be on the safe side, I also back up my documents folder nightly to yet another drive, using Synk, and archive to protect myself from stupidly deleting a file I didn't mean to delete.

Now, where in this process should I be using two drives with the same name in order not to confuse aliases and get them resolved to the wrong plac? (I think this has happened to me before and I couldn't for the life of me figure out why some aliases were resolving to the wrong drive).

Aside: I don't frequent these forums often, but today I see there has been some "back and forth" recently that has gotten a bit heated. I just want to say that I consider SD! to be a lifesaver. I have (knock on wood..) never needed it to recover from a disaster, but I sleep better at night knowing I am less likely to lose stuff if disaster strikes, and I HAVE used SD! several times to upgrade my hard drives via cloning, although I admit to a bit of nervousness when I do so!

[dnanian]

It's just if you want to boot from G4 Backup, and the original volume is still there, renaming it ensures that aliases resolve to the backup and not to the original.