new MBP and making a clone... a few questions....

[mrstucci]

Hi-I have a new 2.53mhz MBP with a 500GB hard drive. I am planning to use an external fire wire drive to do a clone on. Right now it has my old Time Machine backup on it (which I plan to erase beforehand). It has about 750GB capacity. I am wondering if I can do a clone on that drive-if there is enough room on it for such a large hard drive. That is question number 1. Question number 2: in reading the Users Guide, if I read it correctly, once the clone is made I should boot up from that and not the internal drive within my computer. Is that correct? Is that to ensure that it is kept up to date? But what do I do when I take my MBP somewhere and don't take the drive..... what about that scenario? That would mean that my internal hard drive isn't up to date. I guess I missed that part when I created a clone with my old MBP-I just did updates to the clone now and then. Question 3: If I don't boot up with the clone and boot up with my internal drive, will doing a Smart Update keep my clone up to date? Sorry about all the questions but I do want to do this right! Judy

[dnanian]

1. Yes, there's more than enough room, since your source is 500GB and your backup is 750GB.

2. No, that's just to test the backup. Remember: a Sandbox is NOT a backup, if you're reading that section. In fact, a Sandbox is generally for the more advanced user.

3. Yes. Starting up from the backup just tests it. You don't want to run from the backup, it's just to get comfortable with the idea of starting up from a backup, and to make sure you've done everything right before you're forced to use it due to a failure.

[mrstucci]

Thanks for the reply-that clarified those questions I had. Judy