SD and Safe Mode
 

I'm trying to clone my MacBook Pro's internal hard drive to a Firewire 800 drive, but running into a problem where copying speed drops to below a dismal 2MB/s, even when copying small files. The log shows no problems, nor does testing of either hard drive, so I'm thinking of booting into safe mode, and running the backup that way. While I understand that in normal use, it should not be necessary to run in safe mode to complete the process, is there any reason not to do so? In other words, will a SD clone performed using safe mode be in any way different from one performed normally?

Have you tried using USB or FireWire 400?

Dave:

Your response to rubenrp may have provided him with a solution. But, I would appreciate your comment to his question regarding any reason not to make backup in safe mode.

Thanks.

There's no problem backing up in Safe Boot if that's what you want to do.

Dave,

Thanks for the prompt reply. The enclosure I'm using (a Rosewill RX82-MP-SUF82 with the Oxford 934DSB chipset) only has Firewire 800 and USB ports available. The speed of the FW800 cloning process starts out fine, but drops to really low values later in the process, which is why I assumed a bad cable or interface was not to blame here. I've had trouble with USB enclosures before, which is why I did not try that route.

Come to think of it, have you heard of any problems with the Oxford 934DSB chipset?

Not that I've heard of, no, but there have been various Rumblings on the Internets about some FireWire issues with Snow Leopard. Haven't had any here, though, and no real data apart from said rumblings.

Some Apple Discussions rumblings, with possible workarounds:

• Firewire issues after Snow Leopard
• Problems with external dvd burner