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  #1  
Old 10-17-2010, 02:41 AM
Paint Guy Paint Guy is offline
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Startup Disc and Hard Drive Partitioning Questions

Hi, I just bought two 2 TB Firewire Mac Hard Drives. I want to use the drives for:

? File Storage
? Software Backup
? Startup Disc

I want to copy the same information to both drives and will store one onsite and one offsite. I have a few questions I don't understand though so if someone could explain a few things I'd appreciate it. Thanks.

1. Backing up Applications
Is there a way to store/save my applications on the drive so if my computer crashed I wouldn't have to reinstall the software and serial no's etc? What's involved to do this? Please explain.

2. Can I use the Hard Drive as a Computer?
Is it possible to use a part of my 2TB Hard Drive as a computer if my computer crashed and is this called a "Startup Disc"?
For example let's say my computer bit the dust, is it possible to connect to my 2TB external drive and still use the applications and then drag them onto a new computer? How would I set this up?

3. Partition Sizes?
Can I partition the drive into different parts and if so how do I determine how much space to partition for applications, startup and storage?


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Last edited by Paint Guy; 09-18-2011 at 02:46 PM.
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  #2  
Old 10-17-2010, 02:01 PM
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dnanian dnanian is offline
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1. While you can often install the software *application* on an external drive, most applications have other content that gets installed in the system folder. As such, you can't really do what you're trying to do, no.

2. I don't really understand the question. You can certainly use a full "Backup - all files" as your startup drive, if that's what you mean, if the internal goes down. This is explained in a lot of detail in the User' sGuide.

3. I have no way of answering this. You sort of have to look at your situation and decide how big your partitions should be...
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Old 10-17-2010, 08:36 PM
TMay TMay is offline
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fb

Maybe I can help a little. First, if you are going to do complete SuperDuper backups of your computer's hard drive, then you don't need to separate the three "functions" or whatever you would call them in your list. The backup disk will have all that information on it: it will have your applications, ready to use, all of the rest of your information, and a functioning operating system (the same one that is on the computer you are backing up.)

This also means there is no need to partition your new drives. (Which as you probably know is done with the Mac's built-in application Disk Utility, when you do need to partition.)

Either one of these backup drives, when plugged into any other Mac and set/selected as the startup drive will boot and run that machine just like you were running the one you copied from (assuming of course that they are Macs that will run the system version in question, etc.)

You test all this by (after you are through with the copying) trying first one drive, and then the other, as a startup disk for your present machine to make sure they work.

Hope this helped. (Notice everything in this answer assumes you are going to be using "Backup--all files" as your copy script in the main SuperDuper window.)
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Old 10-20-2010, 04:56 PM
Paint Guy Paint Guy is offline
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Thanks Dave and TMay.

I have read the Super Duper manual but I am confused as to the best way to do this. Here's what I'm thinking might work. Please tell me if this is correct?

I have 4 Drives.

A 100GB LaCie Drive (business and graphic storage)
A 300 GB Mac Hard Drive (Macintosh Hard Drive)
A 2 TB External Firewire Drive (Currently Empty)
A 2 TB External Firewire Drive (Currently Empty)

What I wanted to do was to keep one of the 1TB drives at home and store the other 1TB drives off the premises. Maybe I will have to "Clone" my Mac Hard Drive to a separate External Drive and then use 2 separate drives for storing my artwork. Here's why. If I Clone my Mac Hard Drive to my 2TB external drive then how do I also "Add" my artwork to the 2TB external drive without erasing the existing contents? Is this even possible if I want the 2TB external to be "Bootable".

I want to "weekly" Clone my Mac Hard Drive to the 2 TB External drives and then store one of them off site. The problem is my mac Hard Drive is only 300 GB and I have more files than will fit on my mac hard drive so how do I do this?

Here's what I thought might work. Please see if my steps are correct.

1. First I will copy all of my Artwork and Business Files from the External LaCie to the 2 TB Drive.
Super Duper Application:
Copy: "LaCie HD" to "2 TB Drive"
using: "Backup All Files"
During copy: Smart Update
Now all of my graphics should be copied from my 100 GB LaCie Drive to the 2 TB Drive.

2. Now I want to Clone my Mac HD to the 2 TB Drive.
Super Duper Application:
Copy: "Mac HD" to "2 TB Drive"
using: "Backup All Files"
During copy: Smart Update (Smart Update will not erase files already on the external 2 TB Drive)

Now my Mac Hard Drive should be cloned to the 2 TB Drive.

3. Now my external 2 TB drive will have all of the (files and artwork) of my LaCie and a Clone of the Mac Hard Drive and the 2TB external drive will be bootable so if my mac crashes then I can boot from the 2 TB Drive. Is this correct?

4. Now I can just clone the 2TB Drive to the other 2TB drive and then store it offsite.
Super Duper Application:
Copy: "2 TB Drive" to "2 TB Drive"
using: "Backup All Files"
During copy: Smart Update (Smart Update will not erase files already on the external 2 TB Drive)

5. Then weekly I will have to manually Clone the 2TB Drive to the other 2TB drive as I will be adding new artwork and files to the 2TB drive that is onsite.

My only fear is if I select the wrong setting then I will totally write over either my artwork or my applications. Is there a better way to do this or is this the best way? Should I be cloning my Hard Drive to a separate drive than my artwork? This would prevent me from overwriting something I don't want to over write. Please explain in detail. Thanks.

Also how do I know if my new Mac 2TB Firewire Drive is GUID or not. It probably is because it's a new drive. If I plug it in and Super Duper recognizes it (it's not greyed out) then am I good to go?
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Last edited by Paint Guy; 09-18-2011 at 02:46 PM.
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  #5  
Old 10-20-2010, 07:11 PM
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dnanian dnanian is offline
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You partition the 2TB drive into two (or more) volumes, at least one per source volume. LaCie HD goes to LaCie HD Backup. Mac HD goes to Mac HD Backup...
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Old 10-20-2010, 07:32 PM
Paint Guy Paint Guy is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dnanian View Post
You partition the 2TB drive into two (or more) volumes, at least one per source volume. LaCie HD goes to LaCie HD Backup. Mac HD goes to Mac HD Backup...
Thanks Dave, ok, that make sense so when I use Super Duper I can choose which drive I want and apply the settings that best apply to that drive. I think I'll call one: "Artwork Backup" and the Other "Mac HD Backup". That should work shouldn't it?

I am thinking of partitioning the drive this way. My Mac Hard Drive is currently 300 GB which is OS and Applications.

Mac HD Backup: 500GB
Artwork Backup: 1.5 TB
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= Total 2TB

Just out of curiosity, what if I don't divide it right at the beginning. I'll bet I'll have to reformat/erase the whole drive to change the partition size. Correct?
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Last edited by Paint Guy; 09-18-2011 at 02:46 PM.
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Old 10-20-2010, 07:37 PM
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dnanian dnanian is offline
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Just remember that your 1.5TB, if you're going to use SD! to copy to it, can only be used for that purpose. If you want to store other items on the drive, you'll want another partition.

iPartition (and Disk Utility in some limited situations) can change partition sizes nondestructively.
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