Cloning Mac hard drive

[skymut]

I am a pc guy hacking my way through a (30%) mac environment. I need to install a larger hdd in a power mac running 9.2.2. There is nothing wrong with the image on the current drive, the user just needs more capacity. I would like to clone the exsisting drive to the new drive, and then give the old drive a fresh image when I install it in a different mac. Question: Can this be done without the use of some third party software?

 

[Ecaboodle]

Yes install the second HDD, with the current drive still installed. Making sure like a PC you set it up as a slave.

Boot the machine up, then find Disk Utility. If not on the HDD it should be on the boot CD.

Format your NEW HDD and then just copy the original HDD to the new one.

Go to control panels, startup disk and select the new HDD. Reboot.

The new HDD should know be the one at the top of the drives on the left hand side. If you can't fix it in 20 minutes call someone who can.

 

[macgeneral]

Great explanation above!!

If the "new" Hard Drive is already installed, you could do your copying via firewire or Cat5 cross cable.

Same basic scenario ...copy from the old to the new then do the physical swap.

MacGeneral

 

[skymut]

Those steps sounded logical to me as well, and that is what I tried (before this thread post).

However, when both the original HDD and the new HDD (which has supposedly all the files copied over) are still in the mac, when you boot up to the new HDD, everything comes up exact. When you remove the old HDD, and boot to the new HDD, all the desktop settings are gone. I had read that there is a 'hidden' desktop database that stores all the info for the desktop.

Herein lies my concern, the user had created several folders ON HER DESKTOP (with lots of 'critical' files), as opposed to aliases pointing to folders on the HDD. I assume that those folders have to be on the HDD somewhere, but I was trying to basically get around having to completely recreate the user's desktop (MANY aliases and folders).

I hope all this makes sense. Thanks for your input.

 

[Zelandakh]

You are talking about the desktop db. I can't test it at the moment, but I believe you rebuild the desktop file before the copy, copy the data, change the boot up disk then rebuild the desktop file after restart it cures your problems...

 

[macgeneral]

This is one darn informational thread.

If the Desktp db IS the issue there's one more road here that might work...

Using ResEdit you could toggle invisible checkbox on that desktop db...which lives at the root level (just inside the Macintosh HD) once toggled visible and saved you could then drag and drop copy it. Making sure to toggle it back invisible at the destination.

ResEdit is a freebie and should come with a Mac General warning..ResEdit, in the hands of mere mortals, has the ability to wreak utter havoc on your file resources. Don't play with this thing! If you go this route, simply launch ResEdit, then File Menu | Get File/Folder Info and finder desktop db. ighlite and Get Info then uncheck the "invisible" box and close/save.

 

[skymut]

Downloaded ResEdit today, and had a look at it. Will try to copy over the desktop.db file, see if that doesn't help.
Thanks for the help.

 

[Ecaboodle]

No I dont think is that. I think that you need to copy the DESKTOP folder which is only avaliable if you share the HDD.
Which you can't do in this case.

So copy every thing that is on the desktop to the NEW HDD placing it in a folder, then remove the OLD HDD and reboot. Then just move the stuff that was on desktop (that you copied to the NEW HDD in that folder) back to the desktop. If you can't fix it in 20 minutes call someone who can.