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kevs · Aug 9, 2005, 07:54 PM

I've heard suggested, that if you absolutely had to do a clean install, that it would be nice to have a "good" copy of the OS safely cloned somewhere on an external HD.

Now I always have recent clones that I'm updating, but I was thinking it might be good to have a copy, an older copy -- maybe like a few months old, i.e., that would be created "before" the problem arose -- whatever that problem will be.

But , some say, don't bother, or hassle it, cause you can never know the cutoff date, of when the corruption started -- it's to iffy to know if that "archived" -- older OS you cloned a few months ago -- had the problem or not.

Boy, I hope I explained that ok. Love to hear feedback on this -- weather to bother with an older "archived" OS or not.

chabig · Aug 9, 2005, 07:57 PM

I suppose it can't hurt, but I don't see any benefit that's worth the bother. If your OS gets messed up it's very easy to do an archive and install.

Chris

CanadaRAM · Aug 9, 2005, 08:03 PM

Absolutely a good idea. Main reason is that if you make the cloned backup bootable, then you can easily start from that to make any repairs on the main drive. You will also have all of your software and account specific options in place -- and if you identify a single plist or OS file that's borked, you can easily move a copy in rather than doing the whole install routine. Make sure you install any utilities as well on the cloned drive, like Disk Utility, DiskWarrior or TechTool if you have them

kevs · Aug 9, 2005, 10:13 PM

chabig: the assumption is, of course, that an archive and install failed to solve the issue (which actually just happened the other month)

canada: do you worry about the issue, that maybe the archived drive has the problem in it? that's the point, that you never know in time, when the problem is introduced.

chabig · Aug 9, 2005, 10:35 PM

Originally Posted by kevs

the assumption is, of course, that an archive and install failed to solve the issue (which actually just happened the other month)

I don't dispute what you say, but that would be very strange. An archive and install puts a fresh copy of the OS onto the disk. Theoretically, that ought to be even better than "a 'good' copy of the OS safely cloned somewhere on an external HD".

However, I personally do keep a clean copy of the OS on an external drive. I have two partitions on the external backup drive. One is simply a clean, bootable OS. The other partition if the one I clone to.

Chris

nforcer · Aug 9, 2005, 11:48 PM

I have other Mac OS X versions on various partitions for testing purposes, but I have found them extremely helpful in the event of problems with my main partition.

CanadaRAM · Aug 9, 2005, 11:53 PM

Originally Posted by kevs

chabig: the assumption is, of course, that an archive and install failed to solve the issue (which actually just happened the other month)

canada: do you worry about the issue, that maybe the archived drive has the problem in it? that's the point, that you never know in time, when the problem is introduced.

I agree that you can never be absolutely shure, but you'd choose a time to make the clone when you had tested and verified you were running fine. Y'wouldn't neccessarily go and clone a System that you were having trouble with...

CanadaRAM · Aug 9, 2005, 11:55 PM

Originally Posted by chabig

I don't dispute what you say, but that would be very strange. An archive and install puts a fresh copy of the OS onto the disk. Theoretically, that ought to be even better than "a 'good' copy of the OS safely cloned somewhere on an external HD".

Not necessarily, because the archive and install imports your user folders, libraries and plists sight unseen, including perhaps bad things... whereas the clone is a snapshot in time from when it WAS working well and presumably was 'frozen in time' before the problem was introduced.

wataru · Aug 10, 2005, 12:09 AM

If an Archive & Install doesn't do it, creating a new user will.

romeosc · Aug 10, 2005, 09:16 PM

I have 3 20 GB patitions on by 300 GB external Firewire drive.
I clone my PB drive to each one in rotation. I always have at least 2 bootable backups including data!

kevs · Aug 11, 2005, 12:27 AM

Ah: that's the answer I was looking for -- that you can make multiple partitions, and then archive an OS over several months, like you archive your documents folder.

Yes, the point was well made, the archive and install failed, which is rare, as did making a new user -- so I had to go to the extreme of a full clean install -- hence the idea of this thread -- as you don't want to do that more than a few times in your life.

(I was having massive permissions problems)