[shrakner]

I will be sending my computer in for AppleCare repair. As I have been told many times, I am backing up the computer, both Tiger & WinXP. I believe I should be able to copy/image everything and then use Target Disk Mode to copy everything back onto my hard drive the way it was when I sent it in.

However, I do not have sufficient space to image the entire Mac partition, since imaging the drive itself requires copying the free space as well. I tried using the "Create disk image from folder" option and chose the partition from there, but when I checked the total data in the partition versus the new, mounted disk image, the partition had about 100 MB more data on it. Would this still work? Is it somehow a result of the disk image having a more optimized file system (it's read-only). Should I still be able to use the Restore ability in Disk Utility to restore my drive?

[Madrag]

the images done that way on large discs usually are bigger.
Have you used the compression?

I've been doing disk images and restoring for years and it works great.
You could also (and I advise it) record some DVD RW with the most important stuff, just in case...

edit: the 100MB extra could be some swap file that was generated in the meantime...
(check at /var/vm )

[shrakner]

I did not use compression, and the comparison in sizes was between the mounted image and the actual drive, not the unmounted image.

I think I may be able to shuffle around enough disk space (I've got two external HDs) in order to get a 100 or so GB free partition to use to backup the entire drive using the Create Image from Disk option.

Would another option be to just use the Restore function in Disk Utility to copy everything to a Read/Write disk image, and then convert it to Read Only?

[rehoot]

I'm not sure how much disk space is involved, but if you boot from your Mac OS X install disk, then fish through the menus and choose "Run Disk Utility" you can create a compressed image of your disk as long as the target volume is visible at that time (perhaps even network attached storage would work). I do this with an external hard drive and the resulting file does NOT grow according to blank space on the source drive. I created a clone of my G4 Power book and it is 36 Gigabytes, which is almost the exact size of space used on my disk.

ALSO, PRINT THIS IF YOU HAVE NOT ALREADY MEMORIZED IT: when you restore the drive from an image, boot from the original Mac OS X install disk, choose "Run Disk Utility" from the menu, then click on the icon for the install disk. DO NOT click on the icon for the target drive because you might then have trouble unmounting it. Use the restore tab on the top right and point to the .dmg file that contains the saved image as the source. Drag the icon of you main hard drive as the target.

You might want to then run "Repair Permissions" and "Repair Disk" from disk utility to check the new image, and when you quit Disk Utility and the Installer program (using the File menu on the top left), you might want to choose the option for "Start Disk" to select the volume to use as the boot drive. I have had problems when I had too many available boot volumes and I had to use this option.

[rehoot]

Originally Posted by shrakner 

I did not use compression, and the comparison in sizes was between the mounted image and the actual drive, not the unmounted image.

...

Would another option be to just use the Restore function in Disk Utility to copy everything to a Read/Write disk image, and then convert it to Read Only?

Create a compressed image that is read only, and create it by booting from the original Mac OS X install disk as described in my other post. If you are short on space, do not use encryption.

[shrakner]

rehoot, I followed the instructions on your first post, and it imaged the drive at least twice as fast as before. I then ran the "Check Image for Restore" option, and that came back OK. But when I check the total data on both the drive and the backup, there's a discrepancy. Again, I'm looking at the mounted disk image, not the image file, and the HD is being read while the computer is booted off the Install DVD.

Original Drive: 55,181,967,360 bytes used
Imaged Backup: 55,170,764,800 bytes used.

Should I be worried about this? I think I might be able to shuffle around enough to be able to image the entire computer, both the Mac & WinXP partitions. Would that be a better option?

Thanks for your help.

[rehoot]

Originally Posted by shrakner 

...when I check the total data on both the drive and the backup, there's a discrepancy. Again, I'm looking at the mounted disk image, not the image file, and the HD is being read while the computer is booted off the Install DVD.

Original Drive: 55,181,967,360 bytes used
Imaged Backup: 55,170,764,800 bytes used.

I don't know why the numbers would be different unless the new drive is not partioned the same as it was before. When I looked at my last image, I just looked at the gigabyte numbers to one decimal place, so I might not have noticed a 10MB difference.

The safest option is to make an extra copy of your most important files (such as on CD or DVD) and accept the image file that you have. As long as you have a double copy of your most important files, you could always reformat and start from there (it might be a pain, but it is not the end of the world).

If your image process completed and is mountable and you can copy a file from it, then I would call it good.