Ticket Options

Question Profile

Question Details

TICKET ARCHIVE -> Cannot backup Firewire boot drive

jpeckham - Dec 20, 2006 - 5:28 am

Hello

I have a PPC Mac mini 1.42Ghz. The internal drive has failed so I am using an external Firewire drive as the boot drive which works fine (Lacie Mini Hard Drive and Hub 250GB).

I need to backup the drive but I can't do it from MAC OS X as the drive is in use. I can't seem to do it from Disk Utility either while booted from optical (Install DVD), as Disk Utility has the "New->Disk Image From (Select a Device)" option greyed out.

How do I make a backup of the Firewire drive (for restore later on in case of a failure)?

I also have an external USB 2.0 drive attached which I would like to store the disk image on (it's also possible to connect this via Firewire as well).

Many thanks for any advice you can offer.

bobw - Dec 20, 2006 - 8:02 am

Hi John

You can use SuperDuper to make a clone for later restore;

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/22126

bobw
http://www.macosx.com

jpeckham - Dec 20, 2006 - 12:37 pm

Hi, thanks for the advice on backup software.

I have tried SuperDuper but it hung a couple of hours into the full drive backup and brought the whole OS to its needs, forcing me to reboot the machine - not great.

I have tried Carbon Copy Cloner but that requires an internal drive boot drive (which I don't have, only firewire boot drive). Also tried CopyCatX but that needs to unmount Source and Target disks before copy, which again is not suitable for me.

Is there any other software that you would recommend that will do what I need? I simply need to create a bootable copy of my external Firewire drive which is the active drive MAC OS X is running on.

Once again, thank you for your help and support.

bobw - Dec 20, 2006 - 1:46 pm

John

I would try running Disk Utility booted off the OS disc on that drive. You may have some problems on it.

Then try a backup.

bobw
http://www.macosx.com

jpeckham - Dec 21, 2006 - 11:27 am

As it happens I have already taken the Mac Mini apart (a lot easier than I thought) to disconnect the internal drive - was getting daily kernel panics and suspected the failed drive to be the problem, although it turned out not to be the drive.

My problem is SuperDuper will not backup the external FireWire boot drive. I have:

1. Verified the external FireWire boot disk in Disk Utility. No problems reported.
2. Repaired the external FireWire boot disk in Disk Utility (DVD Install disc). Disk Utility reported that no repairs were necessary.
3. Attempted a full backup of entire FireWire lacie drive as a Sparse Image file to my other drive (USB 2.0).

I have repeated Step 3 a few times with the same result, the backup/copy hangs the whole system about halfway through.

The SuperDuper log file reports the following messages for each file:

WARNING: Caught I/O exception(5): Input/output error
WARNING: Source: {source file}, lstat:0
WARNING: Target: {target file}, lstat:0
Attempting to copy file using copyfile().
Attempting to copy file using ditto().
Successfully copied file.

Not sure if this is significant or not.

Now, I have been assuming up to now that I am able to backup my external FireWire drive with SuperDuper while it is booted into the OS.

Is this still possible? Or do I need to find another solution where I have to backup the drive from the DVD Install disc?

Note that as stated at the beginning of this post, Disk Utility (when booted from DVD Install disc) will not let me select my Lacie FireWire external drive to backup - the option is greyed out.

I'm a bit stuck at this stage. Thanks very much.

bobw - Dec 21, 2006 - 11:49 am

John

With the error 'Input/output error', there's a problem with the Firewire drive.

Either do an Archive and Install or reformat the drive.

bobw
http://www.macosx.com

jpeckham - Dec 21, 2006 - 12:19 pm

I have already reformtted the drive.

I have just done a complete reinstall of the OS, after first zero-erasing both free space and files on this Lacie drive. Having done that and in all other respects the drive is working perfectly, I can't see what drive problem there could be. I can't really return it at the moment as there isn't a hardware problem with it.

Thanks for your help.

bobw - Dec 22, 2006 - 8:20 am

John

Do you have another Firewire drive you can try to clone to?
Cloning to the other USB drive may be the problem.

bobw
http://www.macosx.com

jpeckham - Dec 24, 2006 - 11:22 am

I have tried attaching the other 250GB drive (MAXTOR OneTouch) with FireWire rather than USB. I have the same problem with SuperDuper backup though, it hangs as usual.

There is no visible or detectable fault whatsoever with the booted FireWire Lacie drive.

Is there any other alternative software to SuperDuper that I can try that will do the same job?

Thanks, John.

bobw - Dec 24, 2006 - 11:29 am

John

There are a couple other programs on VersionTracker you can try;

http://www.versiontracker.com/php/se...%7Cosx&x=0&y=0

I would also contact support for SuperDuper and see if they can resolve this problem;

dnanian@shirt-pocket.com

or

support@shirt-pocket.com

bobw
http://www.macosx.com