How To Backup To External USB HD

I hope this will be useful; it took me a while to figure out, even with info on these forums. I thought gathering it all in one place might help somebody else.

These are instructions on how to make a bootable OS X backup to an external USB HD. This worked for me, on an iATKOS 4i install (per the excellent guide in this forum).

There are two sets of instructions. The first is what I actually did, the second is a shorter, simpler process that I believe will work but have not verified.

1) Use disk utility to format the USB drive to a single partition, with MBR (under options on the partition screen)

2) Install the iATKOS 4i image to the USB HDD, per step 3 of SbM's instructions here: viewtopic.php?f=14&t=1505 (Do not install any drivers or kexts, we simply want a bootable OS on the external drive)

The next two steps are slight elaborations of SbM's instructions above, not departures from them.

3) Download osx86tools version 1.0.149 from: http://code.google.com/p/osx86tools/dow ... nloadCount (Note that this is a deprecated version and set the popup to show all downloads... version 1.0.150 did not work for me)

4) Run osx86tools and click "Install EFI/Run FDISK" and install the Chameleon EFI on the external USB drive. Don't worry that it doesn't ask you which partition to install on right away; that's the last step. You'll need to enter your admin password.

5) Verify that you can now boot from USB HDD (don't actually run the OS X installer once it comes up)

6) Reboot back onto your internal HD

7) Download SuperDuper (http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/)

8) Dupe your internal HD onto your external HD

9) Repeat step 4. This is important; it will not boot otherwise. (Or, at least, mine wouldn't.)

10) Verify that you can boot from your USB HD. It has osx86tools and SuperDuper on it, so you can use it to restore your internal HD with this same procedure.

Simpler (untested) Procedure (see above instructions for download locations and details):

1) Download SuperDuper

2) Download OSX86Tools, version 1.0.149

3) Dupe your internal HD onto your external HD

4) Run OSX86Tools and FDisk/Install EFI to put Chameleon EFI on USB HDD

5) Verify that you can boot from your USB copy

 

Thanks for your tutorial!
I will try it this weekend.

 

I can confirm that both versions of the tutorial work.

I kinda messed up my backup by using the newer version of OSX86 Tools. Once I used the deprecated version TWICE, my backup was bootable.

The question I have is how do I restore the backup to the Aspire One? Using SuperDuper? If I need to install Chameleon again with the deprecated version, how do I choose the AAO drive instead of my external USB backup drive? currently selecting 1 always defaults to the external drive.

 

A bump for my last question:

 

My plan is to boot from the external drive, SuperDuper my data back to the internal disk, and then use osx86tools (if necessary) while booted from the external disk to fix the internal drive. I thought that the osx86tools would let me select the internal drive if I had not booted from it, since I saw it when I fixed the USB drive. If it is not, in fact, possible to select the internal drive when booted from the external drive then I will need to explore other options.

 

I could not select The AAO internal drive when booted from the external... or at least I didn't see a way to select it.

It showed me both the external drive and the internal drives but no way to select it.

 

Anyone else tried to restore their backup? Were you successful?

 

I use Carbon Copy Cloner(free) and Chameleon(also free) it also gets the job done!


SticMAN