Question on cloning HD to another on same computer

[dakota]

I have been trying to copy my HD to another drive (firewire) on a regular basis, but I have learned, unfortunately, that the documents folder, and the entire"Home" portion are not really copied, they are the same items.  Therefore, if I delete an app on the HD, it disappears from the cloned drive.  If I want to keep backing up by copying the drive on a regular basis so I can retrieve an item if something gets lost or damaged on my main HD, how do I do it, and what do I copy to, to have an actual copy and not just a mirror of the items?  I read somewhere that you can not have one user with more than one location.  Do I have to back up to a CD or zip??    

[gmann]

I have two HD's in my 933 and I just use Carbon Copy Cloner to backup to the second drive.  It just adds what is not on the second drive without changing simularities.

[dakota]

Yes, I am aware of that. The problem here is that the Documents folder is the same folder, whether on the main HD or the cloned drive.  If that folder were to disappear from the main HD, it also disappears from the cloned drive.  The idea behind cloing is to have a backup copy of all the items, but if the cloned copy disappears along with the original, there is no backup.  Same situation if one item becomes corrupted - the cloned copy becomes corrupted with it.  This applies to everything in the "Home" window.  So - how do you get a copy which is not just a mirror of the original?

[tacit]

You use Carbon Copy Cloner. It copies all the information from one hard drive to another.

If you change the information on one hard drive it does not change the information on the other. Think about this for a second: If you clone one hard drive to another, then take that other hard drive and disconnect it from your computer and turn it off, then delete a file from your Home directory, how can it delete the file from the other hard drive? If the hard drive is not even attached to the computer, the information on it can't be changed.

I'm not quite sure what problem you are having, but I think you are not understanding what is going on. If you attach the second hard drive and click the button called "Home," it takes you to the home directory ON THE BOOT DISK. The Home button always takes you to the BOOT DISK; it does not matter what hard drive icon you opened. Opening the second hard drive and clicking the button called "Home" does not take you to the Home directory on the second hard drive, it takes you to the home directory on the boot disk!

To get to the Home directory on the second hard drive, double click the second hard drive, then double-click the folder called Users, then double-click the name of the user you want.

[dakota]

Oka-a-a-ay!  That was beginning to dawn on me, but it sounded a little too simplistic.  That's what comes from looking for a more complicated answer!  Got it now! Only one other question.  If I clone the HD, will I able to boot from the cloned version or do I have to do an actual unstall of the system on the clone first??

[bil207]

Carbon Copy Cloner will create an exact bootable copy of the OS X volume, no need to install the sytem.

BTW, Carbon Copy Cloner will also make an exact bootable copy of an OS 9.xx volume.