The Joys of Cloning Your Drives/Partitioning etc...

[chriskleeman]

So I'm just curious... This is my first go-around with partitioning a drive and:

I partitioned a 250 GB into 3 more or less even sections. in one partition, I cloned my MDD drive, and I can boot to that no problem, running 10.3.9

I also cloned the iBook to another partition, and when I try to boot the MDD from that, I get a Kernal Panic, and it won't boot. Is that because the iBook system, running 10.4.8, is somehow specific to the architecture of the iBook? I could boot the iBook from my original MDD drive from the Firewire enclosure in Safe Boot Mode, so I'm just a little curious.

I haven't tried to boot the iBook from that partition, perhaps I will now just to see what happens...

Chris K

[kelly]

I don't recommend Cloning Laptops to Desktops and vice versa.

You had an emergency before but it's not good if you don't have to.

Yes they will be different.

[gunug]

I "suspect" that the problem might be with a difference in the video drivers.  That is the single most striking difference I can see other than the class of processor perhaps.

[Jack W]

How about using Migration Assistant to clone a desktop to a notebook or the other way?
That's what I did and it went quite well.

Jack

Edited to add:

Whoops!
That'll teach me to read the post more thoroughly.

Why are you trying to boot the MDD from the iBook partition?

[chriskleeman]

QUOTE

From Jack W:
 Why are you trying to boot the MDD from the iBook partition?

Just to see if it can be done, of course!  

Because I like to live dangerously!

No, the real reason is that I am just wondering if I can in case the iBook dies for some reason... After the MDD power supply died, I don't trust any of 'em any more!!!   And, the word from the repair facility, GalaxyHP is that I can expect it to die again in a year or two... sounds like fun to me...

I realize if the iBook drive fails, which a lot of them do, that regular back-ups to the Firewire drive will make the process much easier if that happens. I am just wondering if in the meanwhile, it could actually be booted from another machine. I'm just a fun guy trying to have more fun

Seriously, I'm exploring all the possibilities should something happen again in the future, and this is part of the process.

By the way, the recommendations on this site for SuperDuper are just that... what a great program, I highly recommend it to anyone who does not have a back-up program

I'm trying to reconfigure my old 9600 to boot from the MDD Clone as well, but that's a whole other deal, involving XPostFacto, which Kris is trying to help out with. So far my old machine shows nothing but kernal panics when trying to do so.

Thanks for the info,

Chris K

[jguti]

Is there an Apple reference regarding booting an iMac running 10.4.9 from a 250 gig ext HD running 10.3(Panther).  The iMac didn't boot up from the external as I was trying to demo a video for our school.

[Paddy]

jguti, it depends on the iMac. If it's one that shipped with a later version of the OS than 10.3, then you're out of luck. Won't work. And check the version of 10.3 too - if it shipped with 10.3.9 and you're trying to run it with 10.3.7 on the external drive, that won't work.

Chris, even if you can't boot from the iBook partition using the MDD (and I don't think you will be able to do this) the data will be accessible to you via the MDD. And in the end, that's all that matters!

[chriskleeman]

QUOTE(Paddy @ Jan 27 2007, 03:45 PM) [snapback]117157[/snapback]

jguti, it depends on the iMac. If it's one that shipped with a later version of the OS than 10.3, then you're out of luck. Won't work. And check the version of 10.3 too - if it shipped with 10.3.9 and you're trying to run it with 10.3.7 on the external drive, that won't work.

Chris, even if you can't boot from the iBook partition using the MDD (and I don't think you will be able to do this) the data will be accessible to you via the MDD. And in the end, that's all that matters!

Paddy,

True, true, true... so what happens on the iBook, stays on the iBook... but unlike going to Las Vegas, you want to know what you've done anyway!

I've learned a bunch through this experience, and I'm just happy to be up and running again... now back to the 9600...

Chris K

[MamaMoose]

I am about to clone my boot volume (OS 10.4. on my dual 2GHz G5 PPC  to my G4 15" Al laptop. My plan is to start with the G4 in FireWire Target Disc Mode. Then when the Laptop hard drive appears in the G5 desktop, clone the G5 boot volume to the laptop's volume.

Will this work or will the difference between the G4 amd the G5 PPC preclude success?

MamaMoose

[krissel]

You may have some problems going from one processor to another let alone desktop to laptop. But I was able to clone my 9600 (G4/700) to an external FW, then boot to it via XPostFacto off my Wallstreet (G3/466). Cloned that partition to the reformatted internal drive on the Wallstreet which has run perfectly since. Then again I believe the newer machines have become more picky about the OS being tuned to a particular hardware setup.

Or maybe I was just lucky.

[chriskleeman]

QUOTE(krissel @ Jan 30 2007, 12:58 AM) [snapback]117392[/snapback]

You may have some problems going from one processor to another let alone desktop to laptop. But I was able to clone my 9600 (G4/700) to an external FW, then boot to it via XPostFacto off my Wallstreet (G3/466). Cloned that partition to the reformatted internal drive on the Wallstreet which has run perfectly since. Then again I believe the newer machines have become more picky about the OS being tuned to a particular hardware setup.

Or maybe I was just lucky.

Maybe, maybe not... I was able to boot my 9600 to the Firewire drive partition of the MDD via XPostFacto exactly one time. Since then, the 9600 takes forever to recognize the Firewire drive, and when I try to boot in X via XPostFacto, the machine hangs for a very long time, and then I get a very weird B&W login screen looking for a password. Due to repeated shut-downs of the Firewire drive during repeated attempts to get the 9600 to recognize the drive may have damaged the partitions...so sometime in the next few days I may re-clone the MDD drive and see if that helps it boot up again... I spent a lot of time on this, and it took at least 6 times before XPostFacto would actually run through all the way to the boot process, and then it booted correctly only  that one time.

P.S. I was able to get a 9.1 Install disk, so I have installed a fresh 9.1 System Folder on the 9600.

Chris K

[krissel]

Chris, are you checking the install of 9.1 as a 'helper' in the XPF startup window? That may speed things up. Also try putting the speed at about 8-12 which slows down the initial start of XPF and allows the hardware to catch up to the software.

In the 'options' of XPF you can check your keyboard as 'input' and your video card as 'output' and check 'verbose' if you want to see the text scroll on screen and see where the hangup is. That may give you some clue as to what is holding up the process.

[chriskleeman]

QUOTE(krissel @ Feb 2 2007, 03:59 AM) [snapback]117675[/snapback]

Chris, are you checking the install of 9.1 as a 'helper' in the XPF startup window? That may speed things up. Also try putting the speed at about 8-12 which slows down the initial start of XPF and allows the hardware to catch up to the software.

In the 'options' of XPF you can check your keyboard as 'input' and your video card as 'output' and check 'verbose' if you want to see the text scroll on screen and see where the hangup is. That may give you some clue as to what is holding up the process.

Thanks Kris...   yes, the install of 9.1 is the "helper drive"... I will check those other options as well, but the speed is as low as it goes, I don't remember where I put it, but I think it was the lowest setting. I will give it a go maybe tomorrow again after I install and clone the new Seagate 250 GB drive in the MDD, and then verify the Firewire drive to make sure the data wasn't damaged with all the re-starts.

 

CK