backup drive

[notarichman]

Backup drive needed for 10.5/MacbookPro. Install CD won't recognize eSata drive. How to install OS?

I like to have a fully ready to go hard drive as my backup. If the hard drive fails, I want to immediately swap the bad with a good drive and get back to work. This limits my down time to the time it takes to swap drives (required anyway, if the drive fails). If we do it the Mac way, drives must be swapped, OS installed, then backup data restored. User would be down for at least eight hours under this scenario. Seems ridiculous that this is Mac's plan for recovery.

Can anyone suggest the easiest method of accomplishing a ready-to-swap hard drive, given the fact that the backup drive is eSata (connected through the PCI slot)? Thanks

 

[lizzyanne01]

you can sell it to your girlfriend?

 

[clayneal]

Myself and a great # of folks here use one of the following:

Carbon Copy Cloner - Home

SuperDuper!

Though after re-reading your post I am not sure about the e-sata drive being ideal...To do a "hot-swap" kinda like you want to do I would recommend buying a replacement drive , put it into an inclosure connected via firewire and then cloning it . Then if you needed to swap that quick you would be good to go . However just using a clone of my drive on an 3.5 ex drive I was able to complete a swap " once I received my new drive" in under 90 mins.


Hope this helps
Clay