How to put my entire HD on an external HD

hey guys
i am wanting to essentially "mirror" my HD on an external WD passport drive i have. my internal is 100GB and my WD passport is 120 so i know i am fine on space but how do i go about making sure they are identical? i want to make sure i keep all the apps, pics, music, etc... and with that i have one other question... can i then just drag those apps back onto another computer? I know its possible with smaller apps but what about final cut and CS3?
thanks
jared

you can use an app like carboncopycloner which is a great app for making primary hdd clones so you have an exact copy of your primary hdd.

does "superduper" clone applications too???
is the free version going to be all i need?

carboncopycloner will do my apps too?

Yes, either will work.

Just read the guide in my sig.

great thanks so much... and i have one more question after reading your great instructions...
when i hook this WD passport up to a new mac will i be able to drag those apps (like final cut and cs3) to the new one (as long as i have copied down my serial codes somewhere)?

jrod81 said:

when i hook this WD passport up to a new mac will i be able to drag those apps (like final cut and cs3) to the new one (as long as i have copied down my serial codes somewhere)?

Click to expand...

I don't know about Final Cut but CS3 needs to be installed so no you can't just drag the app over to your new Mac. Apps that don't use an installer you can drag over.

If you just bought a new Mac to replace your old one then you should use Migration Assistant instead. It will copy over basically everything from your old Mac to the new one. If you don't want that then you can also use Target Disk Mode with a firewire connection and only copy over specific files.

jrod81 said:

great thanks so much... and i have one more question after reading your great instructions...
when i hook this WD passport up to a new mac will i be able to drag those apps (like final cut and cs3) to the new one (as long as i have copied down my serial codes somewhere)?

Click to expand...

You won't need the serials, as long as you're the original owner.

SuperDuper will copy everything (apps, preferences, appearances, settings) etc.

So just plug in your external hard drive, format it if needed, then run SuperDuper to back up to it. SuperDuper creates a full copy of your hard drive.

The "clone" created with either Super Duper or Carbon Copy Cloner should be fine as far as the serial numbers go. I do recommend that when the clone is complete you attempt to boot from the clone. I clone regularly and 99% of the time everything is fine but I did have one instance where I could boot from the clone but could not log in.