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How to copy an external hdd to mac then to a diff ext hdd?
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<blockquote data-quote="Mixam" data-source="post: 959636" data-attributes="member: 135059"><p>I guess it's understandable someone wouldn't understand, I should stop posting when its late and I'm tired. I reread my post and I must say I'm impressed you actually figured out basically what I was trying to say.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I had tried originally to sort through the stuff on the hard drive and save what I wanted. However I couldn't see some of the files (thanks for that code btw it worked now I can see them) so I decided to make an exact copy which I could weed through later. I need to give the old hard drive back to the person I sold the computer to once I'm done backing it up to the new external drive I bought. I did manage to make a .dmg file of the hard drive onto my wife's Imac but I was not sure if it included everything because a) it was smaller than it should have been and b) I couldn't see some of the files I needed. So now that I can see the files are there in the .dmg file I assume it is a copy of the entire contents of the drive but was compressed somehow.</p><p></p><p>Now to answer your questions: </p><p>-I can't mount both the hard drives at once as I only have one external hdd enclosure.</p><p>-The original hdd I'm trying to back up is a 500Gb one, but it only has about 120Gb of files</p><p>-The Imac hdd is 200Gb approx but it does have 150Gb or so of space</p><p>-The new hdd I'm trying to get the stuff onto is also 500Gb</p><p>-The Imac currently has what I now believe is a good image of the old hard drive on it that is compressed slightly and is about 95Gb in size.</p><p>-This is what disk utility says when I click on the .dmg image </p><p>Disk Description : Apple UDIF read-only compressed (zlib) Total Capacity : 500.11 GB (500,107,862,016 Bytes)</p><p>Connection Bus : Disk Image </p><p>Disk Write Status : Read Only</p><p>Partition Map Scheme : Master Boot Record</p><p>Disk Image Path : /Macintosh HD/Users/Trish/Desktop/WDC WD50 00AAKS-22YGA0 Media.dmg</p><p>-I would prefer to make an exact copy now so I can sort through it later when I get my computer up and running.</p><p></p><p>I know one of the problems I've had with trying to move the image onto the new hdd is that it is formatted in fat as the disk utility couldn't format to ntfs. So if you know of a way I can format the new hdd to ntfs that would overcome one of the problems. However as I've said when I copy some of the files and not the ones that are too large I still get another error and I don't know what file is causing that error. I ran into the same problem when I was trying to copy the files over manually instead of as an entire disk image. I was unable to find out which file was causing the problem. It must have been one of the hidden files that I couldn't see at the time.</p><p></p><p>Is there a way I can figure out what format the disk image I have is in so I can format the new hdd to that? I believe I would have chosen ntfs at the time, but I can't be sure it was a long time ago. If it is ntfs is there a way I can format it to that using the Imac? Is there a way to tell which file is causing the problem and if so a way to skip that file but move over everything else? It seems to me the problem is with the built in copy/paste in the Imac as Disk utility was able to make an image of the disk with no problem, but copy and paste wouldn't work.</p><p></p><p>Hopefully I came accross more clearly this time. Thanks for your time.</p><p></p><p>Edit: The external hdd initially had ntfs on it I believe but I couldn't paste to it. I assumed that there was something wrong with it since I couldn't paste to it. I'm pretty sure the hdd I was trying to back up was ntfs so I figured if I could read from it mac had ntfs support. But it appears mac only has read support built in, is that correct? I found some mention of being able to format read and write in ntfs in a post online here is a quote</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>So if I used that would I be able to format the drive to ntfs and then be able to write to ntfs so I could put the drive image I have on it?</p><p></p><p>Edit 2: Also is there a format I could use on the ext hdd that would allow me to use it with windows, mac and linux? The temporary computer I will be having is an old laptop of mine running Ubuntu which if i recall I formatted using ext4. If fat32 would do the job on all those platforms I guess I could just break up my large video files and then I wouldn't have a problem.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Mixam, post: 959636, member: 135059"] I guess it's understandable someone wouldn't understand, I should stop posting when its late and I'm tired. I reread my post and I must say I'm impressed you actually figured out basically what I was trying to say. I had tried originally to sort through the stuff on the hard drive and save what I wanted. However I couldn't see some of the files (thanks for that code btw it worked now I can see them) so I decided to make an exact copy which I could weed through later. I need to give the old hard drive back to the person I sold the computer to once I'm done backing it up to the new external drive I bought. I did manage to make a .dmg file of the hard drive onto my wife's Imac but I was not sure if it included everything because a) it was smaller than it should have been and b) I couldn't see some of the files I needed. So now that I can see the files are there in the .dmg file I assume it is a copy of the entire contents of the drive but was compressed somehow. Now to answer your questions: -I can't mount both the hard drives at once as I only have one external hdd enclosure. -The original hdd I'm trying to back up is a 500Gb one, but it only has about 120Gb of files -The Imac hdd is 200Gb approx but it does have 150Gb or so of space -The new hdd I'm trying to get the stuff onto is also 500Gb -The Imac currently has what I now believe is a good image of the old hard drive on it that is compressed slightly and is about 95Gb in size. -This is what disk utility says when I click on the .dmg image Disk Description : Apple UDIF read-only compressed (zlib) Total Capacity : 500.11 GB (500,107,862,016 Bytes) Connection Bus : Disk Image Disk Write Status : Read Only Partition Map Scheme : Master Boot Record Disk Image Path : /Macintosh HD/Users/Trish/Desktop/WDC WD50 00AAKS-22YGA0 Media.dmg -I would prefer to make an exact copy now so I can sort through it later when I get my computer up and running. I know one of the problems I've had with trying to move the image onto the new hdd is that it is formatted in fat as the disk utility couldn't format to ntfs. So if you know of a way I can format the new hdd to ntfs that would overcome one of the problems. However as I've said when I copy some of the files and not the ones that are too large I still get another error and I don't know what file is causing that error. I ran into the same problem when I was trying to copy the files over manually instead of as an entire disk image. I was unable to find out which file was causing the problem. It must have been one of the hidden files that I couldn't see at the time. Is there a way I can figure out what format the disk image I have is in so I can format the new hdd to that? I believe I would have chosen ntfs at the time, but I can't be sure it was a long time ago. If it is ntfs is there a way I can format it to that using the Imac? Is there a way to tell which file is causing the problem and if so a way to skip that file but move over everything else? It seems to me the problem is with the built in copy/paste in the Imac as Disk utility was able to make an image of the disk with no problem, but copy and paste wouldn't work. Hopefully I came accross more clearly this time. Thanks for your time. Edit: The external hdd initially had ntfs on it I believe but I couldn't paste to it. I assumed that there was something wrong with it since I couldn't paste to it. I'm pretty sure the hdd I was trying to back up was ntfs so I figured if I could read from it mac had ntfs support. But it appears mac only has read support built in, is that correct? I found some mention of being able to format read and write in ntfs in a post online here is a quote So if I used that would I be able to format the drive to ntfs and then be able to write to ntfs so I could put the drive image I have on it? Edit 2: Also is there a format I could use on the ext hdd that would allow me to use it with windows, mac and linux? The temporary computer I will be having is an old laptop of mine running Ubuntu which if i recall I formatted using ext4. If fat32 would do the job on all those platforms I guess I could just break up my large video files and then I wouldn't have a problem. [/QUOTE]
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How to copy an external hdd to mac then to a diff ext hdd?
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