Software Copy

[aaron1970]

I have a Mac G5. I would like to copy my software before I wipe the drive. Is this even possible.
I have a external hard drive that I plugged in from my windows machine. I would like to use that.
Do I need to install specific drivers to the external before I can use it to copy.
I can see the drive and a\access it. When I go to disk utilities, It will not show up here or if it does, (with some options) theres not
an option to copy over.

Any one?

 

[Raz0rEdge]

If the drive was formatted at FAT or exFAT, then you don't have to do anything to make it show up or work. It will show up in Finder, and then you can grab applications, documents and whatever else you want and drag them over to the external drive.

If the drive doesn't show up, then it isn't formatted in a way that you can use it right now. Disk Utility should be able to see the drive and format it if necessary but you shouldn't do any of that if you have data on there that is important from your Windows machine.

 

[Slydude]

Carbon Copy Cloner should do the trick. You'll need one of the older versions near the bottom of that page. SuperDuper should be able to do the job as well. On the right side of the download page you'll find links to older versions of the software.

Both programs have worked for me in the past so choose the one that makes the most sense to you.

Be sure to heed Ashwin's advice. Don't start this process till you have backed up anything important on that external drive.

 

[aaron1970]

I see the external drive. In the applications folder. I just drag the app to the hard drive? t will copy everything that I need to install on another computer?
Thanks.

 

[MacInWin]

That depends on the app. If it's from Microsoft or Adobe, that won't be sufficient as those two spread stuff all over the drive. If it's a typical Mac app, everything is in the app itself, or will be recreated when the app is first run, as a rule.

But are you certain that the DRIVE is showing in the Applications folder? That's a very strange place for it to be mounted. Could that icon be for something other than the drive itself?

And follow Ashwin's advice about backups. Make one of the internal drive AND one of the external drive before you start moving things about.