Drive Imaging... TOTAL

Hello,

I recently picked up an old PowerPC G5 MAC. I am trying to figure out how to COMPLETELY Image a Hard Drive. I have used Acronis True Image Home for many years for everything else I have had. I looked here and there but seen to get no definitive answer.

I want to create a COMPRESSED FULL Drive Image of ALL Partitions. I plan on doing some experimentation on multi-booting Linux etc. So it will need to work like Acronis that will get the Boot record and partition info and all data once I do that also. I do not want to try doing a sector-by-sector backup as that defeats the purpose a bit of wanting to have a full compressed image that is a fraction of the data on the drive.

Acronis can do about anything like that but does not work on Macs(except for latest version(s?) but only on later Macs with later OS)

I was able to figure out with much digging that the latest OSX this will take is Leopard 10.5, I purchased and installed it. after a bit of fiddling with USB wireless unit I finally found one I have that has drivers and works with it. The OS is now updated to 10.5.8.

So that is what I have to work with. And I just want to end up with a Much Smaller Compressed Full drive image that will return the Whole Drive to EXACTLY as it was during the backup.

I have been able to do that for decades with other Computers using different programs like Norton Ghost and Acronis True Image Home, so I would think it should be quite possible. :0) The way Macs split off makes things confusing as to which what will work where, when, how, on which what ya got, LOL.

Thanks for any info and Happy New Year!

Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper are the best Mac cloning tools. And that is for all Macs including the latest releases. Both are better than Acorns:-


http://www.zdnet.com/article/acronis-true-image-for-mac-review/

@Harry the OP appears to want to create a drive with several different OS partitions (Linux, OS X, etc). Will CCC do that? The only thing I can think to do is to image each partition separately. It might require different programs for each partition.

Yes Sly one at a time. Who can remember what will work Leopard is now six operting systems old!

Wow, spending over $100 on an OS for a 10-year-old computer? Well that's a novel way to start the year, I'll give you that!

Hiya and Thanks for the replies. Yeah it is an odd sounding name, Acronis LOL. It sounds Greek but I had found no meaning anywhere off hand.

Yeah I do not plan on spending any much more on this thing and definitely not close to $100 for a solution Chas. good old eBay and a bit of patience can get ya what ya need cheaper. Got the OS for like $14.00 or something like that. I already had the memory sticks and drive laying around from older stuff.

Harry Thanks but I don't know how you can say those you mentioned can be better than Acronis if you have to do one partition at a time(I thought I explained in extreme detail so I would not get the same answers everyone else got for the last 7+ years and just seemed to give up so easily and go with Apple's included Disk Image on an extra drive LOL, waste of a drive, at least the ones I have extra for things like that).

I have a 1TB, 1.5TB, and a 2TB drive for my computer backup images for mine and many I have worked on. I have built PC's since a bit after IBM released the AT286 LOL and have many years of peoples whole drive backed up to images(since about the time XP came out, (lost things before then in a fire) so if they come to me with their system totally hosed and or dead drive I fire up Acronis and Bam the unit is right back to where it was when I sent it out, not a bit of data lost, gets all partitions even linux and its bootloader, the MBR and bootsector stored in one nice compressed file(depending if you choose compression and what level). A blank drive can in about 12 minutes+(depending on the data they had and speed of their computer) be just as I sent it out to them.

Is there nothing for such a tight niched machine as the PowerPC Mac that can do that? - Hard to believe given that they did not have to support an ever changing myrad of 3rd party hardware, only what they thought you should have, until after PowerPC was dead.

I could maybe try as last resort, if there is a way to like zero out all the unused space and try a compressed Sector-by-Sector full backup with Acronis, waste of a lot of space but if unused area can contain one same character it will compress way down.

well enuff blah blah LOL. Take care and Thanks for any info, even if it is that without a doubt there is just no way to do it on this machine like that, as long as you are absolutely sure you are correct. Then I will waste no more time and just wing it on setting this up and hope I don't have to keep doing things over and over from the start after all the trouble cuz one little thing freaks it out into Lala Land.

PEACE!
Blitz

I can understand why you and Harry might disagree about which cloning tool is best for the Mac. I won't get into that discussion since I've never used the Arconis software. It's pretty much a moot point though since for whatever reasons(s) the software you want to use apparently never existed for the Power PC Macs.

Slydude said:

I can understand why you and Harry might disagree about which cloning tool is best for the Mac. I won't get into that discussion since I've never used the Arconis software. It's pretty much a moot point though since for whatever reasons(s) the software you want to use apparently never existed for the Power PC Macs.

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Acronis True Image is great software for Windows and has saved the day for me on numerous occasions when I was running the "dark" OS. However, the Mac version is overpriced and has received bad reviews. Regardless of what it can and can not do, it's just not worth the trouble of using. Stick with CCC or SuperDuper which are known to work right.

Who wants to argue. Use as suggested or give it a miss. Stick with PCs.

Hiyas,
Not Disagreeing or arguing on which is better for the MAC but touching on which really does a more complete job for the platform they support.
If the Mac softwares can't just send a whole drive regardless of partitions to a compressed image like Acronis does for everything else about(could be a mix of DOS, all flavors of Windows and Linux all together), then Acronis is more full featured and a complete solution for its platform(s).
My ThinkPad Laptop is actually Quad Boot! Windows XP, Win 7, Win 10 AND Linux and I can back that up to one single image file and restore it properly, partitions, MBR, bootsector, bootloaders and all. Don't have to recreate every partition again and backup/restore each one and possibly hose it booting up like it did before or at all.

Problem is those Macs seem to use some different structure than most everything else that programmers do not want to touch or Apple just won't give the info needed like it is so readily available for PCs for people to make 3rd party hardware and programs not sure what the deal was.

I am getting that same stuck in a MacInBox feeling I had gotten every other time I messed around on a Mac way back when. Sorry guys(those would have been fighting words to Mac users years way back... I think things have settled a bit since maybe?) LOL. They seemed to jump out of their skin at any mention of anything PC, it was odd to be in a classroom of only Macs and the cult followers way back when. Sorry not trying to **** you off.

So I am still NOT sure if I can just simply do what I have been able to do since the `90's on a PC, just back the whole friggin drive to a compressed image with all partitions intact? Usually so simple. I have always made periodic backups to a system I am doing extra-curricular fiddling on as I get to certain stages so I can just bang it back to that place easily.

I guess If I hose it with multi boot I will have to Create the structures all over again cuz nothing is capable? Just hate doing things I have already done all over again, I have anxiety.

Just curious what I can do with this thing. I play music and may want it to do some recording but I cannot afford an exuberant price and there is some open source alternatives for Linux. I may want to use it as a server of some sort. I am trying to get a game that I am working on going that it may be useful for serving. Did not think it was going to be this difficult in some of the first steps that I usually do as second nature and almost blindfolded on the PC. I Do like to tinker and find extra uses for things.

I checked the drive and(now I can't remember how it said it) that the indexes or something did not match, quite a few. Don't see how it could have problems like that already, I have dome nothing but install the OSx, let it update the OSx and installed 10-4 Fox. Safari did not seem to work right on some sites and newer version complained about the OS being too old which is the latest this Mac will take. grrr. So just let it fix it? Part of why I just want to do a backup in a way that seems more normal to me cuz it already has some errors I am not familiar with right off the bat.


PEACE and Happy New Year! ;D

Well at least I did not spend much on this thing, A friend actually gave me the unit cuz he thought it was just broken and got a new one(it was time he upgraded anyway). The hard drive was thrashed. He may have been moving the unit around and such not realizing the workings inside of a hard drive can be damaged by bumps and especially those nasty shudder/stutters you get as you push something that has rubber feet across a table surface, that can rattle a drive and cause the heads to strike the platter.

Oh the error in last post, it was a bunch of permissions that did not match, it seemed to fix it OK. Have not done much yet to find out.

OK so I guess no one has done what seems like would have been done almost two decades ago for these. So on to next thing.

NEW QUESTION:
I Have been trying to find out how to get GarageBand on it, I read that it is free. Versions 3.01(?) to 5.11 are supposed to support 10.5 Leopard. looking for full version 5, just find updates.


And yes I do purchase all may PC software that is supposed to be. I got the first with some computer parts, DOS 3.0. Got free updates to 3.3(?). Bought the full retail when DOS 5 came out. Bought the 6.0 upgrade and the updates to something like 6.22. dabbled trying my friends Windows until Windows 3.0 came out and got it on sale. updates to 3.11 wfw or something like that. It actually started becoming useful a bit after that LOL. I did not like Windows at first. I could do all I needed in DOS at the time and knew exactly what the machine was doing and how Windows seemed like a big bunch of clunk but did stat opening up Media handling etc.
I used XTree Gold shareware in windows and still used DOS a lot. Bought Windows95 during the special roll-out sale... Start Me Up! LOL Win98 on sale, Crappy WinMe which I got to work just fine after just a little fiddling. I had skipped WinNT and Windows 2000. Bought XP on pre-order sale. Skipped Vista as I had gotten the developers trial and saw how much it really just did suck. Bought Windows 7 on the special Pre-order sale. and have bought a few of XP and 7 over time for putting on computers I build and extra of my own etc. Got developer release of Windows 8 and said what the heck! ya all went backwards again. Windows 8 to me should be named Windows KIOSK Version LOL.

I have the free upgrade to Windows 10 they give to Win7, 8 users on my laptop, the quad boot one.

Thanks and Happy New Year!

Oh yeah again, where can I get GarageBand 5?

Garageband is included on iLife '09 for PowerPC Macs. You will find copies on eBay etc. If you can, go for a copy that is unopened for future updates etc.

harryb2448 said:

Garageband is included on iLife '09 for PowerPC Macs. You will find copies on eBay etc. If you can, go for a copy that is unopened for future updates etc.

Click to expand...

Great Harry, Thanks! It is an old unit but it will still run the way it did in its day and age basically, time itself will make it slower not, LOL. Actually it should run a bit better than it did back when as I have replaced the some components, The drive should be a tad faster and I think the memory was lower latency than original plus it is a full 2gig now so that will give it room it needs in Ram for editing etc.

If they made the program for those units around that time then it should do just fine to a point. Of course it will process slower than something newer when it carries a similar load. It may just fit the bill for moderate use of that type.

If it does a moderate job for non-professional recording(the programs name IS GarageBand so... ) It may be useful for just that, in my garage. I can bang what it makes over to my PC inside if I need to do some more extensive editing or effects etc.

Thanks All and PEACE this New Year!
Blitz