Please assist with making a backup / clone

[xrayengineer]

Hello,

I have several Hackintosh builds. I have going to update to Lion this week, and I want to have a reliable method to re-image if I have problems.

I make Carbon Copy backups to a bootable USB drive. But it seems that EVERY time I go to restore this image after corrupting something on my main drive, it seems to be a major problem everytime!

Yesterday I made a change to a Kext, and was getting a kernel panic on the next boot. I plugged in my external USB drive with the Carbon Copy backup on it, and booted with no problem. Next, I restored the backup from the USB drive back to the internal hard drive. Then I ran Chimera. Upon next boot, Kernel Panic. Rebooted using USB drive and ran Multibeast with the System Utilities and Chimera checked. Tried to reboot using the internal hard drive, Kernel Panic.

Finally I had success with booting back into the USB drive, re-partitioning the internal hard drive, performing the backup from USB to internal again. Ran Chimera, then the system booted from the internal hard drive.

One other very odd point. When I made the backup from my original install to the USB Hard drive using Carbon Copy, I never ran any Chimera or any bootloader on it. It just booted and worked normally.

Can someone give me an idiot proof way to perform this? I will get any program that will work reliably. Also, any idea why the USB drive booted fine by using just the Carbon Copy Backup on it?

I am used to using Ghost on the PC's which I found to be nearly 100%.

What is the easiest, most reliable way to perform a backup, then restore from an external USB drive?

Thanks!!

 

[Going Bald]

Hello,

I have several Hackintosh builds. I have going to update to Lion this week, and I want to have a reliable method to re-image if I have problems.

I make Carbon Copy backups to a bootable USB drive. But it seems that EVERY time I go to restore this image after corrupting something on my main drive, it seems to be a major problem everytime!

Yesterday I made a change to a Kext, and was getting a kernel panic on the next boot. I plugged in my external USB drive with the Carbon Copy backup on it, and booted with no problem. Next, I restored the backup from the USB drive back to the internal hard drive. Then I ran Chimera. Upon next boot, Kernel Panic. Rebooted using USB drive and ran Multibeast with the System Utilities and Chimera checked. Tried to reboot using the internal hard drive, Kernel Panic.

Finally I had success with booting back into the USB drive, re-partitioning the internal hard drive, performing the backup from USB to internal again. Ran Chimera, then the system booted from the internal hard drive.

One other very odd point. When I made the backup from my original install to the USB Hard drive using Carbon Copy, I never ran any Chimera or any bootloader on it. It just booted and worked normally.

Can someone give me an idiot proof way to perform this? I will get any program that will work reliably. Also, any idea why the USB drive booted fine by using just the Carbon Copy Backup on it?

I am used to using Ghost on the PC's which I found to be nearly 100%.

What is the easiest, most reliable way to perform a backup, then restore from an external USB drive?

Thanks!!

1. if you did not install chameleon/chimera to the USB drive clone, it is not bootable.
2. you do not "restore" a carbon copy clone to your main hd. You clone it.
3. your usb drive is not booting, your main drive is booting and you then select your USB drive icon from the chameleon boot screen.

To create bootable backup via any clone software (i.e. CarbonCopyCloner, CloneZilla, SuperDuper)
1. Install OS X to your hard drive and clone it.
2. reboot
3. select clone drive and boot to desktop
4. install chameleon/chimera
5. reboot
6. select main hd.
7. eject USB clone
8. disconnect/remove USB clone

Now, any time you bork your main hd, shutdown, connect your clone drive, boot, hit f12 (or whatever the key is on your main board to select a boot device), select your usb drive to boot from, hit enter. At the desktop, you can use finder to delete any kext you just added and repair permissions on your main drive.

 

[xrayengineer]

This makes a lot sense, and explains quite a bit! Thank you!

I am going to experiment today and get the USB drive truly bootable.

Please allow me to ask a few follow up questions:

Is there any difference on the outcome using the standalone Chimera VS Multibeast with utilities and bootloader selected?

When using clone software like CCC, can I take the files / folders that are created and move them to a folder on a large drive, then be able to pick and choose which clone to restore? For example, one folder contains 10.6.7, another 10.7. Would this work, or are there hidden files that you cant just drag over to a folder.

Finally , when restoring a CCC to a drive, do you have to reformat using disk utility first? I ask this because I first simply restored the clone and this did not boot. Next I repartitioned the same drive using the same settings as i did originally, restored the CCC and it booted that time.

Thanks again!

 

[Going Bald]

If all you select in MultiBeast is the Chimera bootloader, there is no need to select system utilities also - system utilities only needed if you install a kext file.

So, to answer your question, stand alone chimera installer = MultiBeast ->chimera selected installer

All of the cloning apps allow you to selectively clone/restore files. Pick and choose from 1 file, many files, any folders, all folders or the whole drive. Makes no difference.

 

[xrayengineer]

OK, here is the latest update.

I installed Chimera on the USB drive that has my Carbon Copy Clone. On my next reboot, the Gigabyte motherboard locks up on the full color picture "Ultra Durable" screen. This is screen with options at the bottom like DEL to enter setup...

If I unplug the USB drive, the system will boot normally.

I booted normally and erased the external USB HDD, and then the system would boot normally again.

I did not even have the boot device selection set to have USB as an option yet in the BIOS. I have only two boot devices enabled, the CDROM and the HDD.

Does having two drives with Chimera installed at the same time cause this problem?

I was just trying to make my USB Carbon Copy Clone drive truly bootable, as opposed the the way it was earlier in the post before that "Going Bald" pointed out. That was with my main SATA drive actually booting and me selecting Carbon Copy under the Chimera boot menu.

I have two USB HDD's connected to this system at all times, one for Time Machine and one for Carbon Copy. The system is about 8 months old, and has ALWAYS booted with both of these drives connected UNTIL I installed Chimera on the Carbon Copy USB.

Any ideas?
Thank You for the help!

 

[Going Bald]

boot into BIOS and disable "full screen logo" so you can see where the post got hung up. Post results.

 

[xrayengineer]

Ok,

I disabled the Full Screen Logo in the BIOS. Upon booting up WITH the Carbon Clone USB drive connected, the BIOS is barely even posting.

It shows the motherboard version
Detects the processor

then stops! If I unplug the USB drive, or format the USB drive, it boots!

I cropped the picture, because there is no other info on the screen.

 

[Going Bald]

what do you normally see next?
Memory test then IDE drives?

Have you enabled all USB functions in BIOS including Legacy USB?

 

[dtr]

On a side note.
The reason it still booted from the USB drive i'm guessing is because your internal drive was still the primary boot device, so it booted to chimera from there and then i'm guessing you selected your USB from the boot loader menu?

{edit} Sorry I just noticed that was already pointed out on the 2nd post

 

[user137]

I would also like a method for an idiotproof backup solution.
I have a friend who I made a hackintosh for, but he is not at all PC-savvy. He can't use TimeMachine restore if the OSX partition is garbled, cause it just doesn't work, I tried three times and failed twice.

I suggested him to keep a TM anyway, plus use CCC - but with what parameters, etc? I can easily get him to buy an external HDD of some-hundred GB's, but then how to make him not loose too much work? A continous TM backup + a monthly CCC backup? Can he backup onto the drive without rebooting/installing chimera every time?