Successful Sierra install -- How to backup / restore?

[Ledde]

Hi there,

New to this forum and Hackintosh building. I have a general question. I'm sure it's been addressed on forums and guides out there, but I'm having a hard time finding it stated clearly.

I just finished tweaking my Sierra 10.12.1 install. It's now stable and at a point where I am happy thus far.

Is it possible to create a backup or clone of my disk to easily restore if something goes wrong?
What are some options /to achieve this? Or am I stuck rebuilding if I need to do a clean install?

Any links to resources would be great. I'm fairly new to this, so the more detailed, the better.

Thanks for any help / suggestions !

 

[zehd1963]

Hi there.. I don't want to hijack this thread at all, but the title sounds like I should be here rather than start a new thread.. I second the OP... (Ledde)

I have the same question. I've reinstalled Sierra/Clover over a dozen times and I've gotten good. I even know the VERY moment the system gets BORKED (I'm reusing a word I read here lately). Every time I try to deal with Audio, something goes wrong, and I'm left with reinstalling. I'd rather not.

(I'll deal with audio in another thread)

Several pages talk about backing up the system, but recovering is hardly covered at all.. for example, you make a copy of your EFI folder and both main kexts folders to a usb thumb drive.. but when the system won't start again, how do you get your data copied to the drive into the correct folders on the main drive... and then rebuild the cache.. and then permissions...

Or you use a clone software. Back up where? and then how do you run the restore software to re-image you partitions?

Or how do you correctly uninstall a kext, so the system is still stable. (Deleting the kext is obviously not good enough in many cases I've come across already)

How do you know what a kext installation did during it's installation? so you can undo it's steps.

There have been many guides and videos available, but most times they assume some things that really shouldn't be assumed about newbies. And in some cases the guides are so dizzingly complex, with gotos and loops; ifs, thens and elses; and lots of whiles, that a newbie can't help but get lost. (like me).

I'd be happy to write ANOTHER guide/video/script/app that would further simplify and explain the processes.

I'd love to get this ball rolling...

Cheers

 

[neilhart]

Sadly there is no universal solution here with our hacks. The hardware variation matrix is huge and the smallest thing can cause behavior issues.

That said, when I am planning a new system or even working on an old one of mine, I almost always make at least two disk drive partitions (this applies to SSDs as well as HDDs). I then disable any other drives so that there is only the one drive to deal with.

Again, Apple has done us no favor with the El Capitan and Sierra Disk Utility app. In my opinion, this app is a disaster waiting to cause you major issue should you attempt to use it to re-partition a used drive. For this reason, i use Mavericks or Yosemite to re-format and partition SSDs and HDDs.

With my two partitions, I install the OS to the first partition using a USB device built with UniBeast. Upon first boot to the new installation I go through the required account set up then:

I go to Finder > Preferences and set the “General, Sidebar and Advanced” selections to my desired settings.

General:

Sidebar:

Advanced:

I then open the Terminal app (which is found in Applications > Utilities) and set the “From Any Where” option with this command:

“ sudo spctl --master-disable “

The Terminal before entering the “Enter” key

and the Terminal after… note that there is no “completed statement or error message”.

However now in the System Preferences > Security & Privacy preference, the “Anywhere” radio button is now present.

While I have System Preferences open, I select Sharing and set it up as shown:

At this point, I finish my personal settings in System Preferences (such as I set the Energy Saver and Mouse Preferences):

I then close System Preferences and copy the SuperDuper!.app to the desktop.

A side note: When I generate my USB UniBeat OS installer device, I copy SuperDuper!, MultiBeast, and ShowAllFiles applications the root of the USB. I also copy any applications that I think that I might need such as KextBeast, DPCIManager, and IORegistryExplorer.

Back on topic: Next I use SuperDuper!.app to clone the first partition to the second partition.

I now have two bootable partitions. I use my second (or clone) partition as a recovery partition should I “BORK” the new installation found on partition one as I go through the Post Installation system setup.

At this point I am dependent on the USB installer device for booting into either partition.

The next process step is to run MultiBeast which I use to install Clover to my HDD/SSD and install the kexts needed for this system.

The above may answer some of your questions as it is intended provide the detail that is left out of many guides.

Good modding,
neil

 

[zehd1963]

Your reply is amazing thank you. Couple of questions...

I'm guessing that some of your customization (finder, mouse, power etc.) isn't required for the clone to occur...

Why do you choose to clone BEFORE you install to the efi? (although I kinda guess much of the borking happens with multibeast, kexts, settings and fixes...)

cheers

 

[neilhart]

Your reply is amazing thank you. Couple of questions...

I'm guessing that some of your customization (finder, mouse, power etc.) isn't required for the clone to occur...

Why do you choose to clone BEFORE you install to the efi? (although I kinda guess much of the borking happens with multibeast, kexts, settings and fixes...)

cheers

Well it really depends upon my prior experience with the given hardware and the OS X version. The less experience that I have had, the more cautious I am. I have been doing this for many years and still find things that trip me up (Apple keeps changing up OS X and Intel keeps jacking with CPUs and chip sets). The Skylake CPUs and motherboards are a good example of learning curve with hardware mated along with El Capitan they caused many of us to scramble to get stable Skylake systems... Now we get to go through the learning curve with Kaby Lake and the 2XX chip sets.

Using clones is my way of avoiding repeated "fresh installs".

On any new install, and after the initial account setup steps, I go into System Preferences and set things "my way". But you are correct the only steps that are really needed is to set "From Anywhere active" so that the post installation changes can be done correctly.

Good modding,
neil

 

[zehd1963]

... the only steps that are really needed is to set "From Anywhere active" so that the post installation changes can be done correctly.l

Why is that? Whenever I try to use software not from Apple, I get stopped, and I have to verify in 'Security' before I can continue, and it's a pain (so this IS good advice).. But is there a technical reason? Is there a software tool that won't work correctly without this applied?

 

[neilhart]

Why is that? Whenever I try to use software not from Apple, I get stopped, and I have to verify in 'Security' before I can continue, and it's a pain (so this IS good advice).. But is there a technical reason? Is there a software tool that won't work correctly without this applied?

Apple has modded El Capitan and Sierra so that setting is no longer available to the Mac end user.
This is part of the Apple attempt to add more security.

Anyway the Terminal.app command given above once run resolves the issue until the the next major OS update. At that point, you may need to re-run the Terminal command, just like you might need to re-do the post installation steps for audio.

Good modding,
neil

 

[zehd1963]

Again, Apple has done us no favor with the El Capitan and Sierra Disk Utility app. In my opinion, this app is a disaster waiting to cause you major issue should you attempt to use it to re-partition a used drive. For this reason, i use Mavericks or Yosemite to re-format and partition SSDs and HDDs.

On my first attempt, I cloned the system into an sparse image and saved it on a external WD Elements drive (formatted for HFS+). (Superduper defaults for trial version)

Then I plugged in my usb OS/UniBeast install boot drive, restarted the computer, and got to the Mac install|Disk Utility. I tried restoring partition from image. And got an error. Can't rermember the rror. will do again when I get home. Something about image could not be verified or scanned.

Anyway, I was worried I had borked my system, and so restarted normally, and learned nothing was committed in the restore.

Would you guess the error I had is related to using Sierra/Cap Disk Util like you mentioned earlier?

 

[neilhart]

On my first attempt, I cloned the system into an sparse image and saved it on a external WD Elements drive (formatted for HFS+). (Superduper defaults for trial version)

Then I plugged in my usb OS/UniBeast install boot drive, restarted the computer, and got to the Mac install|Disk Utility. I tried restoring partition from image. And got an error. Can't rermember the rror. will do again when I get home. Something about image could not be verified or scanned.

Anyway, I was worried I had borked my system, and so restarted normally, and learned nothing was committed in the restore.

Would you guess the error I had is related to using Sierra/Cap Disk Util like you mentioned earlier?

zehd1063 please read the rules and complete the profile of your system so that it appears in the left side bar.

And yes I do not trust the El Cap and Sierra version of the Disk Utility.app.

Your options are dependent upon your App Store history as you may be able to download an older version of OS X (if you can, you may be able to install the older OS X and use its' Disk Utility.app) if you are not using Skylake or Kaby Lake hardware, as these will not run older versions of OS X.

Also if your UNIX skills are good, you can do all disk maintenance tasks using the command line in the Terminal.app.

And if you search the forum, there is a thread that provides several methods to patch the Yosemite Disk Utility.app so that it will run in El Cap. However those patches may not work in Sierra.

And I don't understand your comment about SuperDuper!.app. This is a shareware product from Shirt-Pocket.com and is currently v2.9.1. I have used it with good results on Mavericks, Yosemite, El Cap and Sierra.

As an aside, because I use multiple partitions and clones of the boot partition I do not use or maintain Apple Recovery partitions.

Good modding,
neil