Swapped Hard Drives..needed to reinstall Easybeast. Why?

[VideoBeagle]

This is more a "why does it work this way" question.

I set up my Dell Optiplex 755 with it's stock 80 gig drive. It's working fine except for an occasional KP during boot, but a restart takes care of that.

However, 80 gigs is just kinda tiny. so I cloned the drive to a 350 gig I had lying around. I swapped the drives, but the computer wouldn't start up.

I put in the iBoot cd, and it booted, and recognized the hard drive, so I selected it, and the mac system started just fine.

I rebooted, and same thing, no start, used iboot. worked fine.

SO, I ran the easybeast installer, and afterwards, the DellMac started up just fine without iBoot.


WHAT I'm wondering is why did I need to reinstall EasyBeast? Wouldn't it have been there already because of the cloning process? (I used carbon copy cloner, btw)

 

[ijhu]

I never had to use easybeast except for using mutlbeast to reinstall boot loader on the newly cloned drive. I was using superduper..

As for your case, if you read in the description, when you select EasyBeast, the Chameleon boot loader is transparently selected as part of easybeast selection.

In theory, you only need to install boot loader.

 

[VideoBeagle]

If i understand correctly (which is always in question...) easybeast is a bootloader, so it seems to be the same sitch.

 

[RTK]

ijhu is right. You needed to install the bootloader to restore boot functionality. This is installed as part of the EasyBeast selection (see quote from MultiBeast documentation below). When you ran MultiBeast you could've selected only the Chimera/Chameleon option rather than the EasyBeast selection that you made.

From MultiBeast 3.2 documentation:
EasyBeast Install
EasyBeast is a DSDT-free solution for Core, Core 2 or Core i systems. It installs all of the essentials to allow your system to boot from the hard drive. Does not include any Network or Sound drivers or Graphics support besides Chameleon GraphicsEnabler. Includes Chameleon 2.0 RC5 r668, fakesmc, EvOreboot, JMicron36xATA, JMicron36xSATA, ElliottForceLegacyAppleRTC, NullCPUPowerManagement, USB Rollback, tonymacx86 Remixed theme. 32-Bit com.apple.boot.plist, and MacPro3,1 smbios.plist. Install with System Utilities tasks."

 

[VideoBeagle]

Ah...Ok...I get the difference...

But to the main boot, why was it necessary to reinstall it in the first place, since it would have been part of the clone, no?

 

[RTK]

Ah...Ok...I get the difference...

But to the main boot, why was it necessary to reinstall it in the first place, since it would have been part of the clone, no?

I think the real answer here is that when you clone your drive (with Super Duper, CCC or whatever) the software assumes you have a real Mac. If this were the case you would be able to boot from the clone that you made. However, since you have a Hack it does not work because the software does not do anything the the drives MBR.

Your Hack works like a Mac, but it still boots like a PC. This is why you have to run MultiBeast to install Chimera/Chameleon on the cloned drive.

 

[VideoBeagle]

Ah...Ok...I get the difference...

But to the main boot, why was it necessary to reinstall it in the first place, since it would have been part of the clone, no?

Yes, it was installed, however, the configuration installed with it likely referred to the UUID of the drive, which no longer matched after swapping drives. (Just an educated guess based on other bootloaders I have worked with in the past, I haven't looked at the code for Chameleon/Chimaera in depth) =)

Ah..that makes sense. Thanks!

 

[Going Bald]

Ah...Ok...I get the difference...

But to the main boot, why was it necessary to reinstall it in the first place, since it would have been part of the clone, no?

Yes, it was installed, however, the configuration installed with it likely referred to the UUID of the drive, which no longer matched after swapping drives. (Just an educated guess based on other bootloaders I have worked with in the past, I haven't looked at the code for Chameleon/Chimaera in depth) =)

Ah..that makes sense. Thanks!

Actually, it is because CCC or SD can't copy the boot0 and boot1h files from the MBR of the drive. The first time you clone your working drive to a different HD you have to install the boot loader to get these 2 files on the HD. After that, you can clone your working drive to this drive again and again and it will be bootable as long as you do not reformat/repartition it.

BTW, I would use that 80Gb hard drive as an off-line clone of your operating system if I were you. Just unplug the power and data cables and leave it in the case. If you need a full system recovery, it's easier to clone your backup to the working drive than it is to re-install. Just keep the back-up clone drive up to date with the working drive and all will be well if you need to restore it.

 

[VideoBeagle]

^Wouldn't I need to erase the drive to clone back to it?^

Sadly, I can't keep the spare in the case...it's the Ultra Small Form Factor, so only room for one drive.

 

[Going Bald]

^Wouldn't I need to erase the drive to clone back to it?^

Sadly, I can't keep the spare in the case...it's the Ultra Small Form Factor, so only room for one drive.

When you select the source drive (working drive) and the target drive (back-up drive) and start the clone program it will over-write anything on the target drive. There is also a check box to erase anything on the target drive not found on the source drive.

You could still keep the 80G HD as a cold backup- put it in a static bag from the new hard drive, label it and put it in the back of a drawer in your desk. You can always take it out, drop it in an external case with USB or eSATA connection and use it to boot with and restore your working drive by cloning the clone back to the working drive..