[muglo] partitioning
- From: Doug Bale <dougbale@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: muglo@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 11 Jan 2009 08:31:26 -0800 (PST)
A few points still worth making, Leith:
It's true that you don't need a System folder on every partition, but you do
of course need one on any partition that you want to use as a startup volume.
As mentioned already, your emergency bootable backup should be entirely
separate - or at least readily separable - from the drive you use daily. If you
have a lightning strike or a power surge and your backup drive's part of your
computer or plugged into it, chances are that you'll lose the lot. Same thing
if you have a break-in; the thief who scoops your computer will likely scoop up
any useful-looking stuff attached to it. You want to have your bootable clone
stored well away from its original, preferably in another room or even offsite
somewhere.
That's not handy for daily backups, but daily backups are less crucial than
having that bootable duplicate drive squirrelled away safely somewhere so it'll
be available when you need it. The data files you change incrementally from day
to day take up only a few megabytes. Unless they're really important, it's
sufficient to duplicate those on a partition of your internal drive, or throw
'em on a rewritable CD. Once a week or so, get the bootable clone from wherever
you've stored it, do an update with SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner, put it
away again afterward, and voila! you're good as gold till the next time.
The first time you make that bootable backup, do it overnight, because it
can take all night, but from then on, updates need be only incremental and go
much more quickly.
You can check your bootable backup periodically by connecting it, opening up
System Preferences in your Apple menu, going to the System section and, under
Startup Disk, choosing the backup drive. Then restart and you'll be running
under the backup system. Everything should behave just as it did under the
internal system. as long as it does, go back to System Preferences, make the
internal disk your startup choice, reboot, and put away the clone till next
time.
One thing that'll be important if you do have a System failure and you have
to boot from your backup, or if you're running on the backup just as a periodic
test, is to realize that any new data you store, or old data you update, could
be lost unless you store it somewhere else or copy it onto your original drive
as soon as you get that drive back up. The next time your update the clone,
SuperDuper! or CCC will make the clone identical to your internal drive, not
only by copying over any files the clone lacks but also by deleting any files
the clone has that your internal drive doesn't - i.e., any files you put there
while the internal was down.
If your separate backup drive is roomy enough, you can have as many other
partitions as you like on it, in addition to the one that has your bootable
clone with the System folder. You could have a separate partition for movies,
say, or for photos, or iTunes music, and maybe back those up on DVDs.
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