Using ddrescue with Mac OS X and external drive

TonyLima · 03-18-2008, 05:08 PM

I have a 500 gb Fantom firewire drive and a MacBook Pro running OS X. I'd like to boot from a Linux CD and create several different images of the Mac HD on the Fantom drive. I've tried using dd and ddrescue, but keep getting a variety of error messages. Summarizing them,

1. /dev/sdb2/MacImage1 is not a directory
2. /dev/sdb2/MacImage1 is a directory
3. The external hard drive is read-only
4. I don't have write privileges to the drive.

I've tried a variety of syntax. Here's one example:

ddrescue -v /dev/sda /dev/sdb2/MacImage1 MacImage1.log

I also installed hfsplus, the Linux driver for the Mac filesystem. That didn't work either.

I've spent quite a few hours banging my head against this, so I'd appreciate it if someone could give me a simple answer that tells me I should have posted here days ago!

Thanks. - Tony Lima

homey · 03-18-2008, 05:36 PM

I used carbon copy cloner to backup os x to a partition on my firewire/usb drive. I divided up the drive into mac partitions and told ccc to erase the destination partition first.
http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html

I have used a os x utility called asr which works also.
From my notes:

Code:

# Backup utilities for Mac
1. sudo ditto -X / /Volumes/Backup
2. sudo rsync -xrlptgoEv --progress --delete / /Volumes/Backup
3. sudo hdiutil create /Volumes/Backup/mikes_backup.dmg -format UDZO -nocrossdev -srcdir /
4. sudo asr -source / -target /Volumes/Backup -erase -noprompt
5. GUI tool called cccloner


# Using ASR to clone volumes
asr -source -target options
Example: sudo asr -source /Volumes/<Source volume> -target /Volumes/<Target volume> -earse

# ASR from a FireWire drive
asr -source -target options
Example: sudo asr -source /<SourceASRimage.dmg> -target /Volumes/<Target volume> -earse -nocheck

# ASR from a webserver
asr -source -target options
Example: sudo asr -source http://server.name.com/image.dmg -target /Volumes/<Target volume> -earse -nocheck

# Using an AFP network volume
asr -source -target options
Example: sudo asr -source afp://user:password@server.name.com/share/image.dmg -target /Volumes/<Target volume> -erase

TonyLima · 03-18-2008, 06:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by homey

I used carbon copy cloner to backup os x to a partition on my firewire/usb drive. I divided up the drive into mac partitions and told ccc to erase the destination partition first.
http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html

I have used a os x utility called asr which works also.
From my notes:

Code:

# Backup utilities for Mac
1. sudo ditto -X / /Volumes/Backup
2. sudo rsync -xrlptgoEv --progress --delete / /Volumes/Backup
3. sudo hdiutil create /Volumes/Backup/mikes_backup.dmg -format UDZO -nocrossdev -srcdir /
4. sudo asr -source / -target /Volumes/Backup -erase -noprompt
5. GUI tool called cccloner


# Using ASR to clone volumes
asr -source -target options
Example: sudo asr -source /Volumes/<Source volume> -target /Volumes/<Target volume> -earse

# ASR from a FireWire drive
asr -source -target options
Example: sudo asr -source /<SourceASRimage.dmg> -target /Volumes/<Target volume> -earse -nocheck

# ASR from a webserver
asr -source -target options
Example: sudo asr -source http://server.name.com/image.dmg -target /Volumes/<Target volume> -earse -nocheck

# Using an AFP network volume
asr -source -target options
Example: sudo asr -source afp://user:password@server.name.com/share/image.dmg -target /Volumes/<Target volume> -erase

Thanks for the suggestions. Unfortunately we're going to be partitioning the drive to install Windows, so we need something that can run from a CD boot. I've looked at CCC but it won't work for this purpose.

Your other suggestions have given me some new things to try. Thanks! - Tony