Hi Bill Holton, You're right. Running Lion inside a vm is a good solution if you don't want to upgrade from snow leopard yet. I'm running Lion to my full satisfaction and it's running natively. The sandbox is a breeze to work with once you get the hang of it. It took me the reading of a chapter in de super duper manual, and I was ready to go. I've never attempted to set up anything else than windows inside a virtual environment in fusion myself yet. Interested to hear how you succeed.
Paul. On Sep 14, 2011, at 8:47 PM, Bill Holton wrote: > I'm thinking a virtual Lion could make a nice sandbox for testing, and if I > screw something up I can just delete the virtual machine and set up a new > one. > > > -----Original Message----- > From: macvisionaries@googlegroups.com > [mailto:macvisionaries@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Paul Erkens > Sent: Wednesday, September 14, 2011 2:23 PM > To: macvisionaries@googlegroups.com > Subject: Re: Questionabout Super Doopper and external drives > > Hi Bill Holton, > Both sandboxing and running Lion inside vm fusion requires some system > maintanance. Why would you want to run lion as a virtual machine by the way? > Why not just natively? > Paul. > On Sep 14, 2011, at 8:07 PM, Bill Holton wrote: > >> Thanks for these great instructions. It looks like the new version of VM >> Fusion will allow me to run Lion as a virtual machine, which sounds like > it >> will be easier than sandboxing. But I do need to partition and format my >> coming USB HD so the instructions are no less appreciated. >> Thanks. >> >> >> -----Original Message----- >> From: macvisionaries@googlegroups.com >> [mailto:macvisionaries@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Paul Erkens >> Sent: Wednesday, September 14, 2011 1:13 PM >> To: macvisionaries@googlegroups.com >> Subject: Re: Questionabout Super Doopper and external drives >> >> Hi Bill Holton, >> You can repartition an external drive, and create both a fat32 windows >> partition and a mac os 10 extended journaled one with mac disk utility. > You >> can then use the fat32 partition to share data between windows and the > mac, >> and you can use the os10 partition to maintain a backup of everything on >> your mac. Let's begin by looking at how to resize your macintosh hd >> partition and have a sandbox beside it. >> It involves a few steps which I'll describe below. Not key by key though. >> I'll assume that you have some mac knowledge, but just don't know where to >> go yet, and in what order. Here you go. >> >> First open disk utility, to carefully inspect your current configuration > so >> that you know what you will be changing.. >> To do this, Go into the finder, say, your desktop, and press command shift > u >> from there. This will open your utilities folder. Here, find disk utility >> dot app, and open it. >> In the disk table on the left, interact, and look at your current disk >> configuration. You need to know a few things before you go do something >> here. A disk is just a disk, and you cannot use it directly. It needs to >> have a partition to hold the file system, inside of which you can store >> files. There are many file systems, one of them is fat32, and another is > mac >> os10 extended journaled. A filesystem lives inside a partition, so the >> partition is the container for the file system on the disk. From the disk >> perspective, you first have an empty disk. Then you create a partition on >> the disk, spanning all or only part of the disk size. As you are creating >> the new partition, you must choose which file system is going to live > inside >> it, because The partition must be formatted for use with the type of file >> system that you want to use. In other words, the way you format your >> partition, becomes a property of the partition. So, on your external usb >> drive, you can have a fat32 partition, and a mac os10 partition, and you > can >> have 2 separate mac os 10 extended journaled partitions on your internal > mac >> hard drive. In both cases, You then just allocate one bit to the first >> partition, and the rest of the disk space to the other. You do this by >> setting the size text fields inside disk utility. See below. >> >> Once inside disk utility on the mac, you will see your hard disk as the >> brand of physical disk inside the machine, for example Hitachi 500gb. This >> item in the disk table is usually expanded, meaning there can be something >> inside it. And indeed, there is. It's your macintosh hd partition, > formatted >> as mac os10 extended journaled, with a size of your entire disk. >> >> What you want to have, is not 1 big partition of 500 or 320 gb, what have >> you, but you would like to shrink the os10 partition and make it 20 gb >> smaller. You will use these 20 gigabytes for the sandbox partition. This > can >> be done, but it can't be done non-destructively. In other words: resizing >> your partitions with disk utility is indeed destructive, because it will >> destroy all data on the disk. In all partitions. >> >> What you can do is back up everything, then recreate your macintosh hd >> partition 20 gb smaller, create a sandbocx partition beside it, and then >> restore your data. This is painless, as I experienced yesterday and today. >> >> You can use super duper. If you have one, take an external usb hard disk >> with as much space as you have on your internal hard drive in your mac. > Your >> external disk can of course be larger, but you will need at most the size > of >> your mac drive, if you have it filled up. Super duper can create a backup > of >> your entire system, all apps, system files, preferences and all that. Even >> the unregistered version of super duper does it without restriction and > will >> make the usb backup disk bootable too. Once everything is backed up, you > can >> restart your mac and boot off of the external disk. >> >> Note: If you have no other usb disks connected other than your external >> backup hard disk, and as long as you only have 1 partition on the mac > drive, >> you can boot from the usb disk by turning on your mac, and during the >> startup sound, hold down the option key for some 10 seconds or so. Release >> it, and you will be in a menu. The cursor is on macintosh hd, to boot > from. >> Arrow left once, hit enter, and you will instead boot from the usb drive. > It >> takes longer but it works. End of note. >> >> When booted from the external drive, you have your entire system as usual. >> Voice over as well. Because everything was backed up, both disk utility > and >> super duper are on this external drive too. So now, start disk utility and >> look at what you have in the disk table. You will see your mac hard drive >> and its macintosh hd partition, you will see your external usb disk that > you >> are now working from with its partitions, and you may see something called > a >> super drive. That is simply your mac's internal cd dvd drive. >> Now, You want to repartition your internal mac hard drive into 2 new >> partitions: macintosh hd 20 gb smaller, and the sandbox partition being 20 >> gb in size. >> >> Put the cursor on the mac hard drive itself. Not on macintosh hd which is >> the partition inside it. If you now look at the rest of this disk utility >> screen, you will find a number of tabs. One of them is the partition tab. >> Push it with vo space. The screen changes to show partitioning options. >> >> This screen is self-explanatory, except for one thing. There can be a > scroll >> area. First, you need to choose how many partitions you are going to have > in >> the new layout. You will find a pop button for this. After you select to >> have 2 partitions, a scroll area will appear. It consists of 3 items: the >> first partition, a separator and the second partition. Focus on your first >> partition inside the scrool area and stop interacting. Now, look left and >> right of the scroll area, and you will find places to give the partition > its >> size, name, and file system. Then go back to the scrool area again, focus > on >> the second partition which is your sandbox, and fill in the details again >> for this partition. Then hit apply, let disk utility do its thing, and > then >> exit disk utility. Now you have a macintosh hd partition 20 gb smaller, > and >> you have your 20 gb sand box partition. Both partitions are in place but >> they are empty. >> >> Now, use super duper to restore from your external drive back to macintosh >> hd, so that your system is back normal again. >> >> In super duper, choose your external drive in the source pop up button, >> choose macintosh hd as the destination in the second pop up button, use > the >> backup all files item in the next pop up button, and let it do its thing. >> Now, you can boot as usual and nothing should be different. All data is > back >> on your drive, inside macintosh hd. >> >> Now for the sand box. Having booted normally, start super duper. Tell it > to >> back up from macintosh hd, to the new 20 gb sandbox partition, using the >> choice named sandbox shared users as your backup method. Don't use smart >> update this time yet. You want to be sure that everything is backed up > from >> macintosh hd to the sandbox partition. When done, close super duper. Now >> you have your sandbox in place. Forget about it, until you want to test a >> new device driver or piece of software. >> >> When that time has come, you will first need to boot from the new sandbox >> partition. To do that, either do it using the option key at startup, or go >> into system preferences, the item startup disk, and set it to boot from >> sandbox. This will hold for all subsequent boot ups, until you change it >> back. >> >> Once booted into your sandbox, install the software or drivers and try > them >> out. Reboot when you want or need to. Sandbox will automatically be the >> booted partition because you did that in system preferences. If you are >> satisfied with the new software, you will have to install it a second > time, >> but now on to your real macintosh hd partition. Go to system preferences, >> change the startup disk back to macintosh hd, reboot, and install your >> driver or software. >> >> Note: from time to time, it is a good idea to update your sandbox to > reflect >> the state of your ever changing macintosh hd. To do this, use super duper. >> Backup from macintosh hd, to sandbox, backup all files, and use smart > update >> to bring down the backup time. To turn on smart update, find the options >> button on the super duper screen, hit it and select smart update from a > pop >> up button. Hit ok to close options and hit copy now. Your sand box is now > up >> to date again, ready for the next unknown bit of software you would like > to >> have a go at. >> Lastly, repartitioning your external drive should now be a snap. If you > have >> further questions let me know. >> Hth, >> Paul. >> On Sep 14, 2011, at 3:07 PM, Bill Holton wrote: >> >>> Thanks. The sandbox seems like it would also be a more convenient way to >>> get into the Mac if your main system gets messed up. How hard is it to >>> repartition your ddrive on the fly? >>> Also, any suggestions on what I should do with my coming USB drive so I >> can >>> use it both to use SuperDuper and have space to swap it to my Windows PC >> to >>> back it up with a PC backup program? >>> Thanks. >>> Bill >>> >>> >>> -----Original Message----- >>> From: macvisionaries@googlegroups.com >>> [mailto:macvisionaries@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Paul Erkens >>> Sent: Wednesday, September 14, 2011 9:04 AM >>> To: macvisionaries@googlegroups.com >>> Subject: Re: Questionabout Super Doopper and external drives >>> >>> Hi Bill, James and others, >>> >>> Super duper is equal in its functionality as far as backing up and >> bootable >>> backups go. CCC is free. Super duper costs 30 dollars or so. Super duper >> has >>> an extra bit of functionality though, that I really love, now that I >> messed >>> up my system installing the wrong drivers and so on in the past. Super >> duper >>> allows you to create a sand box. A sand box is an entire copy of your mac >> os >>> 10 system installation residing on another partition of your hard drive, >>> that you can use to play around with software updates, system drivers you >>> install such as mac fuse and others, and you can mess with applications, >>> before you go ahead and actually install them for real into your main >>> macintosh hd. If you want to test a new hardware device driver, and you >> are >>> not sure of the outcome, whether or not it is going to disturb you or >>> something in your system, you can install the new driver inside the >> sandbox. >>> if you find out that everything works just fine inside your second os, > the >>> sandbox, then you can safely install the new drivers into your real >> system. >>> What super duper does, is that it requires you to repartition your drive >>> into 2 pieces. One for your normal system, and a 20 gb partition for the >>> sandbox. >>> But then, Once that is done, you have the great advantage of testing new >>> drivers and software inside your sandbox, before taking the plunge to >>> install them into the daily operating system. If, on the other hand, you >>> find that the driver is not working for you, is too intrucive or what > ever >>> reason you may have to discard it, then all you need to do is copy your >>> clean macintosh hd system files over to the sandbox, replacing the mess >> you >>> created there. Now, you also got rid of the faulty driver in the sandbox. >>> No matter if you boot from your macintosh hd or from the sandbox >> partition, >>> you always have your documents etc at hand. This is because if you boot >> from >>> macintosh hd, then the documents are accessible as usual. But from the >>> sandbox, they are reference using symbolic links, so that, even though > the >>> sandbox is just a copy of the real os, you can access all your private >> stuff >>> from there too. That is wonderful in super duper. You should very >> carefully >>> read the manual though, before you begin sandboxing, so that you are > aware >>> of what's happening. For example, you should never copy the sandbox back >> to >>> macintosh hd. That makes you loose all your private stuff. >>> >>> CCC can backup and make the backup bootable, so if you don't need the > sand >>> box functionality, then ccc is perfect too. >>> >>> On Sep 13, 2011, at 6:31 PM, Bill Holton wrote: >>> >>>> Hi. >>>> I have a 2 tarabyte drive on its way, and I have a few questions about >> Mac >>>> backups. >>>> First, as I seem to recall, with Superdooper you can create a backup in > a >>>> format you can actually boot from, if the system becomes trashed? Is >> this >>>> correct? Is SuperDooper the only package that allows this,or does time >>>> Machine, also? >>>> Second question: How would I configure the drive so I can use it to > back >>> up >>>> my Mac, but also swap it out to my PC to back it up? Guessing I'll need >>> to >>>> create two partitions? If so, how do I create the correct two using >>> Tiger? >>>> Thanks. >>>> Bill >>>> >>>> >>>> -- >>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups >>> "MacVisionaries" group. >>>> To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. >>>> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >>> macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >>>> For more options, visit this group at >>> http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. >>>> >>> >>> -- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >>> "MacVisionaries" group. >>> To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. >>> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >>> macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >>> For more options, visit this group at >>> http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. >>> >>> >>> -- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "MacVisionaries" group. >>> To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. >>> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >>> For more options, visit this group at >> http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. >>> >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "MacVisionaries" group. >> To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >> For more options, visit this group at >> http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. >> >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MacVisionaries" group. >> To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >> For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. >> > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MacVisionaries" group. > To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MacVisionaries" group. > To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. 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