Charlie Ruggiero
- 2000.06.21
Everyone can use the included Apple CD that ships with recent
Macs, but not everyone wants the basic install with the out-of-date
applications and an older version of the Mac OS. The solution is to
make your own bootable restore CD.
What you need:
- CD-R drive or CD-RD drive
- a Macintosh that can boot from CD (preferably a Power Mac)
- an Apple CD containing a recent bootable operating system
- an extra hard drive or a partition that is 1.2 GB or
larger
- Apple's Disk Copy software
- Toast or other CD burning software
The first job is to clean up your System Folder and hard drive.
Remove unwanted files, empty folders, extensions that you no longer
use, and so on. (Suggestion: back up first just in case you
accidentally delete the wrong file.) You need to do this because
you are going to be using your main hard drive as the base for your
custom restore CD. You do not want those extra files installed over
and over again in the future, and this also will free up some
space, since CD-Rs have a maximum capacity of 640 MB. Don't count
on using the whole 640 MB for your System Folder, because we will
need about 80 MB for utilities and a CD bootable system folder.
Once your hard drive is clean, make two disk images with
Apple's Disk Copy on your extra hard drive or partition. Create the
first image at the maximum CD-ROM size (663,000k Full CD-ROM) and
the second at a custom size of 540 MB. These should both be mounted
on your desktop. If they are not, simply double-click the image
files. The extra hard drive or partition is used so that you can
easily do this again.
Drag your entire System Folder from your main hard drive to the
540 MB image. This is the most important part to ensure that all
your preferences and extensions are there when you restore. The
second job is to drag your most important applications to the
smaller 540 MB image. Drag things like Office, Dream Weaver, or
whatever you feel is important. If there is room, you can continue
to drag everything from your hard drive. Be sure to copy data as
well (Word, Excel, HTML documents, etc.). If there is not room on
the image, you need to decide what files are needed most. I would
avoid moving entire games over to the image, as they sometimes take
up hundreds of megabytes of space. Just copy saved game data files,
because games, on the whole, are easier to install than other
applications.
Remember that desktop items will not be copied unless you copy
them yourself. I would create a folder on the 540 MB image named
something like "Desktop Stuff" and then copy the desktop items into
it. I would avoid dragging your entire Macintosh hard drive to the
image, because you will end up copying things you may not want such
as the hidden virtual memory file, which can be very large.
Once you have everything you want in your 540 Mb image, you can
close it (drag the mounted image to the Trash to close it, just
like you would eject a CD). You should now insert your newest
bootable Apple OS CD. Open it up and copy the System Folder from
the CD into the larger disk image (the 633 MB image.) Also
copy the Utilities folder from the CD. From the hard drive, copy
Apple's Disk Copy. You will need all of these utilities to
erase/fix your hard drive, mount the image, and copy your data back
to your repaired hard drive.
Finally, copy the smaller image file (not the mounted
disk, but the .img file) to the larger image. Let me explain what
has happened: You have an image of (most of) your Macintosh hard
drive on the smaller image. You keep it in a separate image because
you will need to boot from a System Folder designed for CDs (to
reduce problems in booting). The System Folder for CDs goes into
the larger image with the other utilities so that you can keep them
separate from the System Folder from your hard drive.
Keep the larger disk image mounted, but make sure the smaller
one is not mounted. Open Toast and choose Mac Volume under the
Format menu. Click "Data," choose your larger mounted image file,
and click "Bootable." You are now ready to burn your bootable
custom restore CD.
To restore with the custom CD, simply boot up as you would
normally from a CD. If your hard drive is not empty (be sure data
you have not backed up on the CD is backed up elsewhere) or
damaged, format it with Drive Setup. Now simply click on the
smaller disc image that you made (the 540 MB one) and it will mount
on the desktop. Open it and copy all of the data to your hard
drive. Reboot, and your data will be exactly as it was when you
copied it to the CD, complete with your programs, preferences, and
whatever else you copied to the smaller image file.
I recommend doing the whole process every couple of months so
that you can backup to the newest possible data and preferences.
Charlie Ruggiero has used a lot of Macs, from Plus to G4, and
even ran a BBS (remember those?) on a Plus. He works as Macintosh
tech support and technology advisor for the College of Education at
Michigan State University. He does a lot of hardware and software
troubleshooting, as well as a great deal of video editing, capture,
and streaming. Charlie is well versed in HyperCard, fairly
knowledgeable in Future Basic, and has a good background in sound
and video. He even has his own site, Edge of Heaven.
