i need to back up my entire hard disk on my mac (osx) not just important files or documents but the os and everything. the reason is that i dont have some of my cds and i cant replace much of the music in my itunes. the partition on the disk is only about 20 gb which is ok cause i have a 30 gb ipod. what is he best way to go about doing this?
ps. i only ask this because ive never needed to back up more than 200 or 300 mb worth of docs in osx
You can use CarbonCopy Cloner.
You can get it here:
http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html
When you go to save it, save it as an image, and save the image on the iPod :mac:
Keep in mind that you can't be booted off of the volume you're pulling the image from. Either burn a custom OS X startup CD/DVD with CCC on it, or install a minimal OS X system on your iPod.
Also, Panther has built-in full-drive-clone capabilities in Disk Utility. Just boot from another volume (again, a bootable CD/DVD/iPod), create an image of the drive, and then use the "Scan for Apple Restore" command to make the image redeployable.
You don't even need to do that. Panther's Disc Utility has a "restore" feature that lets you make a perfect clone of one disc (including the OS) and copy it onto another disc. So simply plug your iPod in, Open Disc Utility, and retore your HD onto your iPod.