how to block level clone to larger partition?
After reading the support data, it appears to me that in order to copy Time Machine data, I have to do a block copy of the partition it is on. I assume this means that if it is on a 250 GB partition, then I will end up with a 250 GB partition when it is done, as even if I clone it to a larger partition, only 250 GB will be accessible, since it was a block copy and therefore would carry all the formatting data from the original 250 GB partition. Is this correct?
I have a 250 GB volume (partition) on an HDD which includes both a Backups.backupdb file (time machine) as well as other files the user has in the same volume. I am transferring the data to a new HDD with two 500 GB partitions. I would like for the time machine backup to go onto one 500 GB partition, and the other user files on the other 500 GB partition.
How would I do this to get the results I want? Of course the Backups.backupdb file is not visible. I suppose I could clone the entire partition, copy the user data files to the second partition on the new drive, then delete them from the first partition, but it would seem that I would still end up with the problem of only having 250 GB available on the first partition.
Any help on this matter is appreciated.
Thank you kindly,
Allasso Travesser
ps: On a side note, is a block level copy on CCC essentially the same as doing a dd copy on the command line?
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2 Posted by allassopraise on 10 Aug, 2012 10:39 PM
and the answer:
For block level copies (from http://help.bombich.com/kb/explore/the-block-level-copy):
"...the destination volume is then expanded to reach the extent of the partition (so if you cloned a 1TB drive to a 2TB drive, the destination volume would be 2TB when you're finished)."
"The source and destination must both be actual volumes (i.e. not a subfolder on a volume)."
So I just did a block level copy of the entire partition (volume) that timemachine was on, copied the non-timemcahine stuff to the other new partition, then deleted it off the new timemachine partition. Result: New drive has timemachine on its own partition, user data on the other partition.
NOTE: if you are copying timemachine data using a different computer than the one which will be using that data, I recommend turning off TimeMachine before starting the clone, lest when the copying is finished and the TimeMachine volume mounts again, the TimeMachine backup files are updated with the state of the computer you are using.
3 Posted by allassopraise on 10 Aug, 2012 11:26 PM
Oh, yes, apparently no, a block level copy on CCC is not essentially the same as doing a dd copy on the command line; when using CCC the partition is expanded after the copy.
Support Staff 4 Posted by Mike Bombich on 11 Aug, 2012 03:52 AM
Hi Allasso:
You beat me to the answer! Sorry for the delay. You're right on all counts, and I'm glad you got the result you were looking for.
Mike
Mike Bombich closed this discussion on 20 Sep, 2012 05:00 AM.