MacStudioA Blueprint Series Part 2: Creating a Mac OS X System Image File
RAW SCRIPT:
Script: Blueprint Series Part 2
Hi…I’m Serge Siou and Welcome to MacStudioA
If you've been following our Blueprint Series, Glad to see you back for Part 2, Creating A Mac OS X System Image File.
Some basic facts about a Mac OS X System Image File:
1. A Mac OS X System Image File is a backup and recovery file of your Mac OS X Operating System, in our case Mountain Lion, plus any Mac App Store updates that usually has to be performed from a clean install and any
Third-Party Applications that you install on your Mac, included on it.
2. An image file only takes minutes to restore a Mac System back to the way you originally customized and configure it, compared to taking hours from a clean install, where you have to perform all updates and application installations all over again.
3. A Mac OS X boot disk is required to restore an image files.
4. And finally, you need two individual hard drives in order to create a System Image File, one being the Macintosh Hard Drive and the other, an Internal or External Hard Drive.
So let's get started
What you will need:
Some required devices required when deciding to create a System Image Backup under the Mac OS X environment.
1. A Mac (Intel based-Mac)
2. A Separate Internal and External Hard drive.
(In our case, We'll be using a USB 3.0 External hard drive)
if any of your Mac system has two individual Hard drives,
(not two different partitions but two individual hard drives) then an external hard drive is not required, but good to have for portability)
Basically for a System Image Backup to work and do it’s job effectively, you need to create it on a completely separate hard drive from the main Macintosh hard drive.
The External hard drive can have separate partitions, as long as it has enough space to create a System image file.
Consider reserving at least 100GB to start with on your Internal or External Hard drive.
So in our case, we will be assuming that you will be using an external hard drive,
As always, don't forget to back-up your hard drive or drive when ever using the Mac Disk Utility Application.
To check what applications is currently on your Macintosh Hard drive, click on LaunchPad…
Everything shown in the yellow box and any additional third-party applications that you install on your Mac system will be included on the Mac System Image that you create.
As you can see some of the third party applications will be included on the Mac OS X System Image File, plus Applications from the Mac App Store, like GarageBand, iMovie and iPhoto.
TOP TIP: Before creating an Image File, make sure to check if there is any updates currently available from the Mac App Store.
[additional notes to maybe include:
(incidentally, make sure to download all Mac Store Apps update Apps by launching the Mac App Store and click on the Updates tab to show current updates available…usually from a clean install GB, iM and iP has to be updated).]
At this point, We'll insert our External USB External Hard drive,
This is where the Mac OS X System Image will be copied too.
Once loaded,
We need to launch the Disk Utility application,
click LaunchPad and go to the Other Folder,
click Disk Utility to launch it,
Now, on the Disk Utility Taskbar,
Click File then scroll to New,
Now scroll and click on "Disk image from Folder…"
You will now be presented to Select the Folder to image
which is basically the Macintosh HD.
As I have many Hard drives and Partitions, I usually go to where all my Devices are as shown, which in my case is named "iSerge's Macbook Air"
Now click on the Macintosh HD icon,
then click the image button,
We now need to give our image a name,
I usually name them with the Date the image was created
then choose where to copy the System Image too,
in our case, it's our External USB Mac partitioned HD
then click the down-arrow to expand the Mac External HD
at this point, for easy cataloguing,
we can create a folder where the image will be copied to,
this is purely optional, I just do it for better cataloguing.
In our case, I'll create one called "LatestMacImage"
Once done...click on the Folder just created to make sure it's selected and click on the Save button
You will now be promoted to enter your Admin Details
do so and click the OK button.
for the Image to start being created.
Depending what you choose to include on your system image file, determines how long the image process will take.
in our case, it took about 45 minutes
We'll just Time-lapse it by 10,000 percent
After the System Image is created, click once on the dmg file in the left panel for this demo it's the file "MacOSXImageDec222012.dmg"
We now need to "Scan Image for Restore", If you forget to do this, you will be prompted to do so when doing an actual System Image Restore.
On the left-hand panel of the Disk Utility Window, click on the
System Image File just created ("MacOSXImageDec222012.dmg"),
Then go to the Disk Utility Taskbar and click on the "Images" tab, then scroll and click on "Scan Image for Restore…"
You will then be promoted to Enter you Admin Details
Do so, then click on the "OK" button and the Scan process will begin.
Once again the scan will take some time, in our case, it took 16 mins.
We'll time-lapse this again by 10,000 percent.
And that's it, your Mac OS X System Image is now ready for Restore.
You can check that it has indeed been copied to your External USB Hard Drive and also Get info about it's content.
We can now close all open folders/windows,
and proceed to Part 3 from our Blueprint Series: Putting It All Together.
If you have any question about Part 2 please comment below.
Hope to see you back for Part 3.
Peace.
Script: Blueprint Series Part 2
Hi…I’m Serge Siou and Welcome to MacStudioA
If you've been following our Blueprint Series, Glad to see you back for Part 2, Creating A Mac OS X System Image File.
Some basic facts about a Mac OS X System Image File:
1. A Mac OS X System Image File is a backup and recovery file of your Mac OS X Operating System, in our case Mountain Lion, plus any Mac App Store updates that usually has to be performed from a clean install and any
Third-Party Applications that you install on your Mac, included on it.
2. An image file only takes minutes to restore a Mac System back to the way you originally customized and configure it, compared to taking hours from a clean install, where you have to perform all updates and application installations all over again.
3. A Mac OS X boot disk is required to restore an image files.
4. And finally, you need two individual hard drives in order to create a System Image File, one being the Macintosh Hard Drive and the other, an Internal or External Hard Drive.
So let's get started
What you will need:
Some required devices required when deciding to create a System Image Backup under the Mac OS X environment.
1. A Mac (Intel based-Mac)
2. A Separate Internal and External Hard drive.
(In our case, We'll be using a USB 3.0 External hard drive)
if any of your Mac system has two individual Hard drives,
(not two different partitions but two individual hard drives) then an external hard drive is not required, but good to have for portability)
Basically for a System Image Backup to work and do it’s job effectively, you need to create it on a completely separate hard drive from the main Macintosh hard drive.
The External hard drive can have separate partitions, as long as it has enough space to create a System image file.
Consider reserving at least 100GB to start with on your Internal or External Hard drive.
So in our case, we will be assuming that you will be using an external hard drive,
As always, don't forget to back-up your hard drive or drive when ever using the Mac Disk Utility Application.
To check what applications is currently on your Macintosh Hard drive, click on LaunchPad…
Everything shown in the yellow box and any additional third-party applications that you install on your Mac system will be included on the Mac System Image that you create.
As you can see some of the third party applications will be included on the Mac OS X System Image File, plus Applications from the Mac App Store, like GarageBand, iMovie and iPhoto.
TOP TIP: Before creating an Image File, make sure to check if there is any updates currently available from the Mac App Store.
[additional notes to maybe include:
(incidentally, make sure to download all Mac Store Apps update Apps by launching the Mac App Store and click on the Updates tab to show current updates available…usually from a clean install GB, iM and iP has to be updated).]
At this point, We'll insert our External USB External Hard drive,
This is where the Mac OS X System Image will be copied too.
Once loaded,
We need to launch the Disk Utility application,
click LaunchPad and go to the Other Folder,
click Disk Utility to launch it,
Now, on the Disk Utility Taskbar,
Click File then scroll to New,
Now scroll and click on "Disk image from Folder…"
You will now be presented to Select the Folder to image
which is basically the Macintosh HD.
As I have many Hard drives and Partitions, I usually go to where all my Devices are as shown, which in my case is named "iSerge's Macbook Air"
Now click on the Macintosh HD icon,
then click the image button,
We now need to give our image a name,
I usually name them with the Date the image was created
then choose where to copy the System Image too,
in our case, it's our External USB Mac partitioned HD
then click the down-arrow to expand the Mac External HD
at this point, for easy cataloguing,
we can create a folder where the image will be copied to,
this is purely optional, I just do it for better cataloguing.
In our case, I'll create one called "LatestMacImage"
Once done...click on the Folder just created to make sure it's selected and click on the Save button
You will now be promoted to enter your Admin Details
do so and click the OK button.
for the Image to start being created.
Depending what you choose to include on your system image file, determines how long the image process will take.
in our case, it took about 45 minutes
We'll just Time-lapse it by 10,000 percent
After the System Image is created, click once on the dmg file in the left panel for this demo it's the file "MacOSXImageDec222012.dmg"
We now need to "Scan Image for Restore", If you forget to do this, you will be prompted to do so when doing an actual System Image Restore.
On the left-hand panel of the Disk Utility Window, click on the
System Image File just created ("MacOSXImageDec222012.dmg"),
Then go to the Disk Utility Taskbar and click on the "Images" tab, then scroll and click on "Scan Image for Restore…"
You will then be promoted to Enter you Admin Details
Do so, then click on the "OK" button and the Scan process will begin.
Once again the scan will take some time, in our case, it took 16 mins.
We'll time-lapse this again by 10,000 percent.
And that's it, your Mac OS X System Image is now ready for Restore.
You can check that it has indeed been copied to your External USB Hard Drive and also Get info about it's content.
We can now close all open folders/windows,
and proceed to Part 3 from our Blueprint Series: Putting It All Together.
If you have any question about Part 2 please comment below.
Hope to see you back for Part 3.
Peace.
