Filed under: How-tos, Troubleshooting, Leopard
A weekend with FireWire
My MacBook Pro and I had a bit of a rendezvous this past weekend. She's a 15 inch Core Duo with 2GB of RAM. Although she'll occasionally get as hot as a toaster oven (leaving red marks on my lap at times) and mooed like a cow when we first met, she's been a consistent workhorse for me.
But her hard drive needed a transplant. Sick of her sluggish performance and hard drive clicking noises, I decided that it was time to fix her up. So, I replaced her 320GB hard drive with, surprise, a 320GB hard drive -- this time a Fujitsu model instead of the Toshiba it replaced. Not because I thought the Fujitsu was any better than the Toshiba it'd be replacing, but because it was the least expensive drive I could find.
Although the hard drive installation went successful, it wasn't without its fair share of bumps along the road. Hopefully, the bumps I experienced could provide many some guidance on what to do as well as what not to do when upgrading your hard drive.
Friday - 6:40pm: Time machine backup of dying 320GB Toshiba hard drive.
Saturday - 2:15am: After visiting 3 bars and sipping on 4 Ketel-and-tonics, I check up on the Time Machine backup. Good news: 206GB of data backed up successfully.
Saturday - 12pm: Using ExtremeTech's guide as a reference, I swapped out the old hard drive and installed the new one (no easy task on pre-unibody Pro's, I tell you).
Saturday - 12:45pm: Case and keyboard tightly in place, I put in my Leopard DVD and boot up while holding the C key.
Note: holding the C key forces OS X to boot from the CD or DVD drive).
Well, I'll be darned. The Leopard DVD isn't reading. Not that I'm surprised. I've dropped the machine so many times that certain CDs/DVDs -- both originals and CD-R or DVD-R copies -- aren't recognized. I can't even burn CDs/DVDs anymore, that's how bad it's gotten.
Saturday - 1:30pm: I proceed to find my Firewire-based 4th gen iPod so that I could put a Leopard image on it. One neat feature of FireWire storage devices is that you can boot OS X from them. [Also USB devices. -Ed.]
Damn it, Jim! Disk Utility keeps showing input/output errors as I partition. Note: to boot OS X on Intel-based Macs, the partition should be in the GUID format.
Saturday - 2:00: Here's a thought: maybe I could restore the iPod using iTunes, and it'll restore it with a GUID partition. Nope. iTunes will only partition it with an Apple Partition map.
This partition error keeps occurring no matter what I do and no matter which of my Macs I try it on. One workaround is to use Disk Utility from an OS X Tiger-based computer or Tiger DVD to partition, but I lack both.
Saturday - 2:30pm: Go on 4 mile run. It's not like the machine is going anywhere anyway.
Saturday - 3:45pm: After gulping down a Big Mac combo, I'm back at it. Peeling another layer off of the FireWire functionality onion, I proceed toward Target Disk Mode.
Target Disk Mode allows you to hook up a pair of Macs with a FireWire cable whereby the host Mac (in this case my MacBook Pro) can read the hard drive(s) and CD/DVD drive(s) of the target Mac (in my case a MacBook).
Saturday - 4:00pm: In most cases, Target Disk Mode will be used to read the hard drive of another computer, not the CD/DVD drive. Otherwise, it'd be called Target Disc Mode. But, as luck would have it, my MacBook Pro is using it to read the DVD drive of the host MacBook.
To initiate Target Disk Mode, reboot the target Mac and hold down the "T" key. After relaunching, a FireWire symbol will be displayed on the screen. At that point you can plug in the source Mac via FireWire and read the target's contents.
Saturday - 4:10pm: Success! My MacBook Pro has successfully booted up the Leopard DVD -- via another MacBook's DVD drive through Target Disk Mode via a FireWire cable. What a mouthful.
Saturday - 4:15pm: With the Leopard DVD successfully booted, I have two options: 1) install Leopard or 2) perform a Time Machine backup. Before I could do any of these, however, I must first partition my newly installed Fujitsu drive.
Saturday - 4:17pm: One way to format a drive in OS X is to use Disk Utility. Besides living in your Mac's hard drive (in /Applications/Utilities), Disk Utility is also on the Leopard install DVD.
Saturday - 4:20pm: Hard drive successfully partitioned. Now, it's time to perform the Time Machine restore.
Saturday - 4:25pm: After selecting the Time Machine source (the backup I performed the night before, which is an external USB hard drive), the Time Machine Restore process looks for a destination drive to restore data to.
Saturday - 4:35pm: I only see one drive show up. Like the hard drives on all out-of-box Macs, this hard drive is named "Macintosh HD." But, it has a FireWire icon on it. It can't possibly be my new hard drive.
Saturday - 4:40pm: I wait even longer to see if another hard drive shows up.
Saturday - 4:45pm: I come to the realization that I'll probably need to reboot in order for the hard drive to show up.
Saturday - 4:55pm: Well, what do you know? The hard drive shows up as a restore destination. Had I actually used the target's "Macintosh HD" as the restore destination, I would've stabbed myself in the heart with a dull butter knife.
Note: If your hard drive is not showing up as a Time Machine restore destination, try rebooting it. Do not stab yourself in the heart with a dull butter knife.
Saturday - 5:00pm: Time Machine restore begins
Saturday - 1:30am: Dinner in Santa Monica, one lounge visit, six and a half hours and 206 GB later, my MacBook Pro is back to her old self.
And that's why I heart FireWire. Apple received its fair share of criticism back in October 2008, when it was revealed that its newly debuted 13-inch aluminum MacBook (now in the MacBook Pro line) didn't come equipped with FireWire. Perhaps in response to this outcry, it made a return when the model was refreshed this past June. In addition to FireWire, all unibody MacBook Pro models (except the 17") now come equipped with an SD card slot, which Apple states is also bootable. Options are always good!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Scott said 4:44PM on 8-07-2009
I upgraded from a G4 iBook to a Unibody MacBook. Firewire would have saved me so much trouble, just as it did when I upgraded from my G3 iBook to the G4. Alas, I had to manually transfer everything via an external hard disk. :(
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Hawkman said 5:14PM on 8-07-2009
Did you know that Migration Assistant lets you transfer information over ethernet?
James said 4:49PM on 8-07-2009
Hmm, I just popped a 500 GB Western Digital into my old Core Duo 17" MacBook Pro. Picked it up for $120 at Best Buy. This computer stared with a 120 GB 3 1/2 Years ago. I put a 320GB in last year.
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Jornk said 11:25PM on 8-07-2009
Funny, I have not only the same machine, but the exact same HD history
Stefan said 5:13PM on 8-07-2009
Sorry, but using Time Machine here was what made it take an entire day to do this backup.
You'd have been far far better off using Carbon Copy Cloner or Superduper to simply clone directly from the dying drive to the fresh drive and then switch them out. It would have saved you a grand total of 7 hours.
The only downside to doing it like I just said is that you wont be able to continue with you current Time Machine backup. Then again, I don't think you can continue with your current backup anyway. Something about having the backup tied to the serial number of your HDD, I can't remember.
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Sang Tang said 5:10PM on 8-07-2009
I was actually a SuperDuper user in the Tiger days. But, I had an experience once where my permissions were out of place after the SuperDuper restore, which was causing so many issues. Perhaps it was something I did. Either way, to each their own and I'm happy with Time Machine -- at least for now.
Steffo said 5:16PM on 8-07-2009
oh, well fair enough.
I think it would've still been worth a punt just because it would potentially keep so many things intact that a Time Machine restore would break. If I remember correctly, things like Mail don't play nice with TM restores.
Elie said 5:20PM on 8-07-2009
Using time machine wasn't the issue, using time machine over the network was. I assume it was a network time machine backup because otherwise time machine is surprisingly fast.
tuaw said 12:31PM on 8-09-2009
The Time Machine backup is determined by your motherboard's MAC address (and your account name, etc.) If you get a new motherboard and want to continue appending to your existing Time Machine backup set use the instructions here: http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080128003716101
Just follow them very carefully!
Kevin
Steffo said 1:16PM on 8-09-2009
Yes, you do need to do that when you replace a motherboard (I've had first hand experience of that too, with my 8600m GT dying on me a year ago). However, when I replaced my standard 160GB HDD with a 320GB HDD, using Superduper to clone the drive in the process, I found that Time Machine would create a new copy of every single file on the drive (no hard links, actual data).
I was wrong when I said that the Time Machine backup would be broken. It won't be, but it will try to re-copy all your files, which will result in quite likely a near doubling the size of your TM backup.
Going back to my emails with the Superduper developer, Time Machine doesn't just rely on the ethernet MAC address of the computer, but the UUID of the hard disk which the files originate from is imprinted onto every copied file.
Unfortunately, even changing the UUID of the new hard disk didn't work, though others have reported some success. Something which has been briefly talked about on TUAW when one of you replaced their HDD with a SSD...
LAGal said 3:35PM on 8-12-2009
i'm curious how to do this since the new hard drive isn't installed anywhere.
also given that one of the uses of Time Machine is to restore via migration assistant, I doubt it is tied to the serial. log in info sure but if you are doing the restore at system set up it will copy that info as well
there were some problems early on with the system running a full backup the first time after that restore but what's the beef with that. at least you know your files are saved. better that than something was missed.
Steffo said 6:57PM on 8-12-2009
No, its a semi-well documented issue, and as far as Im aware is still current. Its applicable when restoring from Time Machine or cloning the HDD or whatever. There's no real way around it aside from trying to change the UUID of the HDD, and that only sometimes works.
But it will carry on in the same TM entry, if you will.
As to what the problem is with TM copying everything afresh. Take my instance. Ive got an external 1TB raid. Right now I've got about 100GB of that left, and 100GB is already consumed by TM. Taking into account all the stuff I've told TM not to backup, a fresh HDD would add around 40GB to that total. So I'd have 60GB left, and the disk would be muuch slower and also much more prone to fragmenting and eventually becoming unmountable till I try and fix it with Disk Warrior...
To buy another 1TB external drive with FW800 or eSATA would be about £100 now ($160), whereas if TM didn't act this way I could quite happily continue on my way for another few months at least before having to get another HDD.
Even when I do eventually buy a new HDD, I still don't feel that I can trust TM not to chew up my 1TB raid, which is one of the reasons why I don't use TM very often anymore. The more often it gets used the slower it gets and worse any fragmentation might get.
/rant
Fred said 5:03PM on 8-07-2009
Her? I heart? Ketel and Tonics? You are far too hip for me.
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oakie said 5:13PM on 8-07-2009
i, too was mildly amused at the name-dropping of a mid-tier vodka.
Josh said 7:02PM on 8-07-2009
@oakie
If you consider Ketel to be mid-tier, what is your top shelf? Let me guess, you're a Grey Goose sheeple?
Fred said 8:42PM on 8-07-2009
If you use the word sheeple in a real sentence, you is one.
oakie said 5:11PM on 8-07-2009
"In addition to FireWire, all unibody MacBook Pro models now come equipped with SD card slots..."
wrongo. the 17" MBP does not come with an SD slot. expresscard 34 only.
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oakie said 5:17PM on 8-07-2009
and to inject my own opinion, i wish they had integrated something more useful than an SD card reader... like a CF reader instead. you can adapt an SD card into a CF slot, but not vice versa, making it more useless than the expresscard34 slot it replaced to those of us with CF fed digital cameras.
fishbert said 8:31PM on 8-07-2009
And those that do come with an SD card slot... good luck doing this hard drive upgrade on them!
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2054387
Elie said 5:18PM on 8-07-2009
You can actually boot OS X from USB as well, it just might run a bit slower (especially compared to firewire 800).
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