How does one copy a system boot drive

[greatinterface]

I tried this before and ran in to problems with the copy not starting up . I remember reading about Blessing the drive but could not find a reference to that in the search .Any suggestions ?

[MacTron]

Drag the contents of the source hard disk to the destination hard disk.

[IIO]

if ia copied system folder does not boot, this is not releated to the copying method, it is indeed a problem of the systemfolder not beeing "blessed".

to bless a system folder it is normally enough to open it once via finder (or any other browser program). you will see that after opening it once, it will show the system folder icon again - and then it can be used as intented.

[Protools5LEGuy]

https://support.apple.com/kb/TA21672?locale=es_ES&viewlocale=en_US

Mac OS: Reblessing Old System Folder After Clean Install

    1. Start the computer from an external floppy disk or a startup CD.

    2. Close all your windows, then open your hard disk.

    3. Choose by Name from the View menu. Verify that the System Folder has a small picture of an original Macintosh in the middle of its icon. This will resemble a picture of a monitor. This is the currently blessed system folder that is running your computer.

    4. Open this System Folder. Move the System suitcase into the Preferences folder. Close the System Folder.

    5. Verify that this System Folder no longer has the original Macintosh icon.

    6. Rename the System Folder Clean System Folder.

    7. Rename the original System Folder (the one you wish to use again, not the one from Step 6) back to System Folder.

    A. If you used System 7.5's Clean Install option, open the System Folder, double-click on your System suitcase. Close the window which appears, then close the System Folder.

    1) If a picture of an original Macintosh does not appear in the middle of this folder's icon, open the System Folder again.

    2) Drag the System suitcase and the Finder to your hard disk icon.

    3) Close the System Folder.

    4) Open your hard drive and drag the System suitcase and the Finder on top of the System Folder icon. The original Macintosh icon should appear on the System folder immediately.

    B. If you used another type of clean restore, you ordinarily would have had to separate the System suitcase and the Finder from each other. One of these files would have been placed in the Trash, or in your Preferences folder, or someplace other than loose in the System Folder. You need to find the System suitcase and the Finder, move them to your hard disk, close your System Folder, and drag them on top of your System Folder icon. The original Macintosh icon should appear on the System Folder icon immediately.

    8. Restart your computer. It should start up from the original System Folder. If it does not, repeat the original clean install steps.

    9. Put Clean System Folder into the Trash and empty the Trash. You will lose all data in this System Folder, so make sure that you have not installed any software in that System Folder except for the basic system software.

[IIO]

lol, i think apple makes it extra complicated, just to annoy users.

[supernova777]

Drag the contents of the source hard disk to the destination hard disk.

yes its this simple.. but also be aware of:

a) ensure that the drive is formatted hfs or hfs+ while booted to os9
b) if formatting with osx ensure the disk has "mac os 9 drivers" check box checked

[greatinterface]

Thanks for all the tips and your great site .Why is it not possible to copy the drive contents including applications et all and select the new drive in start up disk options

[supernova777]

Thanks for all the tips and your great site .Why is it not possible to copy the drive contents including applications et all and select the new drive in start up disk options

it is possible.. providing you have formatted the disk properly..
like mactron told u.. all u need to do is drag the contents of one disk to the other..
its really that simple..

another more complicated (+ more thorough) way to accomplish this would be to either use ASR to create a disk image + then restore to another disk..
or if booted to osx, u could use a cloning app such as SuperDuper or CarbonCopyCloner (CCC) but we obviously reccommend ASR above these other X options.
 

[IIO]

Thanks for all the tips and your great site .Why is it not possible to copy the drive contents including applications et all and select the new drive in start up disk options

well, normally it is.

and where it does not work, for example when copying to the same partition, blessing the new system folder and/or rebooting is not sooo much work, isnt it.

[Jakl]

Thanks for all the tips and your great site .Why is it not possible to copy the drive contents including applications et all and select the new drive in start up disk options

Are you trying to copy the current system os9 system you've started up on? If so sometimes it will not be possible to do it this way. You must start up on another start up disk and and copy the contents of either an image of a disk or a macos9 HD to the new disk. Then I'm sure "startup disk preference control panel" should then recognize the new disk and it will then be available to start up from.
But I have tried this way many years ago and not all files are copied correctly when trying to copy macos9 from the current startup disk to another disk.

[supernova777]

there u go. jakl nailed it.. u have to have an alternate start up to do this.. whether it be from a cd. or a 2ndary bootable partition..
then u can copy the contents of a partition to another newly created partition on another disk drive.. be it sata/ide/firewire or even usb if u feel like waiting for 20 days;)