Create a Hard Drive Copy for Backup, Restore, Recovery or Duplication
The ability to create duplicate disk images of a boot device or external hard drive in Mac OSX can be useful for a variety of reasons, not least for backup purposes. There are a range of possible solutions for the task, but by far the easiest one of all is SubRosaSoft’s CopyCatX hard drive duplicate software. It’s a great, fast and no brains approach to backing up your hard drive media, making a ghost image, or just creating a default install disk image to save yourself time later, an alternative to Apple’s Software Recovery CD making software.
Making and Using a Sound Copy of Your Hard Drive
Whether you have just done a fresh install and completed the cycle of Software Update downloads from the Apple servers, or just want top perform a clean backup of your primary boot device, the process is exactly the same. CopyCatX is designed to work with any form of formatted media device (hard drive, cd, dvd or other), and to make an exact copy of that drive or device. CopyCatX can also output to a single or multiple destinations (upto 15 devices) at the same time, and is fault tolerant so that it can handle gracefully a faulty hard disk or scratched media. A word of caution though, when making copies of a partition or volume CopyCatX can only work with HFS+ and HFS+ Journaled volumes.
Getting Started with CopyCatX. Backup, Restore, Duplicate or Recover?
To get started you need to attach the source device to the Apple Mac system, if you wish to duplicate your primary boot device you will have to run the system off a secondary drive and system. After this, attach the destination device(s) onto which the source device itself will be copied or the disk image of which will be written. When all the drives are fully functioning and mounted in the finder, you are ready to get going, so startup CopyCatX.
Having reached the main screen of the software, you will be presented with the 3 available functions:
Backup/Restore is designed for making a single backup disk image file file, which can then be restored from at a later date using this same option. Duplicate is designed for making device-to-device copies, for up to 15 individual devices. Recover is specifically designed for making a disk image copy of a faulty hard drive or scratched or potentially unreadable media. Simply select the source device from the drop down list and then proceed to the secondary screen by clicking the respective button. The process is fault tolerant and so will not hang as and when it hits bad blocks of data as some other applications do. CopyCatX uses automatic block matching for damaged media and will skip over any bad ones and continue on with the replication process.
Having selected the correct device and clicked the desired task button, each subsequent screen is well-layed out and easy to use, with even the most novice user in mind. CopyCatX definitely puts some very powerful functions right in the palm of your hand.
Restoring From the Duplicate Disk 
Image
If you have made a previous backup copy of your device and are ready to perform a restore, simply mount the image in the finder by using the “Attach Disk Image” function in the “File” drop menu, and then click “Backup/Restore”. In the secondary screen, select the restore check box option so that the arrow then points from the Disk image to the Hard Drive, and then click “Start”. When the process is completed, you will be shown a confirmation screen.
Duplicating a Drive to Multiple Other Hard Drives
In a situation where you have a clean installed single drive or ghost image and you wish to duplicate this to one or more other devices you can use the “Duplicate” process. Having connected all the devices and respective disk image or drive to be copied and selected the source in the drop down, click the “Duplicate” button. From the secondary screen select the destination disk(s) and then click “Start”. When done, again you will be presented with a completion dialog screen.
Recover a Hard Drive or Other 
Device
When a hard drive or device is acting up, rather than to attempt to recover files individually from the Mac OSX hard drive it is safer, faster and more secure to do a straight copy-recover of the device and then replicate the resulting disk image on another hard drive. Once the source and destination drives are connected, select the faulty drive from the drop down list and then click “Recover”. In the second window simply select a segment size, multiple CDs, DVDs or one single disk image, and then click “Start”. If you whish to resume a previous recovery, for whatever reason, then tick the respective option, which will then prompt you to open the existing disk image files with which to continue.
Conclusion: Backup, Restore, Duplication and Recovery Made Simple
CopyCatX does a great job of making some powerful process extremely simple, so whether you are a Mac OSX newby or afficionado, CopyCatX is the application to help you accomplish your needs. At $59.95 and available for download from the SubRosaSoft website, the software is a sound investment for anyone needing a quick and easy backup/restores, as well as drive recovery and duplication.
Find out more about CopyCatX on the SubRosaSoft Website.
