Bootable OS X CD copy?

S

setz

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I was wondering if anyone knows how to make a bootable copy of a Mac OS Install CD (whether it be OSX, 9.1, etc)? I have purchased OS X (gotta support Apple at every possible opportunity, right?) and I tried to make a copy of it in case it ever gets damaged. But, of course I can't boot up from it. Does anyone know of a way to make an exact copy of the install disk including the Boot ROM Code so it is possible to boot up from the duplicate CD(what apps to use, how to, etc.)?

thanks.....
 
Have you tried a CD-to-CD copy utility like DAO?

I don't have a CD-burner for my Mac, but in my PC I use CDrWin to copy CD's exactly. It works also for Macintosh CD's (Windows can't read that filesystem) and maybe also for Mac OS X, because it copies just every sector.

 
In Toast 5.0 it would be a breeze:

1. Place the Apple Install CD in the CD-ROM
2. Open Toast
3. Switch to "Copy" tab
4. Choose : File; Save as Disk Image
5. Give it a filename

6. remove the Apple Install CD
7. Insert blank CD-R Media
8. Switch to "Other" tab
9. Drop the freshly created disk image in that window
10. Hit "record" - you're done
 
i believe any compatible version of toast should do this for you. if you have two cd drives, just place original in read drive and drag to toast window in copy mode. press record. should be exact dupicate when done. You can alos make boot disc using your current 9.x system on the drive. If this is whaat you are interested in, say so and I will give you the link to the tutorial which is very easy. even i can do it succeessfully.
 
.. it is much easier to use Disk Copy included with Mac OS X, not to mention much cheaper.

Disk Copy can do the exact same thing.. it will copy a disk, and then you can burn it straight from Disk Copy. This is the method I used to create a bootable CD of OS X 10.1 (Full Install) by making a disk image from the update CD and removing the file that checks for OS X (yes, I did by OS X originally).

I would recommend this method, because I have doubts about Toast being able to make a bootable OS X CD.
 
Using Toast Titanium 5.1.4, a Quicksilver 867/1GB and the Jaguar installer disk, which I bought, I was able to make a bootable backup copy using the Toast instructions below - no problem at all.

I booted off it and looped into the Disk Utility mode and ran it on my startup disk (which I had previously put Jaguar on, when I bought it). I quit the utility afterwards, and then the Installer. It restarted me back into 9, which was a drag, but other than that Toast appears to work flawlessly for making OSX bootable disks.
 
Yep, under jaguar I used 5.1.4 to create a backup copy of my CD from the internal DVD drive to my firewire burner.
 
I've also had sucess with Toast 5.1.1 making a backup of my Jaguar install CD's, they are perfectly bootable. Any sort of exact copying of a CD will work since it obviously copies the bootcode.
 
early in the boot process, the OS wants to mount its primary volume as Read/write. Barring this, the boot process is not very productive. Good luck trying to boot some really usable version of OS X from a CD.

There are 2 hobbled versions I have seen boot from CD, Drive X and the Installer. Both do very much the same thing. Which is, not much.
 
Last I checked there was a program called BootCD which would make a disk image for a bootable OS X CD. Haven't tried it though, and I suppose it might not work with 10.2, I don't know.
 
Originally posted by theed
early in the boot process, the OS wants to mount its primary volume as Read/write. Barring this, the boot process is not very productive. Good luck trying to boot some really usable version of OS X from a CD.

There are 2 hobbled versions I have seen boot from CD, Drive X and the Installer. Both do very much the same thing. Which is, not much.
Click to expand...

You can do this as well. it took me some time but I finaly was able to create a cd like this.

I got the instructions here... http://www.bombich.com/mactips/bootx.html

Just a word of caution. I used BootCD to try to make a disk and after trying to boot off of it (which was unsucessful) I was unable to start off any other media for quite a while until I found a workaround.
 
Originally posted by kommakazi
I've also had sucess with Toast 5.1.1 making a backup of my Jaguar install CD's, they are perfectly bootable. Any sort of exact copying of a CD will work since it obviously copies the bootcode.
Click to expand...

I just tried that this weekend, but I was burning from a disc image. The disc image of the first Jaguar disc is 708 MB. So Toast obviously said there wasn't enough free space on my machine. When I mounted the disk image, the CD is around 648, but there's no way to make a device copy from either Toast or Disk Copy. Just dragging the CD into Toast resulted in a non-bootable CD. Is there a workaround?
 
I have made duplicates of my family pack issue Jaguar media using Disk Copy and the burner in a white 12" iBook. Poof. Done. Bootable. I'm not sure where you're having problems.

Perhaps the best solution wouldn't be a CD but would be Carbon Copy? It's a utility on VersionTracker that allows the duplication of a bootable drive onto another drive. Since X installs aren't draggable/bootable, you need something better than a Finder copy. iPod?
 
This thread proved useful to me, for I do not have Apple internal CDRW in my iMac, thus DiscCopy can burn nothing...Although I'm searching for an adapter that would make the HP my internal drive, and also put that original internal to normal IDE...ie the power needs to be somehow drawn from somewhere...
 
I successfully created a bootable CD with the BootCD utility. It only works when you use the burn function in DiskCopy, however. But I can run any utility that BootCd can place into the image when the CD is run. Nice.

An additional however: the resulting CD is verrry sloooow to operate when booted from. Oh well. I look forward to the day when we can create a temp partition in Toast that can support a System folder dragged to it from a factory (Apple) disk. This partition can then be Norton'd and optimized and DiskWarrior'd prior to burning to speed up the CD operation afterwards, not to mention the placing of prefs from the diagnostic apps you drag over to the partition. But that's all in OS 9 for now.
 
I just did made a workable copy with Toast 5.2.1. I tried dragging a copy, didn't work. I tried making a dmg with the Apple Disk Copy utility, wouldn't boot. I started opening things up and found a little red circle with a minus sign on certain folders that showed nothing inside, but contained several megs of info. Hidden files, go figure. Disk Copy ignores them, at least the version supplied with Jaguar.

I used Toast and saved a disk image to the desktop from the file menu, then clicked "Other" and dragged it back into Toast, burned the cd.

Booted like a champ.
 
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