How to make new snapshot of Mac hard drive? (Added new software to computer)
 

I just got through reading the instructions for paragon snapshot for mac, there seems to be 2 sets of directions fro doing a similar action; backing up a hard drive.

in sec2, it is general use for backing up, in the last one sec 4, it is about backup & restore of mac os, so I should follow this in sec 4?

when a snapshot is made, where is it saved? it seems to be a separate action from when one goes to save the actual hard drive contents to another source.

it says choose the default location when creating the snapshot for a temporary location, will this make a copy of my mac drive onto the mac drive? will there be enough free space for it?

do I first make a snapshot, choosing a temporary default location & then using the save snapshot feature to actually copy the mac hard drive to my backup external hard drive?

or do I choose my backup external hard drive as a location when 1st creating the snapshot?

lastly, how do I go about updating my backup of my mac drive? say I add more software to it, & want to update my backup to reflect this, when I get to the save snapshot stage, will it overwrite the 1st snapshot copy on my external hard drive?

what do I do with the previous snapshot that paragon made for temporary storage before saving to an external drive?

in the instructions about creating a snapshot, it says; snapshots are available until next system restart or shutdown.

does this mean that I have to shut down the computer & turn on again before I can make a copy or save the snapshot to an external hard drive?

also, would it be a good idea to store my mac os backup external hard drive offsite?

say I get a desktop mac, would I be able to load this backup onto a blank drive in the desktop mac? to save installing the os from scratch & all it's software? or is the backup locked to only my laptop?




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The backup is for the laptop, because the hardware in the laptop and a desktop are different. Advanced users could figure out a way to make a laptop backup restore to a desktop, but it would be a non-easy process, and there's no single rule book or instruction guide on how to do it. It's one of those things where you have to think on-the-fly, based on experience.

I did a back up of it last night, & when I opened paragon snapshot, it's walk through process was a little different from what was in the PDF booklet.

1st off, I did not seem to have to create a snapshot, I opened paragon & there was just a backup tab to click, I did, & a dialog box opened up for me asking me where to save the backup, I directed it to my portable seagate drive. It then went on to do the backup.

I now have a .dmg file of the macintosh drive as of nov 3 2011.

what if I add new software etc, & want my backup to reflect this? do I just run another backup? will it overwrite my nov 3 2011 backup?

& in the restore process, how do I get the .dmg file of my mac's hard drive to setup & install on a new hard drive?

Yes.

If you tell it to do so, yes.
You may have to "overwrite it" (delete it, then let blank space be used for new image), if the drive isn't large enough to have multiple backup images.

Read the manual. I don't know off-hand, as I've not had to do it yet.