After transferring my Time Machine backups and partitioning my old external HD, I'm all set to use it again. I've partitioned my external HD into three for the purpose of backing up some files in my Mac, creating and storing a bootable Lion installer and creating a system image of Windows 7. The first among the three is just a simple copy paste of files. I want to delete some files in my Mac like the installers and movies I download which occupy a lot of hard disk space. Second in the list requires the Lion installer and Disk Utility again. For the last one, I want to create a system image of Windows 7 so that I don't need to install everything again from scratch. Let me share the steps I did for creating a bootable Lion installer and system image of Windows 7.
Creating a bootable Lion installer
1. You should still have the Lion installer in performing this and at least 8 to 10 GB of free storage. Note also that the partition where you will create this should have a Mac OS Extended format and a GUID partition table.
2. Right click on the Lion installer and select Show Package Contents. Look for InstallESD.dmg by opening Contents > Shared Support.
3. Open the Disk Utility application and drag the dmg file to the left navigation.
4. Click on the InstallESD.dmg file and you will be displayed with the window below. Click on the partition where you want to restore the Lion installer and drag it to the Destination.
5. Now you're all set. If you don't have any more changes you can now proceed with clicking the Restore button. You'll be prompted that the activity will erase contents. Just click Erase and restoration will start right away. Note that erasing contents won't affect the other partitions you have created on the drive. Once finished, the label you placed on the partition will change to Mac OS X Install ESD.
6. This will be the contents of the bootable Lion installer you created. You can now use it to reinstall the OS or troubleshoot your Mac.
Creating a system image of Windows 7 in Bootcamp
1. So I have copied some of my Mac files already and created a bootable Lion installer on two of my partitions. Now I'm left with a single partition which I will use in backing up Windows 7. I don't have any idea at first how to backup in Windows -- it was trial and error. There's no harm in trying but I do ensure that I have the installers with me should something wrong happen. After a number of trials I finally figured out how to do it correctly.
2. Plug your external HD and it should be detected properly by Windows. Open the Disk Management application to format the partition to NTFS. This is the format compatible for creating a system image in Windows. Note that NTFS format is not available in the Disk Utility application on OS X. You have to format the partition you're going to use for Windows first in ExFAT and the same GUID Partition Table. You have to perform to sets of formatting here (again ExFAT using Disk Utility in OS X, then NTFS using Disk Management in Windows).
3. After formatting to NTFS, you can now proceed with creating the system image. Open Control Panel > System and Security > Backup and Restore. On the left navigation, you'll notice the link for creating a system image.
4. A new window will open and it will ask you on where you would want to save the backup. Just select the external HD you have formatted to NTFS. Once completed you can now proceed with the backup.
Hope my posts about backing up, partitioning and formatting helped you in a big way. Here are the articles again for your reference:
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