Creating a bootable drive?

[donreynolds]

Hi guys (and gals). I am trying to create a bootable drive with a Mybook studio. I have a couple of questions if anyone can help me.

I found this information on the web to create a bootable disk ( I think)

In the Disk Utility application, I selected "new" from the FILE menu and I am using the create a new disk image from folder . It asks me to name the image and select compressed option and save.
Question #1
Is this creating a copy of my system (library, prefs etc) or just creating a bootable drive?
In other words a system backed up on another drive that I can boot from and restore to my main drive?
#2 Do I save the new disk image to the "MYBOOK" hard drive so when or if my main drive fails I can start up from the MyBook HD?
#3 THEN do I use carbon copy cloner to back up all my other computer information or is it all there already? I don't want to duplicate anything in the cloned drive.
#4 How can I test this once I am done to make sure it works properly?
Is this correct or is there another way to do this?

Anyway, I am kind of hesitant to go on until I get some advice as I want to do it correctly, so it WILL boot from the MyBook and then be able to restore all my files and projects and get into the same bind as I did previously. I will feel much better when Iknow everything is backed up properly.
Thanks

[1nput0utput]

You don't need to mess with Disk Utility to make the clone. (Although you could first use Disk Utility to make a partition on the external drive that matches the size of the boot volume on the computer's system drive.) Simply use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone from one volume (the computer's current boot volume) to the other (the volume on the external hard drive). When it's finished, look at the Startup Disk pane in System Preferences. It should list all bootable volumes, including the new one on the external hard drive.

[Gingau]

One other thing I found out when using SuperDuper to make a bootable clone is that the partition needs to be GUID, not apple.

This is found in Disk Utility under partion/options when choosing the drive rather than the volume.

[donreynolds]

I used carbon copy and it worked fined this time.

[conleycd]

I think if you have an Intel Mac you must use the GUID partition to be a start up disk. Also, you cannot boot from a USB drive with a PowerPC (you can a Firewire drive that uses the Oxford 912 or 924 chip set) but you CAN boot from a USB drive with an Intel Mac.

CC