Why can't I clone a drive using Disk Utility?

[Psurfer]

I put another hard drive into a G4 tower, partitioned it using Disk Utility, and tried using the Restore feature to clone the entire existing drive in the G4 (source drive: Mac HD), to the destination Backup drive.

I repaired permissions on the source HD first.
The restore process just runs a few minutes then stops, citing some copy error. I've now made 3 attempts.

note I just dragged the source & destination disks from the left-hand pane in the DU window, onto the proper spots in the Restore pane, since I'm not sure about making disk images, etc.

[hal]

that is for restoring disk images back to disk

[Black Landlord]

Dunno, but Carbon Copy Cloner is free and has been 100% reliable for me.

[guitarist]

No, it usually works. Many of us have done it without a problem, and prefer it to shareware programs like CCC and SuperGollyDuper.

[GGD]

> citing some copy error

And what exactly did the message say? It's trying to tell you why it can't clone.

[Doc]

The DU has a log, accessible from the Window menu.

'Any errors noted in the log?

[Psurfer]

Next tried it w/ CCC (v. 2.3, for Panther OS), the error stopped progress again, but this time CCC noted the culprit, unlike DU. It was some bluetooth appl file that "doesn't exist".
I (stupidly) hit the ignore button, the cloning resumed and was supposedly successfully completed.

But I tried opening the newly cloned backup, and it was making some funky cycling sounds that wouldn't stop. Could not repair it w/DU -"Failure on exit. One volume could not be repaired". Guess I should have aborted the cloning when prompted, and trashed the trouble file.

After some tense hung finder moments, I erased that backup partition, the drive then acted healthy again, I vigorously flushed the errant troublemaker file*, repaired perms a couple of times, and tried to backup once again.

Bingo. 3rd (-or 4th, or so) time proves to be the charm.

In this case, CCC was a big help to me (a non-power user) compared w/ DU, which left me w/no backup, or any clues to get there.

* for my future ref, in case I ever actually Need this trashed time-waster: Applications/Utilities/Bluetooth File Exchange.app/contents/resources/Englishlproj/bluetoothHelp/pgs/blu2l.html

[Psurfer]

Doc wrote:
The DU has a log, accessible from the Window menu.

Ah, wish I would have known that sooner. All DU said was something like, "Cannot continue. Encountered Copy Error. 2."
I need more transparent directions than those.

Apple should try harder to help pour souls like myself, who want to perform intermediate to advanced operations, without knowing what in the hell they're doing.

[Psurfer]

Well, my night wasn't over yet. Everything looked good, then I thought I'd better repair permissions on the newly-minted backup clone. Half-way through Perm Repair gets stuck, with the drive making it's repetitive sound pattern that I couldn't stop.

Finally, after trying to eject the CCC disk icon and getting the Still in Use message, I quit the browser open on the CCC instructions page, and when I then ejected CCC, the drive's endless fit stopped.

Now I'm wondering if there was a problem here w/CCC, not my drive.
DU repairs perms fine on the old (source) drive, but I hesitate to run it again on the cloned partition, lest I wear a groove right through it... Should I erase and start again, cloning w/DU this time??

[Psurfer]

Something's not right here. Now the other partition on the today's installed drive- which I haven't put anything on yet- has its name is grayed-out in DU, even though I could verify it and repair it a minute ago. "The volume __ appears to be OK."

But verifying it a 2nd time, failed.
Now it's name is no longer grayed out in DU.
I'll read any suggestions tomorrow. Thanks.