CopyCatX 4.0 – Disk Duplication Software for Mac OS X

Reviewed by Robert Pritchett

Introduction

CopyCatX is designed for data backup, recovery and restoration in Mac OS X;

• Backup and restore a volume.
• Duplicate a device or volume to a disk image or other devices.
• Recover to an image the contents of a faulty device or media.

CopyCatX is device and file system-independent application, which means that you can create disk images from any normal Mac OS hard drive, Windows or Linuxdevice. It can also recover data from a faulty device or scratched CD, and almostany other media or file system that can be recognized in Mac OS X.

Despite its advanced features and high-performance, CopyCatX is verystraightforward to handle. The easy-to-use interface is designed with any level ofOS X user in mind and is highly accessible to all with, at its core, the entireapplication being designed to be able to complete any task within just a fewclicks.

Written specifically for Mac OS X, CopyCatX includes powerful features that givethe user greater control and flexibility in backup, restore, recovery and theduplication of data:

Safety first - CopyCatX will never write to the device being duplicated. This makes the software “risk-free”. Instead it simply reads the device, block-by-block, using the fastest means possible to copy the data to any given destination.

Backup and restore – CopyCatX can be used to backup or restore a device, to orfrom any readable. With just a few clicks a device can be backed up or restored,making the task of securing data an easy one. Multi-volume output - CopyCatX can output to up to 15 devices at a time. This isuseful for lab deployment of a single system, allowing the user to make multiple copies of either a single device or volume.

Duplicate Windows – CopyCatX has the ability to duplicate a single Windows volume, which can then be mounted and restored back at a later date. This is exceedingly useful for BootCamp users on Intel-based Macintosh systems.

Faulty hardware - CopyCatX also has the ability to recover data from mechanically unsound devices or scratched media. The software uses proprietary methods to securely read the data, automatically skipping areas of the file system that are unreadable. As a result, by employing these methods, CopyCatX is able to recover data from sources that other software would be completely unable.

Optimized for Intel – The latest version of CopyCatX not only has been optimized to run with Intel-based Apple Macs but now comes with a dual boot CD, making the entire process of backup, recovery and duplication a much simpler one.

Getting Started

If you are unable to get a copy of MacForensicsLab (reviewed earlier in macCompanion Magazine), CopyCatX is essentially a subset tool of that product, as is FileSalvage (also reviewed earlier).

Loading from the CD was no problem. There is a rather long Serial Number that has to be registered though.

The DVD comes with a 41-page PDFed version of the Manual that becomes the Help tab.

Instead of being placed in the Applications Folder, CopyCatX gets installed in the Username > Library > Application Support folder.

Using the Software

If you intend to do a disc copy of a software-based RAID array, this app is not the one to use for that purpose. It does 3 things really well – and that is a 4^th thing it does not do.

CopyCatX is a volume or complete device backup app and does not backup individual files or folders and requires both the source and target volumes to be unmounted. You will want to work off the CD/DVD when using CopyCatX, because you cannot work from the same physical disc the computer uses to boot from and the CD is a Boot CD.

The target device needs to have the same capacity or larger, as the source device, to allow the process to function effectively, otherwise a error message will appear requesting more space.

In Recover mode, writing to CD-R or DVD-R is permitted, allowing for either breaking up data across new media or if failed media is encountered, to pick up where it left off.

Conclusion

If you are looking for “peace of mind” for protecting your computer’s crown jewels, then this might be a good way to go.

Recommendation

Sometimes the simple solutions work best. Why not give it a try?