well, here is how the drive imaging works with Disk utility.

you can create a hard disk image, partition it and then copy the relevant files 
to it. mind you, this is not exactly a clone. I haven't tried this particular 
method myself, so I am not sure if it would work.

However, if you dd the entire device, all information (including boot record, 
partition map, drive allocation tables, volume bitmaps and everything else is 
preserved as a bit for bit image. with a large enough backup drive, you can 
store the entire image as a single file. This is the method I use and it works 
100% of the time. THe other method (creating a disk image using DU) will not 
have the same results. you might miss some things like the MBR, partition 
tables and a few other needed items. now, I use dd as a matter of course simply 
because I don't have money to throw at a backup program that may, or may not, 
be entirely accessible for the totally blind user. it is also an included 
command line app that can be run in terminal from the recovery partition. SInce 
I can run this recovery partition from either a CD or a USB stick (properly 
configured), I don't have to worry about anything on the system drive that 
might accidentally get wiped (considering that I am wiping it anyway).

if you need more info on dd, you can read here: 
https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/man1/dd.1.html

-eric

On Sep 12, 2015, at 6:31 AM, Joe Quinn wrote:

> So if I Image my boot camp partition, then I deleted, reinstall it, and then 
> restore it, would it boot? I assume not because as you said it wouldn't copy 
> everything, only where there is data. I'm just confused. :-) I should just 
> come in and Match the start and  sectors of the partition tables.
> 
> Sent from my iPhone
> 
>> On Sep 12, 2015, at 12:41 AM, Eric Oyen <[email protected]> wrote:
>> 
>> that would work. you can create a sparse image of the drive as an image file 
>> on another volume. the beauty about this is that only those places that have 
>> data will be copied. ANything without data will simply be ignored (as a zero 
>> space allocation). THis generally only works if you create a sparse image 
>> volume to mimic a hard dis and then do a copy of all the files inside the 
>> partition. its not exactly a bit for bit backup, but it serves as a stopgap.
>> 
>> -eric
>> 
>>> On Sep 11, 2015, at 1:24 PM, Joe Quinn wrote:
>>> 
>>> there's an "image" function in disk utilitity. would that work or do 
>>> anything? it's in the tolbar with firstaid, restore, etc.
>>> 
>>> Sent from my iPhone
>>> 
>>>> On Sep 11, 2015, at 8:35 AM, Eric Oyen <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> I mentioned dd. Believe me, its a lot better than msbackup. the last time 
>>>> I used MS Backup, it missed a number of files in my user settings 
>>>> directory. so, these days, I backup the windows partition to an external 
>>>> drive as an image file. I do so once per week and only keep 2 consecutive 
>>>> backups. THis way, I have the next most recent and the most recent backups 
>>>> on hand should something be amiss.
>>>> 
>>>> -eric
>>>> 
>>>>> On Sep 11, 2015, at 5:50 AM, - wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> Someone mentioned "dd" as a backup utility in terminal.  Ditto and rsync 
>>>>> can perform the same function.  In google use "os10 backup" and one of 
>>>>> the names for tons of web sites for using them as backup.
>>>>> 
>>>>>> On Thu, 10 Sep 2015, Joe Quinn wrote:
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> What are some good back up programs that will back up my Mac OS X drive 
>>>>>> as well as the Boot Camp partition? I think I'm going to need it. :-)
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Sent from my iPhone
>>>>>> 
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