Stopping a machine while imaging

tatiang
New Contributor

What is the best/safest way to stop a machine from imaging during the
imaging process? In the past, I manually shut down a computer and the hard
drive seemed to fail. I'd like to think it was coincidence, but it may not
have been since the hard drive was obviously spinning when I powered off.

Tatian



Tatian Greenleaf
Associate Director of Technology
Saint Mark's School
(415) 472-8000 x1014

4 REPLIES 4

tlarkin
Honored Contributor

I am definitely 100% guilty of cutting power half way through imaging - on purpose. I don't think it is "best practice" but I have not seen it hose a hard drive physically. Every time I have done it I can just reimage it. Now I have seen a failing HD have so low performance with disk I/O that it literally crawls when being imaged and I kill the power on it and it happens again. That is not really the imaging process that is the issue though, that is a failing HD with really poor disk I/O.



Thomas Larkin
TIS Department
KCKPS USD500
tlarki at kckps.org
blackberry: 913-449-7589
office: 913-627-0351
chown -R us /.base

Bukira
Contributor

Hi,

Well ive powered off a mac many many times during imaging and when its crashed etc, the disk will be spinning and it is by no means good for th drive but shouldn't destroy it the first time. A computer should never be powered off by just killing the power, but hey we all do it, but a sudden cut of power is not good and over time can destroy a drive if done enough times. But theres plenty of other ways to destroy a drive. A HD has about a 3yr life span so should be considered a consumable part like a battery.

Criss

Criss Myers
Senior Customer Support Analyst (Mac Services)
Apple Certified Technical Coordinator v10.5
LIS Business Support Team
Library 301
University of Central Lancashire
Preston PR1 2HE
Ex 5054
01772 895054

jarednichols
Honored Contributor

I've only started using Casper Imaging, but I've been able to simply force-quit Imaging and then shut it down since the machine is netbooted.

j

On 12/15/09 3:22 AM, "Criss Myers" <CMyers at uclan.ac.uk> wrote:

Hi,

Well ive powered off a mac many many times during imaging and when its crashed etc, the disk will be spinning and it is by no means good for th drive but shouldn't destroy it the first time. A computer should never be powered off by just killing the power, but hey we all do it, but a sudden cut of power is not good and over time can destroy a drive if done enough times. But theres plenty of other ways to destroy a drive. A HD has about a 3yr life span so should be considered a consumable part like a battery.

Criss

Criss Myers

Senior Customer Support Analyst (Mac Services)

Apple Certified Technical Coordinator v10.5

LIS Business Support Team

Library 301

University of Central Lancashire

Preston PR1 2HE

Ex 5054

01772 895054

talkingmoose
Moderator
Moderator

Yes, force-quitting works for me as well. It does leave the server volume
On 12/15/09 7:34 AM, "Nichols, Jared - 1160 - MITLL" <jared.nichols at ll.mit.edu> wrote:
mounted and the current package mounted if it's a .dmg. I always reboot when
I have to do this.

Feature request for JAMF: a Cancel button. :-)

--

William Smith
Technical Analyst
Merrill Communications LLC
(651) 632-1492