Cloning Your Data to a New Hard Drive in macOS
- Top Tool to Clone a Mac Hard Drive: For all those who have data saved on their Mac, the below mentioned tool is one of the top tool in the market. It helps in the process of data backup and helps and clone a Mac hard drive. SuperDuper: (Mac) SuperDuper is the perfect tool for Mac users.
- Q: How to clone a laptop hard drive? A: To clone a disk, use an external drive and follow the same basic steps, described in the article above. Q: How to clone a failing hard drive in Windows 10? A: First you need to diagnose the disk using special software. If the condition is acceptable for cloning, use Acronis in bootable mode and follow the.
Our primary recommendation for transferring files from an old Mac OS X or macOS drive is performing a clean install of OS X (10.11.6 and under) or macOS (10.12.0 and higher) and migrate your data using Migration Assistant. For instructions please click here. Cloning is a viable option if installing a fresh copy of the OS and migrating your data is not an option.
Cloning is a destructive process that will erase the recipient drive, leaving the source drive intact.
The instructions below are for cloning from the original drive externally to a new drive inside a computer. In certain circumstances connecting the original drive externally is not an option. In those cases using an external hard drive as an intermediate is recommended. This process would consist of cloning the original drive while still inside the computer to a separate external hard drive, then installing the new drive and cloning the external hard drive to that new drive.
Cloning is a destructive process that will erase the recipient drive, leaving the source drive intact.
The instructions below are for cloning from the original drive externally to a new drive inside a computer. In certain circumstances connecting the original drive externally is not an option. In those cases using an external hard drive as an intermediate is recommended. This process would consist of cloning the original drive while still inside the computer to a separate external hard drive, then installing the new drive and cloning the external hard drive to that new drive.
Dec 03, 2012 I upgraded to an SSD drive. This is how to clone a Mac Drive to SSD for free using the mac software 'Disk Utilities' and changing the Startup Disk. It takes a few minutes to set up the actions but. Mar 18, 2020 Select your hard drive. Click on the Restore tab at the top of the Disk Utility window. Select your external drive next to 'Restore From.' Select your Mac's hard drive next to 'Restore to.' Click Restore. Once the backup has finished restoring, restart your computer. How to boot your clone on another Mac. Dec 03, 2019 If you are going to clone Mac hard drive to SSD, it is recommended to use Disk Utility. Simply open Disk Utility from the Spotlight (Command+Space) or on the Utility folder in your applications. You will be presented with a list of all the volumes including the internal hard drive and the external hard drive.
Booting into the recovery partition or OS install media
After you install the new hard drive, you will need to boot to the recovery partition on the original drive if OS 10.7 or later is installed. If OS 10.6.8 or earlier is installed, you can use the original OS install discs that came with the computer. Power on the Mac while holding down the 'Option' key. This will display a boot menu that looks like the picture below. Click the drive icon that says 'Recovery' (OS 10.7 and later) or 'Mac OS X install' (OS 10.6.8 and earlier).
The number of drives listed will depend on the number of
bootable drives in your system.
bootable drives in your system.
Format your new drive
Once booted into the Recovery partition or installer disc, select your desired language. Next, open Disk Utility by navigating to the Utilities menu in the upper-left corner of the screen, then select Disk Utility from the drop down menu. Once in Disk Utility our detailed instructions for the formatting process can be followed: www.macsales.com/tech_center/formatting.cfm
Software To Clone Hard Drive Mac Software
Apple's Disk Utility (10.3.x to 10.12)
WARNING: When using the restore process, the files on the destination volume will be erased! Before you restore a volume, be sure to copy any files on the destination volume that you want to save, to a different storage device or cloud account. - Select the new volume (indented icon) and click on the 'Restore' tab.
- Drag the old volume to the Source field.
- Drag the new hard drive to the 'Destination' field.
- Click the check box for 'Erasing destination.'
- Click 'Restore' at the bottom to begin the process of copying your data to the destination.
![Software to clone hard drive mac disk utility Software to clone hard drive mac disk utility](https://www.cisdem.com/resource/attach/file/images/drive genius.jpg)
You can also restore one volume from another volume. When you restore from one volume to another volume, it makes an exact copy of the original. For example, you can restore from your startup volume to an external volume to use as a backup.
- Select the new drive volume in the sidebar then click the Restore button or choose Edit > Restore. This is the volume that is erased and becomes the exact copy.
- Click the 'Restore from' drop down menu, then choose the volume you want to clone the data from.
- Click Restore. Once the data has been cloned, Disk Utility indicators will show the status as being 'complete'. Click the 'Done' button.
Last updated: Apr. 12, 2017
As a Mac fan, you know the significance of data backups. Time Machine, Apple's built-in backup software, makes it easy to save multiple copies of your Mac data to an external hard drive (HDD or SSD) or to an AirPort Time Capsule. There are also dozens of online backup services you can choose from if you prefer not to carry a physical drive around.
But, let's be honest, when data loss disaster strikes, are you going to be patient enough sitting in front of your Mac for hours even days (yes, it can take that long) only to wait for the recovery process to complete? We bet you won't, right? How about online or cloud backup options? The main drawback is that it would take ages to finish backup if your Internet connection is slow.
So is there any better backup solution out there? There is — clone your Mac hard drive!
We recommend Stellar Drive Clone, a fantastic Mac utility that is designed for this purpose. The app makes Mac disk copy much easier and best of all, it enables you to perform immediate recovery whenever you need.
In short, this Mac drive clone tool stands out for efficiency. That's all what we need, isn't it?
Why Clone Mac Hard Drive & When You Need It?
In the nutshell, cloning your Mac hard drive provides you with additional secure backups and saves you time restoring the data if needed, especially when your main boot drive fails to start and you are unable to enter the first screen of the desktop.
Like any other types of storage media, hard drives just come and go. In particular, if your Mac is equipped with a spinning hard disk drive, somehow its life tends to end earlier compared to an SSD (solid-state drive). If your Macintosh HD fails, it could cause a number of problems — one of which is data loss. Even if you have set up Time Machine backups, most likely you still need a trip to Apple Store or a computer repair shop because you'll need to set up a startup disk that contains macOS operating system.
In fact, I learned the lesson the hard way. One day my mid-2012 MacBook Pro hard drive died, and I couldn't turn on my Mac after pressing the start button. Then I scheduled an appointment with Apple Genius bar and took the machine for a diagnosis. It turned out the 750GB Hitachi hard drive was totally down, based on what Apple Mac technical support guy said. I was instructed to purchase an SSD drive from Crucial online. I did it. But that was not all. When I successfully replaced the dead hard drive with the new SSD, I realized that I didn't have a Mac reboot disk. Another trip was made to Apple Store and the guy installed OS X El Capitan for me. Ah...it was not over yet. Since I had Time Machine backups, I had to select a snap and restore all my data. Oh mine, it took me almost an entire day!
Lesson learned the hard way — Time Machine is not that efficient to restore data. That's why I'd strongly encourage you to try cloning your Mac hard drive just in case.
Mac Drive Clone App: What to Look for?
- Security: this is the number one thing you need to make sure when using any apps on your Mac. Sure, Macs are less prone to viruses and malware. But it's no longer the case. There are annoying adware bundled in the programs you install. They tend to slow down your Mac system as well as cause other damages.
- Reliability: a great Mac cloning app should be able to perform several standard functions such as create an exact, identical replica of any Mac disk, clone drives formatted with Master Boot Record (MBR) partition, and quickly extract volume image file to recover all your data, etc.
- Compatibility: it must be compatible with all commonly used OS X versions including latest macOS Sierra. Also, it should support operations on Macs with either a hard disk drive (HDD) or a solid-state drive (SSD).
- Ease of Use: the software must be easy and simple to use, even if you are not experienced at all with Apple macOS operating system.
What's The Best Hard Drive Clone Tool for Mac OS X?
Stellar Drive Clone stands out for two reasons: it's powerful, and simply to use. The app supports cloning OS X Yosemite/El Capitan/Sierra boot volume including Recovery HD, which ease your life in case your Mac hard drive is totally down. Besides Macintosh HD, you can also use it to clone an exFAT-formatted drive. Here's a screenshot.
Best Hard Drive Clone Software
Chris is a computer geek for a decade. He loved talking to computers via codes, and now he finds it more interesting communicating with the real people. He now writes everything related to computer issues and loves helping people solve problems.