Warning! Using SuperDuper to clone from an HDD to an SSD might seriously da

WARNING! USING SUPERDUPER TO CLONE FROM AN HDD TO AN SSD MIGHT SERIOUSLY DAMAGE THE HEALTH OF YOUR SSD!

This is the new thread which I referred to when replying to:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2274972&start=0&tstart=0

I used SuperDuper to clone from a VelociRaptor 300GB HDD to an OCZ Agility EX SLC SSD, with disastrous results.

To save me the time of rewriting all the events please refer to the following emails and online submissions:

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(Biltan-Wales - 21 Dec 2009 - 11.02 GMT):-

After reading several very favourable product reviews of the above SSD, I have just purchased one from Aria Technology Ltd., to use as a boot drive for my (early 2009) 8-Core 2.93GHz Intel Xeon Nehalem desktop workstation.

Also, prior to purchase of an OCZ SSD, I posted a question on Apple's Discussions' Forum:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2263023&tstart=0

From the response to this, and from reading several other threads regarding SSDs, I found that several Mac Pro owners are using OCZ SSDs as boot drives, and in some cases employing up to 3 of them.

I received my Agility EX from Aria on 16th. December, and yesterday afternoon I decided to set up my boot drive and 4 drive RAID 0, as described in: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2263023&tstart=0

First of all I used SuperDuper to clone from my VelociRaptor 300GB drive in Bay 1, to my original Apple (WD) 640GB drive in Bay 2.

Then I removed the original Apple drive, and installed it in an ONNTO dataTale TQ-M12H external single enclosure, using a Firewire 800 interface connection. Next I selected this as my boot drive to check it would boot OK, restarted my system, and there was no problem.

So my next step was to install the Agility EX, and another 3 VelociRaptor 300GB drives, in the Mac pro workstation.

First, I reselected VelociRaptor 1 as my boot drive, so that I could use SuperDuper to clone to the Agility EX.

The Agility EX was installed in the lower of the 2 optical bays, and was connected to the pre-wired SATA and power cable, and the VelociRaptors were placed in hard drive bays 2, 3, and 4.

I then started up the Mac Pro, and there were 4 message boxes on the desktop, requesting that the drives should be initialised. So then I used Disk Utility to initialise the 4 drives. The SSD was named "Agility EX Boot", and the others "VelociRaptor 2", VelociRaptor 3, and VelociRaptor 4". The Mac system accepted all 4, and mounted desk top icons for each drive. I cannot remember the exact figure, but the Agility EX was listed as approx. 64GB in Disk Utility after its initialisation. All 4 VelociRaptors are shown as 300.07GB. All drives were formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled).

The next stage was to use SuperDuper to clone from VelociRaptor 1 to the Agility EX Boot drive.

Everything was fine until 28.00GB had been copied, and then nothing more would copy. The total to be cloned was just under 30GB, which should not have been a problem with a SSD disk capacity of approx. 64GB, but everything was frozen at that point - exactly 28.00GB!

Eventually, my only option was to stop the process, and quit Super Duper.

Then I restarted the system to try again, but this is where there is a real problem now!

My system does not recognise the Agility EX at all now! Also, it is no longer listed in Disk Utility!

The system does not even acknowledge its existence! It is not even shown on the desktop at start-up, whereas I thought that perhaps there might have been another message box requesting that it should be reinitialised.

I tried disconnecting and reconnecting everything - all drives, interface connections, power cables etc., but to no avail!

This morning I tried this again, but still I cannot get my system to even acknowledge the Agility EX, let alone list it!

So at the moment I am still using VelociRaptor 1 as my boot drive, and, in fact, as my main drive, because I am reluctant to use it with the 3 other VelociRaptors as a 4 drive RAID 0 set up until I get this problem with the Agility EX resolved.

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(OCZ - 22 Dec 2009 - 18.29 GMT):-

Cloning from a HDD to an SSD is very problematic. I strongly recommend against doing this. Instead you will want to just install normally onto the SSD. You can clone from SSD to SSD, or from HDD to HDD, but going from one to the other can cause issues.

Try disconnecting the drive from the computer for an hour or so. This will allow all power in the drive to fully discharge. This is a way of resetting the drive that can usually recover the drive. Then plug the drive back in. Does the drive show up again?

If so, delete the partition on the drive, then create a new partition and then install the OS onto it clean rather than clone the OS onto the drive. That should resolve the issues you are having.

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(Biltan-Wales - 23 Dec 2009 - 16.19 GMT):-

Thank you for your advice.

I have now disconnected the Agility EX SSD, and removed it from my Mac Pro's lower optical bay.

As Christmas is imminent, and I will not be using my system very much over the next few days, I will leave the drive for 4 to 5 days to allow ample time for all the power to discharge.

Then I will reconnect it, and I will let you know whether or not the drive is recognised by my system.

I was not aware that cloning from a HDD to an SSD could be problematic. Several threads on the Apple Support Discussion Forum have recommended using SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner for this purpose. SuperDuper is the preferred option of most Forum members, whereas Lloyd Chambers (diglloyd.com), author of "macperformanceguide.com", uses Carbon Copy Cloner to clone his HDD boot drives to his Intel and Crucial SSDs.

After the Agility EX had been set up as my system boot drive, my intention was to use SuperDuper to clone from it to my original Apple (WD) HDD, now in an external enclosure with Firewire 800 interface, and then use SuperDuper's Smart Update for regular backups, so that I always had an up to date spare boot drive for the OS and applications.

The current VelociRaptor 1 boot drive would then be erased, and I would then use the Mac OS Disk Utility to create a 4 drive software RAID ) with the other 3 VelociRaptors, and this would be backed up using Time Machine to my existing WD My Book Studio Edition II 2TB External Hard Drive.

Please correct me if I have misunderstood your advice, but are you saying that I should only use another SSD, and not my original Apple (WD) HDD, as my back-up external boot drive? I don't know of any other Mac users who are using SSDs for that purpose, possibly because of the prohibitive cost of doing so.

I am more than happy to follow your advice to reinstall the Mac OS and my applications cleanly onto the Agility EX, and, in fact, I did exactly that with my first VelociRaptor HDD, before I had SuperDuper. However, that would still leave me with the problem of how to set up and maintain an external back-up system boot drive, without incurring the expense of another SSD. Any suggestions please?

Anyway the most important matter is the existing problem, and I am hoping that following your advice will resolve this.

I will contact you again early next week. In the meantime have a very enjoyable Christmas!

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(OCZ - 24 Dec 2009 - 00.25 GMT):-

If the image is of an HDD and that image is then cloned onto an SSD that does tend to be problematic. I do not recommend doing this, as an image of the HDD somewhat regularly does fail to copy onto an SSD and still remain functional or fast.

You can store the image file on any sort of drive. Storing the image file is fine, as that is just a digital file, so the storage medium doesn't matter. Its actually applying that image to a drive is where the problems often occur.

You can image from a HDD to a HDD just fine, or an SSD to an SSD just fine, but going from one to the other is problematic enough that I recommend not doing this. Sometimes it works just fine, but other times it can fail catastrophically to the point of even bricking the drive. To error on the side of caution I recommend just going a clean install on the new SSD.

Once you have that clean install done you can then take an image of that SSD and image on to other SSD's, or store the image on a HDD for backup purposes.

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(Biltan-Wales - 29 Dec 2009 - 13.16 GMT)

Thank you for your last email.

Further to your previous email, and my reply of 23/12/2009. this morning I reconnected the Agility EX SSD.

However, unfortunately, the drive has not showed up again on my system. There is no icon for it on the desktop, nor is it listed in Disk utility.

When I checked Serial-ATAS in my Mac Pro's System Profiler, all 6 Intel ICH10 AHCI are listed in the Serial-ATA Device Tree, but, whereas all my other drives are sub-listed, there is nothing underneath the ICH10 AHCI for the lower optical bay.

As the drive has had 6 days to discharge and reset, it would appear that it has not recovered.

Where do I go from here?

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I am still awaiting a reply from OCZ, but that is not surprising, because of the different time zones and the Christmas?New Year holiday period.

In the meantime does anybody else have any ideas, please?