clone an external hard drive

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Level 1

17 points

clone an external hard drive

I have a MacBook Pro 13". I can't upgrade from OS High Sierra 13.10.6 to Mojave because I use old software, so I installed Mojave on an old external thunderbolt hard drive. When I want to use Mojave, then I boot from this old external hard drive. Now I want to make a clone of this old external hard drive. The old external hard drive has been out of warranty for over two years (and it gets hot every once in awhile), so I want to be safe and make a clone unto a brand new external thunderbolt hard drive.

I think that I can use Mac OSX Disk Utility Restore to make a clone. I'm requesting ideas and suggestions.

MacBook Pro 13", macOS 10.13

Posted on Jul 20, 2019 9:46 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

fuzzymo

Level 4

2,036 points

Jul 20, 2019 10:28 AM in response to WardLarkin

Restore a disk using Disk Utility on Mac - Apple Support

There are also third party apps such as Carbon Copy Cloner and Super Duper that work well for cloning a volume. Both offer free trial versions.

https://bombich.com

https://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html

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Answer 2

WardLarkin Author

Level 1

17 points

Jul 22, 2019 5:58 PM in response to fuzzymo

I tried Carbon Copy Cloner. It didn't work exactly as I hoped. I wanted the cloned volume, the second volume, to also be bootable. The first volume is bootable. Did I do something wrong? Or, do I make the 2nd volume bootable via a different process?

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Answer 3

fuzzymo

Level 4

2,036 points

Jul 22, 2019 6:15 PM in response to WardLarkin

If you used Carbon Copy Cloner to clone your source volume to your destination volume it should be bootable, and CCC will tell you so. You do have to properly format your destination drive with Disk Utility before cloning.

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Answer 4

WardLarkin Author

Level 1

17 points

Jul 22, 2019 7:41 PM in response to fuzzymo

Thanks for the speedy response. Maybe I do need to format the destination volume properly. I'm not sure. What format parameters should the destination volume have? I tried this:

1. Open Disk Utility

2. Select Show All Devices

3. Select the Destination Drive

4. Select Erase

4. Give the Drive a Name

5. Select OS X Extended (Journaled)

6. Select GUID Partition Map

7. Select Erase again

8. CLick Done

Then tomorrow morning I'll give Carbon Copy Cloner another try. I don't want to overwork the source drive. It's the one I'm afraid is going to fail soon.

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Answer 5

WardLarkin Author

Level 1

17 points

Jul 23, 2019 5:57 PM in response to fuzzymo

OK. I followed your suggestion -- that is, format the destination volume to APFS with a GUID Partition Map. The copy was bootable, but it doesn't appear to me that it was an exact duplicate. When I booted from the destination volume, I couldn't run any of my Microsoft or Adobe software. I had to re-register everything. A couple of years ago I went to the trouble of entering all of the userids, passwords and serial numbers for all of my software into my 1password app. It paid off today.

Thanks for your assistance.

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Answer 6

BDAqua

Level 10

245,309 points

Jul 23, 2019 6:12 PM in response to WardLarkin

Microsoft or Adobe as well as High End SW is famous for tying SW to specific HW, I remember in the past even adding RAM would cause Windows® to be invalidated. Some software tied itself to the actual HDD blocks it was installed to, so even defragging would invalidate it. :(

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