Any way to make an actual clone of Macintosh HD? Or even the whole SSD?

ron App wrote:

Hi.

I understand that prgrams like SuperDuper! and CCC do not make an actual clone of the SSD but something more like a bootable backup. For example, Little Snitch complains that config is copied, Autocad license does not work and it needs to be re-activated, and other problems. Plus, SuperDuper! made a "Mac OS Extended" image for the APFS volume (?).

Is this possibility totally gone now, or is there any program that would allow actual cloning of the SSD?

Thanks.

Carbon Copy Cloner does make clones. The reason you may have to re-register Autocad is that it detects a different hard drive and thinks it's a different Mac an another installation, which it essentially is.

And the demo version has all of the features of the purchased version. There's no dummying down of the demo. It's a very worth while purchase.

ron App wrote:

Thanks. Yes, so neither SuperDuper nor CCC does what I need, and it is apparently due to their "advanced features" that I do not need.

Still, I think that making an exact image of the unmounted SSD shouldn't be too difficult, unless Apple has some special protections in place.

?

I have a boot-able clone of Monterey using CCC so I do not understand your statement.

If you have a Mac with a T2 chip then make changes to your start up security feature—allowing a external boot option

About Startup Security Utility - Apple Support

Changes are always being made—

ref: About the read-only system volume in macOS Catalina - Apple ...

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210650


Big Sur went one step further adding a SSV (Sealed System Volume) yes as well as Monterey

if you have an issue with your third party apps then refer to the developers website:

Little Snitch

Autocad

something like a "bootable rescue cd"

Acronis True Image

ron App wrote:

What I am saying is that in my previous attempts with both SuperDuper! and CCC (on Mojave), neither of them was able to retain Autocad activation because license files have different metadata. This is the difference between actual cloning and copying then making a bootable image.

As it is, I do not really see any advantage of these programs compared to Time Machine, except speed, but the result is the same. Issue is that this Autocad re-activation is not completely trivial, and this re-activation causes issues which I would like to avoid. And there is other software with similar issues, so I am not able to do a quick restore.

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or call  AppleCare Support at 1-800-APLCARE (800-275-2273)

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https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201232

ron App wrote:

Hi.

I understand that prgrams like SuperDuper! and CCC do not make an actual clone of the SSD but something more like a bootable backup. For example, Little Snitch complains that config is copied, Autocad license does not work and it needs to be re-activated, and other problems. Plus, SuperDuper! made a "Mac OS Extended" image for the APFS volume (?).

Many years ago, there was something like a "bootable rescue cd" that was able to clone anything. Early versions of Acronis True Image had similar functionality as well - they made actual images of the HD sector by sector and if it was restored on the same HD, everything worked exactly as before.

Is this possibility totally gone now, or is there any program that would allow actual cloning of the SSD?

Thanks.

Carbon Copy Cloner has this updated version fully functional with macOS Monterey

https://bombich.com/

see "Configuring a backup with the Legacy Bootable Backup Assistant"

ref: https://bombich.com/kb/ccc6/cloning-macos-system-volumes-apple-software-restore

neither of them was able to retain Autocad activation because license files have different metadata. This is the difference between actual cloning and copying then making a bootable image.

If Autocad salts the hash of the license with the UUID of the drive, there would be no way for a clone to keep the license data.

Just to add to what others have said, starting with Big Sur it would be impossible to create a complete disk image as the macOS system is now on a protected partition as well as the boot/recovery partition.

In addition, on M1 Macs, that boot/recovery partition is only contained on the internal drive and can only be on the internal drive by design.