2018 Mac Mini Restore to new SSD

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2018 Mac Mini Restore to new SSD

Hello all,

My first post in the community. I only say that to show how smoothly things have gone until now.

I installed a new 2TB SSD into my Hagibis Type-C Docking Station attached to my Mac Mini. I want this to replace (restore from) the 500gb storage currently on the mini. I've done my search for the problem surrounding "OSStatus Error 49153". I have followed all those instructions on clearing the Time Machine and am still getting the error. I matched the APFS type. This is the error I get:

Couldn't set up partitions on target device - operation

AddAPFSVolumeToContainer, Line #5432 - Resource Busy

The operation couldn't be completed. (OSStatus error 49153.)

Operation failed...

No matter how many times I erase the drive, restart the system or try and restore, I still get the same error. If I missed a previous write-up on this topic I apologize. Any help would be appreciated, thank you all in advance. Cheers

Mac mini 2018 or later

Posted on Feb 21, 2022 7:12 AM

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Answer 1

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HWTech

Level 9

60,452 points

Feb 23, 2022 10:01 AM in response to dcostopo

So you have a new 2TB external SSD and you want to clone the original internal drive to the new external SSD?

First using Disk Utility you need to erase the whole physical external SSD as GUID partition and APFS (top option). Within Disk Utility you may need to click "View" and select "Show All Devices" so that the physical drives appear on the left pane of Disk Utility. If you receive an error when erasing the whole physical drive, then try it again immediately after the failure. I've seen Disk Utility fail to erase a drive the first time, but usually will succeed the second time (if attempted immediately after the first error).

If you are booted into macOS 12.x Monterey, then perhaps the external drive is not compatible with the Mac (the hardware or the OS). macOS 12.x is known to have some compatibility issues with some USB3 drives although macOS 12.1 was supposed to have resolved the issue for many people. You can try disconnecting all other external devices (especially a Wacom tablet), connect the external SSD directly to the Mac, or try using the Apple USB-C charging cable (or a USB2 hub/cable to force the external SSD to operate under USB2 protocol and speeds).

If you are still unable to erase the drive, then you may need to write zeroes to the beginning of the drive to overwrite & destroy the partition table since Disk Utility can sometimes get confused by unexpected layouts on a drive.

If you want to clone the internal drive to the external drive, then you can use Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) to make a bootable clone to the external SSD. Just make sure to right-click or Option-click on the destination item in CCC and select "Legacy" so the clone is bootable (the Legacy option is only necessary for macOS 11.x and 12.x).

Or you can install macOS to the freshly erased external SSD. You can either create a new user account on the external drive, or migrate from the internal drive or a Time Machine backup.

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Answer 2

Erica_S1

Community Specialist

Feb 22, 2022 9:21 AM in response to dcostopo

Hi there dcostopo,

We understand you're experiencing an issue with partitioning an external disk with your Mac mini.

Do you receive the same error or alert if you try to partition a different disk?

If this only occurs with this specific one, reach out to the manufacturer for any troubleshooting steps through them.

Also, try connecting the hard drive directly to your Mac mini, and see if that gets the drive partitioning as expected.

Learn more here: Partition a physical disk in Disk Utility on Mac

We hope this helps.

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2018 Mac Mini Restore to new SSD

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