Cloning a system disk from an M2 Pro MacBook Pro.

macOS 13.4.1, MacBook Pro M2 Pro.


Trying to clone the internal system disk to an external Thunderbolt 4 SSD disk using Disk Utility from the Recovery environment fails with "OSStatus error 22" (meaning, according to some articles on the net, that the source disk seal is broken). Only, the seal on the internal system disk is not broken: if it actually were, the internal system disk would refuse to boot, if I'm not mistaken. And the internal system disk boots fine.


Using SOS (in Disk Utility from the Recovery environment) on the internal system disk works fine too and reports no error, hence no repair.


Trying to clone the internal system disk with the cloning utility in Carbon Copy Cloner 6.1.6 works fine, does not report any error and produce an external clone that looks fine. Only trouble is that boot from this external clone will fail with no error message: after trying vainly to boot on the external SSD, the MacBook will eventually reboot from the internal system disk. To be fair to CCC, it warns the user that, to do this, it must use an Apple provided procedure that it has no control on, and the result of which it cannot warrant.


So, if you need an external boot disk, the only way to produce one will be to actually INSTALL the OS on the external disk, using the migration assistant to configure the new system with the configuration of the internal system disk (which also results in a disk where the users' internal IDs are different from those on the internal disk, I think). And this manipulation also takes well over twenty times more than cloning the disk.


Question: WHEN will Apple correct this? If I remember well, when Apple forced the users to move the system disk to APFS, it took THREE versions (i.e., THREE full years) before disk utility was able to clone an APFS system disk without miserably failing...

MacBook Pro (M2 Pro, 2023)

Posted on Jun 26, 2023 2:47 PM

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12 replies

Jun 27, 2023 9:49 AM in response to DenisMaillard

DenisMaillard wrote:

macOS 13.4.1, MacBook Pro M2 Pro.

Trying to clone the internal system disk to an external Thunderbolt 4 SSD disk using Disk Utility from the Recovery environment fails


So, if you need an external boot disk, the only way to produce one will be to actually INSTALL the OS on the external disk, using the migration assistant to configure the new system with the configuration of the internal system disk (which also results in a disk where the users' internal IDs are different from those on the internal disk, I think). And this manipulation also takes well over twenty times more than cloning the disk.

Question: WHEN will Apple correct this? If I remember well, when Apple forced the users to move the system disk to APFS, it took THREE versions (i.e., THREE full years) before disk utility was able to clone an APFS system disk without miserably failing...


Yes you see the new way...


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Jun 27, 2023 11:39 AM in response to DenisMaillard

1 - make sure you have a full and current backup of your drive.

2 - erase the external SSD and format it to ASPF with Disk Utility.

3 - using Carbon Copy Cloner drag the internal drive into the Source bin and the external SSD into the Destination bin:



3 - Control (right) - click on the Destination bin and select Legacy Bootable Backup Assistant from the contextual menu:



4 - then click on Start.


When done select the external SSD as the startup drive in the System/General/Startup Disk settings pane and reboot. Although I believe silicon Macs have to go thru additional hoops to boot from an external drive. Don't have a silicon Mac so have no first hand experience.


Jun 27, 2023 12:39 PM in response to tbirdvet

tbirdvet wrote:

See the attached. Click on the destination drive and then use the legacy bootable copy assistant:
https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/3b07315d-716d-4ee7-9032-0935bb896d33



OK thx—it was the Control click part that was not understood and seemed to be missing...



By Old Toad made that clear:

3 - Control (right) - click on the Destination bin and select Legacy Bootable Backup Assistant from the contextual menu:


Jun 27, 2023 2:21 PM in response to leroydouglas

To all: I DID actually use the Legacy Bootable Backup Assistant in CCC. If you don't do it, CCC will only save the data part of the system disk and will not create the nowrite volume.


Unfortunately, the resulting two-part system disk looks OK, but does not boot.


One of the replies gave me an idea, though, although it looks weird to me: in order to boot on the clone, I started with loading the recovery environment and specified the new clone as boot disk. The system then starts trying to boot, does not give any error message, restarts two or three times (I don't on the spot remember exactly how many times) without actually booting and eventually restarts on the internal system disk. Maybe the behaviour will be different if I specify the new clone as boot disk in System Settings and then restart the system. I strongly doubt it will succeed, but I'll give it a try, just to be sure. I can't do it immediately but I'll test it soon and post the result.


Jun 28, 2023 1:23 AM in response to DenisMaillard

Well, after trying to reboot the CCC-made clone of the system disk through the "Restart" option of System Settings, the situation is unchanged.


The "Restart" option first asked me to authorize the users on the clone (which were, of course, the same as the ones on the internal system disk, so why ask that?). It then told me that it needed an Internet access to validate the clone (I was, at the time, booted without the Ethernet connection). So I reconnected the Ethernet cable. The clone was then finally accepted as a valid boot disk and I could initiate the restart.


I got twice the progress bar with accesses to the external disk that lasted for (about) 30 seconds each time. Then I got FOUR times the progress bar with, each time, only a brief (about one second) access to the external disk and, eventually, I got a message (I'm not giving it verbatim, as my system is configured to run in French, not in English) to the effect that "The version of macOS present on the disk must be reinstalled"!!!


Well done, Apple!!!


The ability to create and keep up-to-date clones of the system disk is a must for any decent system manager. I know that a hardware failure of the system disk on a Apple silicon mac will prevent any reboot, due to the need to access one of the hidden volumes on it to validate the boot (in such a case, the mac is good to be scraped, if I understand correctly). But there are lots of circumstances (corruptions, viruses, you name it) where the ability to reboot from an up-to-date external clone of the system disk is NEEDED. And having to do a full instal to create an external disk (which will not be an exact clone, to boot) is a MAJOR pain!!!


When will Apple take the elementary precaution to have the related utilities correctly updated before forcing a change on the customers?!

Jun 29, 2023 11:03 AM in response to DenisMaillard

Bootable clones is something Apple seems not to care about. The developer of CCC posted after the release of macOS Big Sur that he contacted Apple about the issue with bootable clones.....Apple helped him get things working, but told him that a future macOS update may break things so don't rely on being able to make bootable clones. Hence, the developer of CCC has posted his recommendation of just cloning the data to an external drive where macOS was fully installed (not cloned).


I personally don't see Apple doing anything to help with bootable clones....everything Apple is doing is locking the system down more & more for security & stability (and perhaps other reasons as well which may be good for Apple, but maybe not for users), but this has the side effect of users not being able to do things they've done for decades. The fact that macOS and Apple computer hardware is moving & looking more like iOS (iPhones & iPads)... I expect this lock down trend to continue even further.


Some users seem to have better luck with SuperDuper to make bootable clones of an Apple Silicon Mac (Intel Macs don't seem to have as many issues). I have no idea why some users have better luck with SuperDuper than CCC since both apps must use the Apple "asr" utility to clone the system volume.


I agree it is disappointing that bootable clones are no longer a reliable possibility for some (or at least the threat of bootable clones no longer being viable at some unknown time in the future) since they are a great way to test new updates/upgrades while still leaving a drive available with a known working configuration. Keep in mind Apple is selling devices to basic consumers....power users seem not to be Apple's focus....they need to keep updating the emojiis, just like Apple left the Enterprise users behind.

Cloning a system disk from an M2 Pro MacBook Pro.

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