mac restore failure error not enough free space

So when i try to restore i obtain this kind of message "restore failure error not enough free space"

Which is prolly normal because my destination volume has 250GB free whereas my sources has 300GB.


My source is an external drive where i just made a bootable clone of my Macintosh HD using Disk utility.


I want to add that my clone is properly working and is bootable.


So what did i do wrong please ?

Posted on Sep 23, 2023 6:28 AM

Reply
16 replies

Sep 23, 2023 2:37 PM in response to BDAqua

I would say no it isnt because i was already able to do that thrue disk utility 2 days ago.

Problem is now that my back up is different in nature and in size and i have no choice to use this new back up.


Question, in the partition i made my back up (which made 300gb because i use it to clone my internal mbp 250gb drive), can i use disk utility to recalibrate and downsize the partition ? (knowing its supposed to be a bootable partition partition...)

I must add that this partition is on an external drive which countains 3 other partitions.

Sep 25, 2023 7:42 AM in response to skanner21

Disk Utility is terrible for cloning a bootable macOS drive. It always has been. CCC has never failed me when creating a bootable macOS clone. These apps also will recreate the hidden recovery partition as well which Disk Utility will not do IIRC. If you want a bootable macOS clone, then CCC or SuperDuper are your options...both are paid apps and well worth it as both developers provide great products and support. Not everything is free and even if something is free, it is still a good idea to donate money to the developer to show appreciation.


You will have nothing but headaches and disappointment if you rely on Disk Utility for cloning.


FYI, bootable clones are no longer recommended or supported for Apple Silicon Macs. Sometimes it may work, but there are no guarantees even when using CCC. Just wanted to put that out there in case you are planning to use bootable clones on newer Macs at some point. Nothing worse than developing a particular methodology and routine, then finding out later a new computer won't work that way.

Sep 26, 2023 6:54 PM in response to skanner21

I have seen about a 50/50 for bootable clones working on Apple Silicon Macs from the posts I have seen on these forums for the past two years since things really started getting difficult with one of the minor update patches to macOS 12.x Monterey. Prior to that time people didn't seem to have any issues (or at least very few issues) with bootable clones on Apple Silicon Macs.


With CCC, you definitely need to Right-click or Control-click on the destination within CCC and select the "Legacy" option. CCC will also tell you that the destination drive will need to be erased during the process. Here is what Michael Bombich the developer of CCC has mentioned about bootable clones and his recommended way forward (not sure if he has posted anything since about it):

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


https://bombich.com/blog/2021/05/19/beyond-bootable-backups-adapting-recovery-strategies-evolving-platform


It seems people may have better luck with bootable clones on Apple Silicon Macs when using Super Duper. That is a bit surprising since both CCC & Super Duper must utilize the built-in macOS utility "asr" to clone the APFS volumes.


Even if you can get bootable clones working on Apple Silicon Macs today, just keep in mind that Apple has been making changes to macOS even with minor OS updates which have been known to alter macOS functionality, sometimes significantly. I would highly recommend you also come up with another option since I believe you will need it one day.


Also, you may not be aware of this nasty little secret with Apple Silicon Macs, but if the internal SSD fails, or the other hidden APFS Containers outside of macOS become damaged, then you will not even be able to boot to your bootable external clone since those hidden items on the SSD are necessary to access an Apple Silicon Mac's One True Recovery (1TR). At that point, the only way to recover would be to perform a firmware "Restore" which will destroy all data on the internal SSD & push a clean copy of macOS to the internal SSD. So a bootable clone isn't as useful as it was with older Intel Macs.


While trying to locate a link for my reply here, I stumbled across another post I used previously....I had forgotten this other detail which can have some negative consequences with Apple Silicon Macs due to a new concept of "Ownership". See this post here:

Questions about Cloning an Mac M1 - Apple Community


mac restore failure error not enough free space

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