Advice on cloning

If the clone works, then nothing is wrong. Cloning is simply a special way of copying one drive to another. If the drive you clone contains any file corruption, then a clone will contain the same corrupted files. A clean install simply starts from scratch. However, a clean install only installs an operating system. If your files are corrupted and you restore them to the newly installed drive, then the same problems would be present.

Cloning is not a "last resort" or a "safety net".

Either or. Some say a clean install is better, and I agree most of the time, but I have had good luck cloning with both CCC and SD. I like SD better after using both.

But if the system is running OK, faster then before and no apparent problems, I wouldn't worry about it.

 Most commonly used backup methods explained

"Cloning" with CCC (and most others) is a deceiving term. You are not making a true clone of the original. A true clone would be a bit-for-bit duplication of the original. While CCC has that option (and explicit button) it is not used for copying from a source to destination (I've never seen what conditions you can actually enable that option in CCC). Instead CCC is copying each file from source to destination.

If there are disk errors on the source bad enough to stop the copy then they of course will not be copied to the destination. The destination has (almost) all the data from the source but in the case of the boot volume the destination does not have everything that was on the source deemed unnecessary to copy because it will only be recreated if you should boot from the destination volume. For example, certain cashes, /tmp, and various other stuff that will be recreated. Again this is another example of the fact it is not a bit-for-bit clone of the original.

A 'clean install' is better than a clone for one very simple reason: offending data can be eliminated by the selective reinstallation of know non-corrupt data. Worst case on a clean install is you will not be any worse off than you were before.

As has been mentioned, a clone guarantees the inclusion of undesirable or corrupt data.

If the objective is to clean house, don't clone, clean install.

Ciao.

One thing not mentioned is the OP's cat flavor. If cloning an entire Lion drive, CCC or DU can also copy the Recovery Partition in the process. SuperDuper cannot.

In the world of the fat cat, the Recovery Partition is crucial since you don't have install media to fall back on in case the boot volume pukes, you need to recover an admin password, etc. And Internet Recovery take forever to load, provided your Mac can do it.

The simple and IMHO the correct way to handle this is tp make a USB thumb drive of the recovery HD partition using Recovery Disk Assistant. Because if the drive fails so does the Recovery HD partition.

Better yet is to make a real Lion install USB thumb drive. Which loads the same files as the R-HD and then doesn't need to go out to the net to re-install Lion.

First, I agree with Courcoul that cloning with Disk Utility is the best option if cloning Lion because it automatically clones the Recovery HD.

I agree with you, Shootist, that making a bootable USB installer is much better than doing a net install.

We should note that you cannot create a bootable Recovery HD for a USB stick or drive using Recovery Disk Assistant unless there is a good Recovery HD partition on the startup drive. You cannot create a bootable Recovery HD after your hard drive has failed or you system no longer works or your Recovery HD has been damaged.

I'd LOVE to have a full Lion Install USB drive. Unfortunately missed the chance to get it for free. When I got the MBP, Lion was at 10.7.2 and the App Store offered to download the installer gratis. Being the Lion virgin I was at the time, didn't see the need. Couple of weeks later, 10.7.3 comes out and NO MORE FREEBIE! 😠

So, pay attention, boys & girls. If you don't have your Lion Install USB stick and the App Store is offering a free Lion download, do that ASAP before the next update comes along.

Downloading Hardware Specific Lion Installers

See the above about how to "capture" your Lion installer from which to make your own USB installer. I've done it so it does work, but it is a bit tricky.

Kappy wrote:

We should note that you cannot create a bootable Recovery HD for a USB stick or drive using Recovery Disk Assistant unless there is a good Recovery HD partition on the startup drive. You cannot create a bootable Recovery HD after your hard drive has failed or you system no longer works or your Recovery HD has been damaged.

Right you have to make the USB thumb of the R-HD files while the Recovery HD is on your system.

But just like people that buy any new computer they do not think about the time it is going to fail. Which it will.

So they never make the discs needed to re-install the OS, which with most all PS computers I have used that run Windows there is an option to do that, and or create soome type of disc or thumb drive that will allow you to boot the system when it finally does fail.

How many time have there been posts on this forum about problem and the first thing posted is to boot the system from the OS X install disc that came with the system and the OPs always say, 9 time out of 10, I don't have the original disc. What they just throw then away with the box?

As to cloning with DU. I have never had any luck doing that. Not sure why but it eother fails during the clone or when I try to restore it.

Never had that problem with either CCC or SD.

Courcoul wrote:

I'd LOVE to have a full Lion Install USB drive. Unfortunately missed the chance to get it for free. When I got the MBP, Lion was at 10.7.2 and the App Store offered to download the installer gratis. Being the Lion virgin I was at the time, didn't see the need. Couple of weeks later, 10.7.3 comes out and NO MORE FREEBIE! 😠

So, pay attention, boys & girls. If you don't have your Lion Install USB stick and the App Store is offering a free Lion download, do that ASAP before the next update comes along.

You can still make one. Follow these instructions to download the install files and then use LionDiskMaker to create the thumb drive.

10.7: How to get a full Lion install disc for a new MacBook Air or Pro - Mac OS X Hints

EDIT:

All you have to do is boot to the R-HD partition and download the installer to an external drive. Once the download finishes and BEFORE the system has a chance to reboot into the installer, at the time the system shuts down, disconnect the external drive. Then let the system boot back into Lion on your HDD and extract the InstallESD.DMG file from the files on external drive.

Perhaps you have a bad drive you are trying to clone. I've never had a problem using Disk Utility in all of the last six years with OS X and numerous machines and dozens of clones. With Lion just boot to the Recovery HD and it works like a champ each and every time. Same on the restore side.

My method is much simpler although it probably takes longer since you are downloading the installer.

Kappy wrote:

My method is much simpler although it probably takes longer since you are downloading the installer.

Actually your method really isn't any different then any other. It's all about getting and SAVING the downloaded files so you can get the InstallESD.DMG file out of them. Then making the thumb is fairly straight forward.

But I like the LionDiskMaker app for making the thumb with the InstallESD.DMG file.