Create a bootable clone....

You ask this question atBombich's site:

Is the disk formatted a HFS+ Journalled with a GUID partition map? You can get this information from Applications -> Utilities -> Disk Utility. The disk MUST have a GUID partition map, or it cannot be a bootable drive.

2/ Is it normal that a window appear saying CCC need my password to modify certain things before cloning process ?

To make a bootable clone CCC must be able to read ALL of the data on your disk, including stuff that is normally protected from non-priv'ed user access, so YES it is normal (essential) to need your admin password to create a clone.

3/ Is CCC's trial mode even allows to make a bootable clone ?

From the CCC web site: "...You can try the complete feature set of CCC for 30 days before purchasing it...", so Yes, you can create a bootable clone using CCC during the 30 day trial.

Carbon Copy Cloner is a very good backup utility, and has earned a strong solid reputation over the many years it is been around (I use it daily).

If you want, you could try SuperDuper, which allows a full clone for free, and you only need to pay for it if you want the incremental update and scheduling features (SD is also a very good solid cloning backup utility; that I also own and use).

There is one solid advantage with CCC, in that it will also backup your Recovery Partition.

Are you talking about the destination disk here or source disk ?

Destination disk, as your boot disk must be HFS+ Journeled with GUID partition, or you Mac would not boot.

Anyway, where are we supposed to see that when we have opened disk utility ?

Applications -> Utilities -> Disk Utility

On the left side will be a list of the disk drives (the physical names of the drives). If you select your external drive, it will tell you at the bottom center "Partition Map Scheme". That should say "GUID"

Back on the left side indented slightly under your physical external disk name will be the disk partitions with file systems on them. Select the partition you are trying to have Carbon Copy Cloner write the clone. The Bottom right side should say "Format: Mac OS Extended (Journaled)", which is the same as HFS+ Journaled.

On 2TB Caldigit it says partition map scheme: apple partition map

That would be the physical disk. "Apple Partition Map" CANNOT be used to boot an intel Mac. It MUST be GUID.

On Caldigit 1 it says format: mac os extended (journaled)

This name should be slightly indented from the above name, and is the name of the file system created on the physical device.

Carbon Copy Cloner cannot create a bootable clone on this disk because the disk partition map is NOT GUID.

The only way to create a GUID partition map is to "Erase" the entire disk and repartition it, specifying GUID partition map via the partition tab's "Option" button.

Open Disk Utility and take a screen shoot of what your drive looks like.

Post the screen shot in a Reply using the camera icon. Copy and paste doesn't work.

Screen shots

"Macintosh HD" is the standard name for your boot file system that came with your Mac. The "500 GB Apple SM02" is most likely the physical name of your internal disk.

You external disk should have a different nameas you say it is terabytes in size. "2TB Caldigit" perhaps is the external physical disk name, and "Caldigit 1" is a file system on a partition of the "2TB Caldigit" physical disk.

I assume at this time, your 2TB Caldigit external disk is not plugged into your Mac.

The physical drive (in this example 251GB Apple SSD SM02) will tell you the partition type (GUID needed for intel Macs to be able to boot from the disk).

The file system (in this example "Macintosh HD") will tell you the file system format (Mac OS Extended (Journaled)), which is important if you want a bootable Mac OS X clone.

BobHarris wrote:

"Apple Partition Map" CANNOT be used to boot an intel Mac. It MUST be GUID.

That's not true. You can clone an ICBM (Intel-chip based Mac) to an APM formatted disk and it will boot the ICBM. What you cannot do is install an ICBM OS onto an APM disk or volume. Two different things, there.