It’s really important that you create regular backups of your Mac. Regardless of whether you want to do so with Time Machine, put your stuff on some cloud service, or through some duplicate creation software, or even all three, creating a backup is necessary to make sure that you do not end up losing your important stuff in a mishap. Nothing is more important compared to having a Mac backup when something goes wrong with your computer and your precious data is lost.
Time Machine can be one of easiest ways of keeping backup of your Mac but you can also try cloning your Mac with programs like Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper! Here we’ll be discussing exactly how Mac cloning works and how you can do so with these programs.
Jump To Section:
- How Cloning Is Different From Time Machine Backups
- How To Prepare For Creating Your Mac Clone
- Preparing The External Drive For Using With Clone Software
- Creating Your Mac Clone
- Restoring A Mac From Clone
- Booting From A Clone On A Different Mac
How Cloning Is Different From Time Machine Backups
Cloud-based backups, local backups with Time Machine, and the clones, all serve so many different purposes when it comes to keeping your information safe if some unfortunate event happens and leaves your Macbook useless. What sets cloning apart is the fact that you can make your entire hard disk’s bootable copy, and gain access to just about everything you have on your Mac through some other machine just by exporting your clone to some external hard disk drive, connecting it to some other Mac, and selecting it in Startup menu afterwards.
It is great to have a clone around you, for instance, when you need to get your Mac repaired and still have to keep working until you do not get it back.The cloned copy can be used until you get it back.
There are additional features on offer from most of the cloning programs around such as ability of making backups at regular schedules. Now, that’s an ideal choice. Obviously, when something goes wrong with your computer, you’d never want to restore it from a back up that was created one year ago. So, it is highly recommended that you invest in the additional features on offer with your chosen cloning program. For instance, with SuperDuper! you get smart updates, scheduling, scripting and sandboxes if you opt to go with a licensed version that comes for $28.
How To Prepare For Creating Your Mac Clone
Before getting started with the cloning process, ensure that there’s an external drive that has enough storage space available for fitting everything you have on your Mac. Probably, the smartest solution would be to use portable drives for this purpose.
Besides, you will also be required to download the cloning program that you want to use for creating the clone of your Mac and install it. Here we’ll be using SuperDuper! so you should download and install it first. Most of the cloning programs usually operate in very much the same way. And, there’s usually a how-to guide that describes everything in detail and walks you through installation and cloning steps.
Preparing The External Drive For Using With Clone Software
Obviously, you’d be required to start with clean external drive here for making it your bootable drive that can host the cloned backup. Here are the steps to follow for preparing your external drive before you can use it for creating your clone.
- Connect the external drive in the right port on Mac
- Search Disk Utility app through Spotlight search
- Double-click Disk Utility for launching it
- Your hard drive can be browsed under External where you can select it. Usually, its name is same as that of the company by which it is manufactured.
- Click on Erase tab that you can see on top of this window
- To keep things easier, you can rename this drive in a way that you can easily remember it. For instance, you can name it “mbp”. You’ll have to keep whatever name you give to this bootable drive in your mind.
- Choose macOS Extended (Journaled) option from format list
- Click on Erase
- Click on Done as soon as you have completed the process
- Exit Disk Utility window now
Congrats! You have successfully formatted your external hard drive and it is ready to host your Mac clone.
Creating Your Mac Clone
Once you have downloaded the clone program and installed it on your Mac, launch it so that you can get started with the creation of your Mac clone. With SuperDuper! here is what you need to do for creating your Mac clone.
- Use Spotlight for searching SuperDuper! app
- Double click SuperDuper! as soon as you find it
- Select the hard drive of your Mac from drop-down menu that you can see in front of “Copy”
- Select your external drive from drop-down menu that you can see in front of “To”
- Here, ensure that you have selected Backup – all files option in drop down list in front of “Using”. (If you have selected Backup – user files option then it won’t make your clone bootable)
- Next, click on Copy Now for kick starting the process
- When asked, enter the Administrator password for your Mac
- When prompted click on Copy for confirming that you’re willing to erase your external drive and copy files on it from Mac
- Click on OK as soon as the process gets completed
Most of the cloning programs will work in pretty much the same way. In case, if you do not understand how exactly your chosen program works, you can refer to its detailed guide.
Restoring A Mac From Clone
If something goes wrong and you want to restore your machine with backup, your clone can come to rescue you. Here is how you can restore Mac from Clone.
- Turn your Mac off
- Connect external drive in an appropriate port
- Now, turn the Mac on
- Press and hold Command + R keys soon as your system is restarted. This will take you in Recovery Mode and when the Mac will boot, you will be on Utilities screen
- Click Disk Utility first and then continue
- Select your Mac’s hard disk drive
- Click the Restore tab that you can see on top of Disk Utility window
- Select external drive in front of “Restore From”
- Select the hard drive of your Mac in front of “Restore To”
- Click on “Restore”
Once the backup restore is completed, you can restart your Mac.
Booting From A Clone On A Different Mac
It is possible to boot your clone on a different Mac and start working on it until your Mac is back again. You can do so from startup menu. Here it’s important to mention that you will be required to partition the drive for booting the clone backup separately as startup disk. And, once you have done that, you can follow steps given below to continue.
- Turn your Mac off
- Connect external drive in an appropriate port
- Now, turn the Mac on
- As soon as that startup chime is heard, press and hold Option key
- In list of all systems for starting up your Mac, select your external drive having the clone backup from which you want to boot
The clone can now be used for restoring files to the partitioned drive.
So, that’s all about Mac clone, how you can create one and how exactly you can be able to restore from one on a different Mac. If you have any queries on it, get in touch through comments section below.
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