Once the cloning/mirroring process is completed, the user has two options. They can either use the new drive and replace the old one or use the cloned drive from USB. Download this tool to clone a Mac hard drive here. The above mentioned are few of the industry leaders for data backup as far as disk cloning or mirroring is concerned. Oct 12, 2020 Only several simple clicks can help accomplish the job of cloning Mac hard drive to a solid state drive. Follow the detailed guide and get started. Connect both hard drive and SSD to Mac computer and launch EaseUS Mac cloning software. In the From drop-down list, select the volume you want to clone, which should be the source disk.
Dec 21, 2020 • Filed to: Solve Mac Problems • Proven solutions
Apple claims that its Mac OS is fully equipped to assist its users for day-to-day PC activities, and they seem to have proven the same over the years. Since Mac users save a lot of important data on it, it is necessary to keep all such information secure. Mac Disk Utility does exactly that with the help of its 'Restore' option. This function teaches you how to Clone a Mac's Drive with Disk Utility.
In this article, learn how to copy all the data and clone a Mac's Drive (internal/external) easily. Read and know more about Mac Disk Utility, its 'Restore' function, how to clone a Mac's Drive with Disk Utility, and a simple way torecover your Mac's Drive.
Part 1: Why You Need to Clone a Mac's Drive?
'What is the need to clone a Mac's Drive?' This thought must have crossed your mind atlas once while using Mac. To be precise, cloning of hard drives protects your important data which is under possible risk of physical destruction, loss, etc.
No matter how new or of what quality your hard drive is, you cannot say for sure that it will last forever and never crash or suffer from a system failure. Old hard drive or one suffering from mechanical, firmware, or electrical error can permanently destroy your data, such as photos, documents, videos, music, and other files. Also, if important personal documents and business files are misplaced in the process, retrieving them is next to impossible.
Therefore, to prevent these and many more situations that may arise due to data loss, we recommend that you always know how to Clone a Mac's Drive using Disk Utility. Mac Disk Utility and its 'Restore' functions can keep your data, important information, and files secure by literally copying it from your Mac Drive.
Difference Between Time Machine Backup and Cloning Hard Drive
If you're wondering whether to use Time Machine or Mac Disk Utility to clone a Mac's Drive, let us clear the confusion for you. Time Machine is a built-in application to back up and make an up-to-date copy of the data you save on the Mac. Its unique feature is that it makes real-time backups to recover files easily whenever needed. When set-up for the first time, Time Machine performs a full backup of the Mac and its contents. Time Machine keeps, hourly, daily and monthly backups all categorized separately.
If Time Machine can do so much, then why consider using Mac Disk Utility?
To start the discussion, Mac Disk Utility is free and also comes built-in with every Mac OS version. It has various new features that make it more suitable than the Time Machine. Say, for example, its 'Restore' option does something what is called block copy and make the entire cloning process swifter. It is also capable of making an almost cut to cut an exact copy of the contents of the Drive. No important files, documents, or data are left behind using Mac Disk Utility. It works in blocks and does not involve file to file transfer.
Some changes have been introduced in the Mac Disk Utility toolkit which makes more accurate cloning and copying data from the Drive.
Part 2: How to Clone Mac's Drive using Disk Utility?
Curious to know how to clone a Mac's Drive with Disk Utility? Follow these simple steps and you're good to go:
- Open Mac Disk Utility on your Mac from Utilities or Applications.
- Click 'Erase' from the top of the Disk Utility interface.
- Now chose a media on the left panel to make it your backup drive.
- At the drop-down list which has 'Format' options, choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Then hit 'Erase' again and wait for the drive to remount on Mac.
- Then at the Mac Disk Utility interface, click 'Restore'.
- Now comes the tricky bit. Select the target drive, drag it and drop it at the 'Source' field.
- Now drag and drop the destination Disk/Drive and leave it at the 'Destination' field.
- Hit 'Restore' once and for all. The contents of the drive will be copied and saved on the destination drive.
Part 3: How to Recover Mac's Drive Data?
What does one do if some data is lost during cloning the mac's Drive? Don't worry. The loss isn't permanent and the destroyed data can be recovered with the help ofRecoverit for Mac. It is a recovery tool for MacBook, iMac, Hard Drives, Flash Drives, Memory Cards, phones, cameras, and camcorders. It can instantly retrieve the lost contents from the Mac Drive and provide reliable data recovery solutions. It can recover documents, images, videos, audio files, emails and archives files.
The steps given below will help you use Recoverit for Mac to recover Mac's Drive:
- Download, install and launch Recoverit hard drive recovery software. Now choose the target drive where the data gets lost, and click 'Start' to recover lost data.
- And then the data recovery tool will set in motion an all-around scan to search the lost files.
- Finally, you can preview the whole scanned results, select the ones which need to be restored, click 'Recover' as shown below, and save the recovered data in another drive/disk to keep it secure for future.
Conclusion
The bottom line, we have attempted to answer a commonly asked question on online forums, i.e., how to clone a Mac's Drive with Disk Utility. We hope you will find this red useful and now be able to clone your Mac's drive and keeps its contents safe.
Also, the Recoverit drive data recovery toolkit is a safe, effective, and trustworthy medium to retrieve your lost documents and file. So go ahead and follow the instructions in this guide to clone Mac's drive orrecover hard drive datadeleted accidentally during its process.
What's Wrong with Mac
- Recover Your Mac
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As you may know, hard drive clone is the course of copying all contents from one hard drive to another via cloning software or hardware. Usually we use it to upgrade current hard drive or do a disk backup. Maybe you would ask how to clone a hard drive in Windows or Mac. Luckily! Two simple and practical solutions will be shown below.
Preparations before cloning hard disk
Can't wait to know the operation steps? Don't hurry! Some preparations need to be done before cloning.
Connect the target drive to your computer. Make sure that it has enough space and can be detected by the computer.
Don't forget to prepare a screwdriver if you are a laptop user. After cloning, the screwdriver can be used to replace the old hard drive.
All data on the new drive will be deleted during the cloning process. If you have some important data on the new hard drive, you'd better do a disk backup in advance.
Prepare a reliable cloning utility. If you don't have such a program, please refer to the next section.
#For Windows: Clone Windows hard drive with AOMEI Backupper
To clone hard drive easily in Windows, it is suggested to use AOMEI Backupper Standard. Simple steps and intuitive interface make your hard drive clone effortless. But most of all, it's free! This utility supports Windows 10/8.1/8/7/Vista/XP currently.
This freeware will clone only used part of the old drive by default. Therefore, it enables you to clone larger drive to smaller drive as long as the smaller drive can hold all data on the larger drive. In addition, it is capable to improve the performance of your SSD. Let's see how it works!
Before cloning, you need to download, install and launch this freeware.
Step 1. Select Clone from the left side. Then click Disk Clone. (To copy only OS to new drive, please use System Clone in AOMEI Backupper Professional.)
Note: This version only supports cloning disk with the same partition tyle, such as, cloning GPT disk to GPT disk. If you want to clone GPT system disk to MBR or migrate MBR system disk to GPT, you could consider upgrading to AOMEI Backupper Professional.
Step 2. Select the Source Disk (here is Disk 0) you plan to clone. Then click Next to continue.
Step 3. Select the Destination Disk (here is Disk 1) to clone the source drive to. Then click Next to go on.
Step 4. Click Start Clone to execute after your confirmation.
Tips:
Edit Partitions allows you to resize partitions. Under this option, you can choose Copy without resizing partitions, Add unused space to all partitions or Manually adjust partition size. The last two features require you to upgrade to the Professional edition.
Sector by sector clone offers every sector cloning, whether it is used or not. You can use it to restore formatted and deleted data on the original hard drive. It requires that the size of the target drive must be equal to or larger than the source drive.
SSD Alignment can be used to accelerate the reading and writing speed of SSD. If you want to clone hard drive to SSD, it is strongly recommended to choose this option.
Step 5. Now, you need to change boot order in BIOS or replace the old hard drive to boot from the cloned drive. The second method is recommended.
So what else might be tried? Of course, Macrium Reflect 7 is also a good choice. See the official website for additional details. By the way, if you are a Windows Server user, please turn to AOMEI Backupper Server.
#For Mac: Clone Mac hard drive with Disk Utility
Disk Utility is a macOS and Mac OS X system utility that allows users to perform hard drives and storage drives related tasks. It's free and also comes built-in with every Mac OS. Disk Utility is designed to create clones, even though the application calls this process a Restore, just like restoring data from the source drive to the target drive.
With this utility, you can clone HDD to SSD or new HDD in Mac. Aside from hard drive clone, Disk Utility also works well on disk formatting, disk repair, integrity verification, etc. All the operation steps are also very easy to learn even for a beginner. Now, let's learn how to use it!
Step 1. Open Disk Utility on your Mac from Utilities or Applications.
Step 2. Click Erase from the top of the Disk Utility interface.
Step 3. Select a media, which you want as your backup or destination drive from the left side.
Free Disk Cloning Software Download
Step 4. From the Format drop down list select the format type as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Then click Erase to remount the drive on the Desktop.
Step 5. Select Restore from the Disk Utility main window.
Step 6. Select the target drive, drag and drop it at the Source field.
Step 7. Select the destination drive, drag and drop it at the Destination field.
Step 8. Click Restore at the Disk Utility main window.
Tips:
As for the old hard drive, you can keep it as a backup or reformat the hard drive to take it as your secondary storage after cloning.
As a freeware, Steller can also be used to clone Mac hard drive. You can download it to have a try!
Clone Startup Disk Mac
Now, you have learned how to clone a hard drive in Windows or Mac. Apart from copying hard drive to HDD or SSD, you may also need to clone SSD to new SSD or HDD. Fortunately, these goals also can be achieved through the detailed steps mentioned in this article.
