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It is vitally important that you back up your Mac. Whether you do so locally using Time Machine, sending it to a cloud service, or installing a duplicate creation program (or all three). There is nothing more important than backing up your computer in case an unfortunate event happens so you don't lose your precious data.
- Best Program To Clone Mac Hard Drive
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Stellar Drive clone is one of the best disk cloning software for Mac. It creates an identical, ready to use copy of the hard drive. This Mac disk cloning software supports various types of cloning like, HFS-to-HFS, FAT-to-FAT and NTFS-to-ExFAT. It can copy an entire folder or an entire hard disk drive on Mac. This can take fairly long, depending on the speed of your external drive and its connection to your Mac, so it’s best to have a fast hard drive with Thunderbolt, USB-C, or USB 3.0 connections. And that’s it! When Disk Utility is done, you can shut down your Mac and hold down Option when booting it back up. The below mentioned are the best tools with which one can clone a hard drive on Windows 10. This is the best options for taking data backup on Windows 10. Macrium Reflect 7: (Windows).
One of the easiest methods is locally, using Time Machine. Another is by backing up your data via a cloud-based service, like Backblaze or CrashPlan. Here, we're going to explain how to clone your Mac using a program like SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner.
The difference between cloning and using Time Machine
Best Program To Clone Mac Hard Drive
Local backups through Time Machine, cloud-based backups, and clones all serve a great purpose to keep your data safe in case of an unfortunate even that renders your Mac useless (even temporarily). The thing that makes cloning different is that you can create a bootable copy of your entire hard drive, which means you can access everything on one Mac through another simply by exporting it to an external drive, connecting the drive to the other Mac, and then selecting it from the Startup menu.
Clones are great to have around if, for example, you have to take your Mac in for repairs, but still need to continue working while it's out. You can use the cloned copy while it's in the shop.
Most cloning programs have additional features that include the ability to make regularly scheduled backups. This is ideal since, if something happens to your computer, you aren't necessarily going to want to restore from a year-old backup. I highly recommend investing in these additional features if they are offered with the cloning program you are using (for example, SuperDuper! is free to clone, but costs a licensing fee of $28 for scheduling, smart updates, sandboxes, and scripting).
Before you start
Before you get started, make sure you have an external hard drive with enough storage to fit everything on your Mac. The smartest solution is to use a portable hard drive.
You'll also need to download and install your cloning program. I'm using SuperDuper! from Shirt Pocket for this process. Most cloning programs operate pretty much the same. They will always have a detailed how-to guide to walk you through the steps.
How to prepare your external drive to use for your clone
You'll need to start with a clean external hard drive in order to make a bootable drive for your cloned backup.
- Connect your external drive into the appropriate port on your Mac.
- Use Spotlight to search for the Disk Utility app.
- Double-click on Disk Utility to open it.Source: iMore
- Find the hard drive under External and select it. It will usually be named after the company that made it.
- Click the Erase tab at the top of the window.Source: iMore
- Name the drive something that you will remember. I renamed mine 'mbp.' You will need to remember this name when you create a bootable drive.
- Select macOS Extended (Journaled) from the format list.
- Click Erase.
- Click Done once the process is complete.
- Close the Disk Utility window.Source: iMore
Your hard drive is now formatted for cloning your Mac.
How to make a clone of your Mac
After you've downloaded and installed your cloning program, you'll need to open it to get started. I'm using SuperDuper! to make a clone for this guide, so I'll reference it here.
Note: You'll need your administrator password in order to make a clone of your Mac.
- Use Spotlight to search for the SuperDuper! app.
- Double-click on SuperDuper! to open it.
- Select your Mac's hard drive from the drop-down menu next to 'Copy.'
- Select the external hard drive from the drop-down menu next to 'to.'Source: iMore
- Make sure Backup - all files is selected in the drop-down menu next to 'using' (Backup - user files does not create a bootable clone).
- Click Copy Now to begin the process.Source: iMore
- Enter your Administrator password when prompted.
- Click Copy when asked to confirm that you want to erase the external hard drive and then copy the files to it from your Mac.
- Click OK when the process is complete.Source: iMore
Most cloning programs will operate the same, general way. If you don't understand the process for the program you have chosen, refer to the user guide.
How to restore your Mac from a clone
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If there is any reason you end up needing to restore your Mac from a backup, you can use a clone to do so.
- Turn off your Mac.
- Connect your external drive into the appropriate port on your Mac.
- Turn on your Mac.
- Hold down the Command and R keys as soon as the system restarts to enter Recovery Mode. Your Mac will boot to the macOS Utilities screen.
- Click on Disk Utility and then click continue.
- Select your hard drive.
- Click on the Restore tab at the top of the Disk Utility window.
- Select your external drive next to 'Restore From.'
- Select your Mac's hard drive next to 'Restore to.'
- Click Restore.
Once the backup has finished restoring, restart your computer.
How to boot your clone on another Mac
If you want to work on your backup on another computer while it's in the shop, you can boot it up from the startup menu.
Important: You'll need to partition your hard drive in order to boot your clone as a separate startup disk. Be sure to do that before following the steps below.
- Turn off your Mac.
- Connect your external drive into the appropriate port on your Mac.
- Turn on your Mac.
- Hold down the Option key as soon as you hear the startup chime.
- Select the external drive with the clone backup on it from the list of systems to start up your computer.
Now, you can use the clone to restore files to your partitioned drive.
Any questions?
Do you have any questions about how to clone your Mac so you can use it as a backup? Put them in the comments and I'll help you out.
Updated March 2020: Updated for MacBook Air.
Backing up: The ultimate guide
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There is an abundant number of services which can help in creating a backup of one’s personal files. But many a times, it’s always safer to simply clone or mirror one’s hard drive. Imagine a situation wherein one is migrating their Windows content on to a new drive or needs the exact copy of their hard drive to be prepared in case data gets hacked. For such situations, cloning or mirroring a hard drive is the best solution.
Before one begins, it is important to know the difference between cloning and mirroring. For those who are unaware or tech novices, cloning is a process of booting data from a disk by migrating it onto another drive. On the flip side, mirroring helps create one on one copies from source disk to the destination disk. Once this difference is understood, we can carry on to the actual process.
How To Connect The Secondary Drive For Cloning/Mirroring Process Begins:
A rather simple process, all one needs are two drives. On one drive, the data shall be transferred from and another drive on which data will be transferred on. Simply put, one source and one destination hard drive.
If one is to do this process on a desktop system, then both the drives will be installed on to the system. On the other hand, if one is cloning the hard disk using a laptop, then an external SATA to USB adapter is needed. Once both are connected the cloning process can be started. Furthermore, one can simply disconnect and install an external hard drive. That shall suffice as it will be read by the OS.
One can keep issues of the cloning at bay by making sure that the destination hard drive is of similar capacity as the source drive. What this means is that there must be either equal space or extra space in the destination hard drive or else it may create a partition in the source drive.
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Top Tool To Clone a Hard Drive on Windows 10:
The below mentioned are the best tools with which one can clone a hard drive on Windows 10. This is the best options for taking data backup on Windows 10.
1. Macrium Reflect 7: (Windows)
Windows 10 users have a field day as far as choosing software for disk cloning or mirroring are concerned. They have a whole plethora of tools to pick from that make the process of how to clone hard drive on Windows 10. The best of the best for this process of data backup is Macrium Reflect 7! It is a user-friendly tool that offers a version free of cost. All the user needs to do is simply download this software to initiate the process. On the main screen of the site, make sure that one downloads the ‘Home Use’ installer. It is this tab that shall in turn install the actual software. Just make sure that there is a temporary files/folder assigned separately for the tool in your source hard drive. Once installation process is completed, the Macrium wizard will be launched and hard disk cloning or mirroring process can begin.
![Best Software To Clone Mac Hard Drive Best Software To Clone Mac Hard Drive](/uploads/1/2/6/4/126441286/663870390.jpg)
This tool offers two options to its users in regard to data backup. One can either clone directly from one disk to another or create a mirror image. User can accordingly choose an option that suits their needs the best.
An additional feature of this tool is that it allows the user to specify and personalize their destination folder in which they wish to keep all their data. This transfer can also be scheduled for later. Once the cloning process is initiated the time to undertake the same shall depend upon the size and content of the data that is being cloned or mirrored! If the device has been cloned then, the user can boot it from the BIOS (basic input/output system) settings. If it has been mirrored, then the user can keep the additional device as backup. Download it here.
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Top Tool to Clone a Mac Hard Drive:
For all those who have data saved on their Mac, the below mentioned tool is one of the top tool in the market. It helps in the process of data backup and helps and clone a Mac hard drive.
![Best Best](/uploads/1/2/6/4/126441286/331265052.jpg)
2. SuperDuper: (Mac)
SuperDuper is the perfect tool for Mac users. It has been around in the market for quite a few years and made its mark as a trusted hard disk cloning/mirroring tool. Available to the users for free of cost, this tool is easy for technical novices. All the user has to do, is download the tool and open ‘DMG’ file. Simply, double click and install.
Once installed, the user can scroll through its amazingly simple to understand interface It has two fields namely “copy” and “to”. On the boxes next to these buttons, one can enter the source and destination disks respectively and click on copy now. It’s as simple as that! Just make sure that backup of the files is ensured in the second field as everything may be erased in the source disk. The time taken by this process shall depend on the amount of data one has to clone. 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. But, there is one factor that needs to be kept in mind. The above mentioned are offline procedures. In today’s day and age, everything is on the cloud. This ensures greater connectivity and accessibility of data. If one does not avail this service then they are bound into carrying around a disk or drive along while travelling, working along with its multiple cords and wires as per need.
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In such a situation, it is recommended that a user not only clone or mirror a disk, instead upload it on to a cloud backup. Right Backup is one such tool. With it, one can upload their data onto a cloud storage and access it with multiple number of devices and platforms.
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Right Backup is available for all platforms including Windows, Mac, Android and iOS once you create your Right Backup account. With high end features such as backup scheduler and Smart Restore, it can make your important data seamlessly available across different devices. One can choose what data they want to back up and this data can be restored and accessed later when needed. It helps you to back up images, documents, videos and even sound files. Right Backup is an all-in-one package and is the perfect solution for keeping our data safe and secure. Download from here.