Cloning a Hard Drive in Mac OS X. Cloning a Mac with SuperDuper! Cloning mac os x flash drives

There are many ways. First opportunity backup your system is built into MAC OS X itself, starting with version 10.5 and older. This is Time Machine.

Time Machine automatically backs up your system and all important files to an external hard drive and must “go back in time” to restore system files to their original state at the time you need it. If you enable Time Machine in System Preferences, it will prompt you to create “backups” (spare copies) and ask for a directory to save them.

But Time Machine has a couple of drawbacks. The first of them is that it eats up disk space very quickly. Although not completely. After the first backup is created, Time Machine continues to save only the changed files.

The second problem is that automatic copying interferes with normal operation, starting on its own.

To at least somehow level this out, let’s turn to an additional application that allows you to configure Time Machine itself.

This is TimeMachineEditor. You can download it. TimeMachineEditor will allow you to more flexibly customize the schedule of your procedures. For example, hourly on Mondays, daily after work, and so on.

Using this utility, we increase the intervals of “time jumps”, “curbing the appetite” of Time Machine itself, and adjust its backup sessions to a schedule convenient for us.

Thus, Time Machine has the ability to backup your system during various failures and “roll back” back, but it is cumbersome and not very convenient for this purpose. In addition, the “backup” disk is not bootable and requires starting from the Mac Os X installation disk to restore.

Disk Utility

Another way to “grow” your “clone sheep” is to use a standard disk utility. By default, it is located in the Applications/Utilites folder.

We launch this application and select the name of your system drive in the menu on the left, for example, X. Now drag the icon of your startup disk (X) into the “Source” line window, and drag the disk icon into the “Destination” line. which will save your clone, for example, Backup. This can be an external FireWire or USB drive, as well as an internal hard drive or a flash drive of sufficient capacity.

If you need to pre-format this directory, switch to Erase. For external media, the format does not matter (as a rule, this is Mac OS Extended Journaled), but for hard drive On a Mac with an Intel processor, it is preferable to select “GUID Partition Table”.

Now click “Restore” and enter your password. Let's go.

After some time, another “Dolly the Sheep” will appear - an absolute copy of your system disk.

Now, if your Mac OS X crashes fatally, and no “cure” will help, you can repeat this procedure in reverse, replacing the damaged system with your saved copy.

To do this, you need to “start” from the backup system itself: turn on your Mac while holding down the option key, then select the disk with the ready-made clone as bootable (in our example, Backup) and perform the recovery procedure in reverse order.

But before you do this, you must definitely try to “cure” the damaged system with the same “Disk Utility”.

Select the “damaged” disk in the left menu (in our example it is X and in the “First Aid” section do the following procedures: “Verify Disk Permission” and, if necessary, do “Restore access rights” ( Repair Disk Permission) and, accordingly, “Verify Disk” - “Repair Disk”.

The familiar OnyX program can also provide irreplaceable help here.

Despite the ease of cloning using Disk Utility, this method has one drawback. Absolutely all information, without exception, is copied. What if we are talking about a small spare disk, or even a flash drive? The files may simply not fit on them.

What is the choice?

There are many options for cloning your Dolly the Sheep. Up to using the command line according to instructions from Apple itself. “Mere mortals” may find other utilities more accessible, such as SuperDuper!, Clone X, Tri-BACKUP or MacTuneUp. In my opinion, the most advanced among them, convenient and at the same time absolutely free, is called Carbon Copy Cloner.

Carbon Copy Cloner

Carbon Copy Cloner is produced by Bombich Software. You can download it. Voluntary donations to developers (Donate) are welcome.

Mike Bombich, the creator of this wonderful program, in an interview with a popular American site, especially noted the “highlights” of his brainchild: the speed of the cloning process, the ability to selectively transfer data and additional protection against accidental actions in the form of a special list of all possible candidate disks with a request their ID (Unique Identifier).

Carbon Copy Cloner allows you to create a full or partial clone of your system, moving it to another disk or saving it as a .dmg (disk image). The latest versions of Carbon Copy Cloner, aimed at the Snow Leopard system, support compression in the HFS+ file system, displaying the sizes of folders and drives in the decimal system has become noticeably more convenient, copying speed has increased, and Time Machine databases are ignored if they have already been created.

Carbon Copy Cloner can be very useful when upgrading a system disk and replacing it with a more capacious one. It is enough to transfer the previously rejected system to a new disk.

Before you start creating a backup copy of your system, it would be a good idea to first clean out all the “garbage” that has accumulated on the system using the OnyX utility and put it in order.

Install Carbon Copy Cloner and launch it. If necessary during operation, enter your usual password and unlock the “lock” at the bottom left.

At the top left in the Source Disk menu, select the one from which your system will be cloned (in our example, this is drive X).

At the top right Target Disk, select the one on which the “twin” of your MAC OS X will be saved. (In our case, X2. It is important to note that this utility has the ability to record the system in .dmg format and even to a remote computer over the network.

Now let's take a look at another feature of Carbon Copy Cloner: create special filters that allow you to exclude some files from the clone based on their extension, for example .mkv or .avi, and then movies of this format will not be cloned. This will help save space.

In order not to complicate your life, let's try to manually do some preliminary procedures to make the spare system easier and speed up the cloning process.

It is not necessary to save your entire media library to a system backup: digital photos, music, films, supporting documentation, and so on. And also work files that can weigh more than one gigabyte. You can also refuse "heavy programs" if there is not enough space on the backup disk.

Find Items to be copied in the left window and look carefully, unchecking some of the checkboxes next to unnecessary files. If they are not stored haphazardly on your disk, then most likely these will be the Users/macuser (your username) directories. For example, in this configuration we disable the Calibrie Library and the books it contains. After all, they are already recorded on a separate DVD.

Then in the section on the right Cloning options (Clone mode) select Incremental backups of selected items (incremental “backup” of selected items) this dynamic mode will allow you to transfer only the changed data the next time you update the version of the spare system. The checkbox below Delete items that don’t exist on the source in synchronization mode will not “take with you” old programs and other files that you have not used for a long time.

Protect root-level items on the target will keep you in superuser mode if you are one. And finally, Archive modified and deleted items will allow you to create a separate archive of modified and deleted files. In my opinion, it is better to disable this so as not to waste time.

If Carbon Copy Cloner “gives the go-ahead” - This volume will be bootable, which means there is enough space on the spare disk or flash drive, and this volume will become bootable, you can start.

Any presets you've made will be saved if you click Save Task if you're planning to clone your drive on a specific schedule, like Time Machine. But this is hardly useful for creating a backup Mac OS X.

Click Clone.

How many files are stored on your system drive? It turns out tens of thousands. so the process may take some time: from fifteen minutes to an hour or two. It depends on the amount of information.

Super Duper!

Despite the name, this is perhaps one of the most convenient and popular backup programs created for the Mac OS X platform. The main purpose of the program is to create copies of files in order to quickly restore the system in case of an emergency. emergency situation. The program can create archives of various kinds, up to backup boot images of the system. Switchers from the PC world, accustomed to software like Norton Ghost, Acronis True Image, etc., purchase and install SuperDuper! will receive an almost equivalent replacement for these utilities. Super Duper! - this is too much if you just want to backup your email correspondence, but if you are used to regularly backing up and are serious about the safety of your data, this is perhaps one of the most convenient and simple options.

The functionality of SuperDuper does not cause any fundamental complaints. The main advantage of the program is the ability to create a correct archive image of the entire operating system, which can be easily deployed on a hard drive using the standard Disk Utility included in Mac OS X.

The program will save a lot of time for those who have to deal not with one home computer, but with a whole fleet of machines. Deploy image to short terms on several computers - this is definitely more convenient than the long installation of the system and its configuration on each machine separately.

SuperDuper can create both full and incremental archives, works with editable scripts, can repair permission itself before copying, automatically erase the contents of the destination disk, save settings in a separate file, and much more.

The program interface is simple and will not raise any questions even for an untrained user. Which, however, is typical for most software for Mac. In total, the program offers you four copying options. First, Backup all files: if you are going to create a bootable and correct clone of your system, this is the option you need. An extremely simple and transparent operation for any user. Just specify the partition intended for archiving, the destination disk and click the Copy Now button. The program will require you to enter the administrator password before starting copying. If you do not want to limit yourself to simple copying, but prefer to create an archive image of the system, select “to” in the column instead of the proposed existing partitions Disk image. The program itself will prompt you to select a partition to save the image file, its type and degree of compression.


The second copying option that the program offers us is Sandbox - shared users and applications, and it differs from the first one in that when copying, the program will skip all user files and software from third-party developers, duplicating only the system itself and standard Apple applications. If for some reason this does not suit you, then there is a third option - “Sandox-shared users”, in which SuperDuper will copy the system with all installed programs, but, as in the first case, without the user files.

But the program's capabilities do not end there, and if you want to make your own adjustments to the copying process, select the option - New Copy Script.


By choosing this option, you yourself will determine how exactly the copying process will be carried out, which files and directories will be saved in the backup copy. However, it should be noted that this option is not suitable for a novice user. Before starting copying, you can select additional options that the program offers. Both options for action before the start of copying and after it is completed.

For example, by specifying “Copy Newer Files” in the settings, you will select the incremental copy option, in which the program will add to the existing archive only those files that were created or modified after the last save. By selecting Erase then copy files, you will first clear the destination disk on which you are going to duplicate your information.

If you made a direct copy to another partition or external drive, then after SuperDuper is finished working, you can boot from the system clone you created Restart from (archive name) or make this partition the main one - Set as Startup Disk. You can simply choose to end the program or automatic shutdown the computer itself upon completion of its operation.

But the sun also has spots, and despite the rich possibilities offered by the program, it is worth paying attention to a couple of disadvantages. The program, unlike its PC counterparts, does not provide the user with the opportunity to make a system image by booting from a regular CD, or, conversely, to restore it in the same way. And if the first cannot be called a serious miscalculation, then the second creates certain inconveniences in the case when you have to deal with an already inoperable system.

In addition, the program does not have a Restore function at all. Of course, for recovery you can use the same copy, selecting the archived system image as the source, and the hard drive partition as the destination disk. Or, even easier, use the standard Disk Utility for this. But in any case, to restore the user will have to boot from an external drive with an already working operating system or another partition. There is also no scheduled backup option. However, despite these annoying omissions, the program is simple, reliable and fully performs all the tasks assigned to it.

Redo Backup

This is a LiveCD software. Which is very good, since it boots from a CD. Knows all Mac OS X file systems, including the new 10.8.3 recovery partitions. After booting from the disk, you can create a bootable USB flash drive by selecting Settings -> Create Bootable USB, which is also a good thing. That is, this software can create a complete image of an OS X disk and can save it either to a locally connected USB drive, a flash drive (if there is enough space on it), or even to the network and FTP. He made an archive on ftp, but refused to make a backup on an external USB drive to which TimeMichine was configured, saying that the file system was read-only, and he couldn’t write to HFS+.

Paragon Hard Disk Manager 12 Server

Here's our winner! As always on top!!! I calmly read all the sections of Mac OS X 10.8.3 and just as calmly wrote everything onto an external USB drive with the HFS+ file system, which I also use for TimeMachine :)

After creating a backup, a folder with the name I set for the backup was created on the external drive, but it was impossible to open it in MacOS, since there were no rights, which is also a problem, since even by accident it would be very difficult to erase it.

P.S. I also learned about Stellar Drive Clone http://www.stellarclonedrive.com/ but I couldn’t find it in the public domain anywhere to test it

Application Super Duper! will help you make the perfect cloning of your Mac hard drive to another drive. When you back up a Mac, the entire operating system is copied—along with all applications, files, and everything else. This offers several advantages over other backup solutions, such as OS X's built-in time machine.

In this guide I will show you how to get started using SuperDuper! for backups, how to access those copies if you need them, and how to restore them.

You don't need a backup until you need it

Backing up is the digital equivalent of eating Kale - everyone knows it's good for you, all the experts rave about it, and almost no one does it.

The problem is that modern computers are so good that they can easily run for years without necessity backup; You may lose a file that you accidentally deleted, but for the most part, nothing bad happens.

When bad weather hits, it will affect the work you've done, the photos you've taken, and the movies you've downloaded, and will wipe them out in one fell swoop. You will have to start all over again.

All of this can be prevented with a solid backup strategy. The author of tuts+ Marius wrote an excellent lesson on . If you don't want to lose even one byte of data, read his tutorial carefully.

Cloning Explained

OS X has a great built-in backup service - Time Machine. What's really good about it is that it even saves copies of versions of files and applications. If something goes wrong when updating an app or you accidentally move a file, you can easily use a Time Machine backup from a week, day, or hour ago to figure things out.

Time Machine, unfortunately, does not back up operating system files. Since trouble doesn't come alone and you'll need to restore your computer completely, you'll first need to reinstall OS X, which involves downloading five gigabytes before you can restore everything you need from Time Machine.

I had to do this once and the process took all night for a 128GB MacBook Air; I can only imagine doing something similar for a computer with multi-terabyte disks. With SuperDuper! clone, the operating system is copied along with the user's files. To perform a restore, all you need to do is reverse the cloning procedure and copy all the data from the backup back to your Mac.

Even though you can access the files you created using Time Machine, if you use them on someone else's Mac, you may run into problems if they don't have the right applications or the correct permissions to access your files.

With SuperDuper! you can even boot directly from your backup. You're just using someone else's Mac as a terminal to access a perfect copy of your idle Mac.

Preparing a backup drive

You will need a second hard drive for backup. If you're at least using an old Mac Pro or have built your own Hackintosh, this will most likely be an external drive. It should be at least the same size as your Mac's main drive; Anything smaller may not be able to accommodate a clone.

  • Connect your external drive to your Mac and open Disk Utility. It is in the folder Other V Applications.
  • Select the backup drive in the left sidebar and go to the tab Break into sections.
  • In the dropdown list Partition scheme select 1 section. Give the drive a name and from the drop down list Format select Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
  • Click Apply and wait a few seconds for SuperDuper! Do your job.
Setting up a backup disk in Disk Utility.

The backup disk is now configured.

Creating a disk clone

Super Duper! this is a free app, although you can unlock some useful ones, additional features with a one-time fee of $27.95.

Backing up my OS X drive.
  • Download your copy of SuperDuper!
  • Agree to the license terms, drag SuperDuper! to a folder Applications and run it.
  • To create a clone, select the main hard drive in the first drop-down menu, the backup drive in the second, and Backup - all files in the third.
  • Click Copy Now and let SuperDuper! do your job.
Super Duper! Does its job

As soon as SuperDuper! will copy all the files, you will have a perfect clone of your Mac hard drive. You can access all your files by connecting your backup drive to your Mac—the file system should look familiar.

All files will have the same folder structure as on the source disk.

A backup disk with my familiar file system.

Advanced Options

Super Duper! This is a powerful application as you can create a perfect clone of your Mac in the free version, however, once you pay you will get access to more features. The two most important additional parameters are smart update(smart updates) and planning(scheduling).

As you probably noticed when you created your clone drive, it took up several hundred gigabytes of data when copying via USB. Smart update is much faster - instead of creating a new clone from scratch every time you backup, when SuperDuper! does this smart update, it only copies files that have changed. Several gigabytes, instead of several hundred.

To execute smart update, in section Options... select Smart Update from the drop-down During copy menu instead Erase then copy.

A backup isn't very useful unless you keep it up to date. With SuperDuper! you can set up a backup schedule. Use dialogue Schedule... to set the time for SuperDuper! to start automatically.

If you leave your Mac turned on overnight, then this is the ideal time to make a copy. Otherwise, you can do it during your lunch breaks or the first thing you do in the morning when you plan your day. You can have multiple scheduled backups at different times and days.

The SuperDuper Advantage! Clone, above other solutions, is that you have a working, bootable copy of your Mac located on your hard drive. If OS X becomes unstable after updating it, installing a new application, or your Mac even , you can connect your cloned drive and use it to boot into a version of your system that you know is stable.

You can even use any Mac, not just your own, to boot from the cloned hard drive. If your Mac is completely destroyed, you can use a friend or family member's Mac just like your own, with a full niche of applications until you can replace it.

If you only have a Time Machine backup, you'll still have all your files, but unless your friends have the same apps as you, you won't be able to do much with them.

To boot from a clone:

  • Turn off your computer and connect an external clone drive to your Mac
  • Turn on your Mac and as soon as you hear the startup sound, hold down the key Option until the Apple logo appears on the screen. This will activate boot controls where you can select which device you want to boot from
  • Select the clone disk and click Return

The system will now boot. If you're used to a Mac on an SSD, this will be painfully slow as the data isn't just pulled from the spinning drive, but transferred via USB. Regardless, it will boot and you will be running on the cloned Mac.

If you boot from a cloned drive on someone else's Mac, you may notice some strange behavior and settings reset. It's normal - SuperDuper! copies only parameters with which it can be done safely. Some settings depend on things like Mac hardware, so they need to be recreated or restored to default if new mac trying to use them.

Restoring from a clone

If disaster strikes and you need to restore your entire system from your SuperDuper! backup, use your Mac to boot from a cloning disk. Launch SuperDuper! And select the backup drive from the drop down list Copy and the main hard drive in the dropdown list where (to). Select Restore – all files and then click Copy Now.

After SuperDuper! will restart your Mac, click Option to upload to Startup Manager. Select your new recovered master drive and you're done.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, I showed you how to enhance your backup system using SuperDuper! to make a complete clone of your hard drive. The clone gives you more possibilities than a regular backup because you are saving the entire operating system. Super Duper! This is an amazing app and you should consider using it for your backup needs.

This is not the only application that creates clones. My colleague Adam wrote

If you have questions about SuperDuper! or think I'm a pagan for choosing it over Carbon Copy Cloner, please let me know in the comments.

Fair, not overpriced and not underestimated. There should be prices on the Service website. Necessarily! without asterisks, clear and detailed, where technically possible - as accurate and concise as possible.

If spare parts are available, up to 85% of complex repairs can be completed in 1-2 days. Modular repairs require much less time. The website shows the approximate duration of any repair.

Warranty and responsibility

A guarantee must be given for any repairs. Everything is described on the website and in the documents. The guarantee is self-confidence and respect for you. A 3-6 month warranty is good and sufficient. It is needed to check quality and hidden defects that cannot be detected immediately. You see honest and realistic terms (not 3 years), you can be sure that they will help you.

Half the success in Apple repair is the quality and reliability of spare parts, so a good service works directly with suppliers, there are always several reliable channels and your own warehouse with proven spare parts for current models, so you don’t have to waste extra time.

Free diagnostics

This is very important and has already become a rule good manners for the service center. Diagnostics is the most difficult and important part of the repair, but you don't have to pay a penny for it, even if you don't repair the device based on its results.

Service repairs and delivery

A good service values ​​your time, so it offers free delivery. And for the same reason, repairs are carried out only in the workshop of a service center: correctly and according to technology can only be done in a prepared place.

Convenient schedule

If the Service works for you, and not for itself, then it is always open! absolutely. The schedule should be convenient to fit in before and after work. Good service works on weekends and holidays. We are waiting for you and working on your devices every day: 9:00 - 21:00

The reputation of professionals consists of several points

Company age and experience

Reliable and experienced service has been known for a long time.
If a company has been on the market for many years and has managed to establish itself as an expert, people turn to it, write about it, and recommend it. We know what we are talking about, since 98% of incoming devices in the service center are restored.
Other service centers trust us and refer complex cases to us.

How many masters in areas

If there are always several engineers waiting for you for each type of equipment, you can be sure:
1. there will be no queue (or it will be minimal) - your device will be taken care of right away.
2. you give your Macbook for repair to an expert in the field of Mac repairs. He knows all the secrets of these devices

Technical literacy

If you ask a question, a specialist should answer it as accurately as possible.
So that you can imagine what exactly you need.
They will try to solve the problem. In most cases, from the description you can understand what happened and how to fix the problem.

Thanks for the answer! While I’m studying the information from the links...My optimism has disappeared. It’s very difficult for me, and it’s also in English. So far I have more questions than answers. What does it mean to deploy a backup? As I understand it, in my case it will not be possible to make a backup because the disk volumes do not match. This means that restoration needs to be done selectively, it seems that this is what we are talking about.
, have you practically done this, or are you still just thinking out loud?


It’s important for me to understand the order and algorithm of actions so that there is no indigestion)
1. make a backup using a time machine or a hand-made copy of Macintosh HD.
2. Complete the technical side of the issue. Install ssd via optibay. Or move the hdd. This still needs to be sorted out. If the installation location of the sdd does not affect the speed of its operation, then it is better to leave the hdd in place due to cooling, protection and other things, which in principle is logical.
3. When installing my native hdd in a new location, I must select it as boot.
4. Next, transfer the system and software to the ssd. As I understand it, by simply copying it and then specifying the boot disk.
5. Then a controversial issue arises about the need for symlinks. Either they are not needed and everything works like a charm, or you need to register a symlink, for example in the documents folder on the ssd to the same folder on the hdd, as indicated here:
Move user home directories to HDD

This tweak is only useful if you have both SSD as well as HDD in your Mac. I'm using this in my iMac. I moved all the content of /Users folder to the HDD and created a symbolic link from the SSD to it (so that I don't have to change the home folder location in the user settings, as I read some applications don't like it and may not work correctly). To do that execute the following commands in Terminal:

Sudo ditto /Users /Volumes/your_hdd_name/Users
sudo mv /Users /Users.bak
sudo ln -s /Volumes/your_hdd_name/Users /Users

UPDATE (5/22/2012): To be safe, you should also go to System Preferences, click on Users & Groups, click the lock icon to unlock advanced editing (password prompt will appear). Once unlocked, you should be able to right-click on each user account and choose Advanced Options from the pop-up menu. Once in the Advanced Options dialog, change the Home directory of the user from “/Users/user-name” to the new location (e.g. “/Volumes/HDD/Users/user-name”).

Now, check if your home folders are showing up correctly in Finder. If so, restart your computer.

Finally, delete the back-up of your Users folder on the SSD by typing the following into the Terminal:
sudo rm -rf /Users.bak
link: http://blog.alutam.com/2012/04/01/optimizing-macos-x-lion-for-ssd/
6. Next, perform manipulations to optimize the operation of the system with ssd.

So far, this is how I understand the process... What comments and clarifications will there be?

There are many ways. The first option for backing up your system is built into MAC OS X itself, starting with version 10.5 and later. This is Time Machine.

Time Machine automatically backs up your system and all important files to an external hard drive and must “go back in time” to restore system files to their original state at the time you need it. If you enable Time Machine in System Preferences, it will prompt you to create “backups” (spare copies) and ask for a directory to save them.

But Time Machine has a couple of drawbacks. The first of them is that it eats up disk space very quickly. Although not completely. After the first backup is created, Time Machine continues to save only the changed files.

The second problem is that automatic copying interferes with normal operation, starting on its own.

To at least somehow level this out, let’s turn to an additional application that allows you to configure Time Machine itself.

This is TimeMachineEditor. You can download it. TimeMachineEditor will allow you to more flexibly customize the schedule of your procedures. For example, hourly on Mondays, daily after work, and so on.

Using this utility, we increase the intervals of “time jumps”, “curbing the appetite” of Time Machine itself, and adjust its backup sessions to a schedule convenient for us.

Thus, Time Machine has the ability to backup your system during various failures and “roll back” back, but it is cumbersome and not very convenient for this purpose. In addition, the “backup” disk is not bootable and requires starting from the Mac Os X installation disk to restore.

Disk Utility

Another way to “grow” your “clone sheep” is to use a standard disk utility. By default, it is located in the Applications/Utilites folder.

We launch this application and select the name of your system drive in the menu on the left, for example, X. Now drag the icon of your startup disk (X) into the “Source” line window, and drag the disk icon into the “Destination” line. which will save your clone, for example, Backup. This can be an external FireWire or USB drive, as well as an internal hard drive or a flash drive of sufficient capacity.

If you need to pre-format this directory, switch to Erase. For external media, the format does not matter (usually Mac OS Extended Journaled), but for a hard drive on a Mac with an Intel processor, it is preferable to select “GUID Partition Table”.

Now click “Restore” and enter your password. Let's go.

After some time, another “Dolly the Sheep” will appear - an absolute copy of your system disk.

Now, if your Mac OS X crashes fatally, and no “cure” will help, you can repeat this procedure in reverse, replacing the damaged system with your saved copy.

To do this, you need to “start” from the backup system itself: turn on your Mac while holding down the option key, then select the disk with the ready-made clone as bootable (in our example, Backup) and perform the recovery procedure in reverse order.

But before you do this, you must definitely try to “cure” the damaged system with the same “Disk Utility”.

Select the “damaged” disk in the left menu (in our example it is X and in the “First Aid” section do the following procedures: “Verify Disk Permission” and, if necessary, do “Restore access rights” ( Repair Disk Permission) and, accordingly, “Verify Disk” - “Repair Disk”.

The familiar OnyX program can also provide irreplaceable help here.

Despite the ease of cloning using Disk Utility, this method has one drawback. Absolutely all information, without exception, is copied. What if we are talking about a small spare disk, or even a flash drive? The files may simply not fit on them.

What is the choice?

There are many options for cloning your Dolly the Sheep. Up to using the command line according to instructions from Apple itself. “Mere mortals” may find other utilities more accessible, such as SuperDuper!, Clone X, Tri-BACKUP or MacTuneUp. In my opinion, the most advanced among them, convenient and at the same time absolutely free, is called Carbon Copy Cloner.

Carbon Copy Cloner

Carbon Copy Cloner is produced by Bombich Software. You can download it. Voluntary donations to developers (Donate) are welcome.

Mike Bombich, the creator of this wonderful program, in an interview with a popular American site, especially noted the “highlights” of his brainchild: the speed of the cloning process, the ability to selectively transfer data and additional protection against accidental actions in the form of a special list of all possible candidate disks with a request their ID (Unique Identifier).

Carbon Copy Cloner allows you to create a full or partial clone of your system, moving it to another disk or saving it as a .dmg (disk image). The latest versions of Carbon Copy Cloner, aimed at the Snow Leopard system, support compression in the HFS+ file system, displaying the sizes of folders and drives in the decimal system has become noticeably more convenient, copying speed has increased, and Time Machine databases are ignored if they have already been created.

Carbon Copy Cloner can be very useful when upgrading a system disk and replacing it with a more capacious one. It is enough to transfer the previously rejected system to a new disk.

Before you start creating a backup copy of your system, it would be a good idea to first clean out all the “garbage” that has accumulated on the system using the OnyX utility and put it in order.

Install Carbon Copy Cloner and launch it. If necessary during operation, enter your usual password and unlock the “lock” at the bottom left.

At the top left in the Source Disk menu, select the one from which your system will be cloned (in our example, this is drive X).

At the top right Target Disk, select the one on which the “twin” of your MAC OS X will be saved. (In our case, X2. It is important to note that this utility has the ability to record the system in .dmg format and even to a remote computer over the network.

Now let's take a look at another feature of Carbon Copy Cloner: create special filters that allow you to exclude some files from the clone based on their extension, for example .mkv or .avi, and then movies of this format will not be cloned. This will help save space.

In order not to complicate your life, let's try to manually do some preliminary procedures to make the spare system easier and speed up the cloning process.

It is not necessary to save your entire media library to a system backup: digital photos, music, films, supporting documentation, and so on. And also work files that can weigh more than one gigabyte. You can also refuse "heavy programs" if there is not enough space on the backup disk.

Find Items to be copied in the left window and look carefully, unchecking some of the checkboxes next to unnecessary files. If they are not stored haphazardly on your disk, then most likely these will be the Users/macuser (your username) directories. For example, in this configuration we disable the Calibrie Library and the books it contains. After all, they are already recorded on a separate DVD.

Then in the section on the right Cloning options (Clone mode) select Incremental backups of selected items (incremental “backup” of selected items) this dynamic mode will allow you to transfer only the changed data the next time you update the version of the spare system. The checkbox below Delete items that don’t exist on the source in synchronization mode will not “take with you” old programs and other files that you have not used for a long time.

Protect root-level items on the target will keep you in superuser mode if you are one. And finally, Archive modified and deleted items will allow you to create a separate archive of modified and deleted files. In my opinion, it is better to disable this so as not to waste time.

If Carbon Copy Cloner “gives the go-ahead” - This volume will be bootable, which means there is enough space on the spare disk or flash drive, and this volume will become bootable, you can start.

Any presets you've made will be saved if you click Save Task if you're planning to clone your drive on a specific schedule, like Time Machine. But this is hardly useful for creating a backup Mac OS X.

Click Clone.

How many files are stored on your system drive? It turns out tens of thousands. so the process may take some time: from fifteen minutes to an hour or two. It depends on the amount of information.

Super Duper!

Despite the name, this is perhaps one of the most convenient and popular backup programs created for the Mac OS X platform. The main purpose of the program is to create copies of files in order to quickly restore the system in case of an emergency. The program can create archives of various kinds, up to backup boot images of the system. Switchers from the PC world, accustomed to software like Norton Ghost, Acronis True Image, etc., purchase and install SuperDuper! will receive an almost equivalent replacement for these utilities. Super Duper! - this is too much if you just want to backup your email correspondence, but if you are used to regularly backing up and are serious about the safety of your data, this is perhaps one of the most convenient and simple options.

The functionality of SuperDuper does not cause any fundamental complaints. The main advantage of the program is the ability to create a correct archive image of the entire operating system, which can be easily deployed on a hard drive using the standard Disk Utility included in Mac OS X.

The program will save a lot of time for those who have to deal not with one home computer, but with a whole fleet of machines. Deploying an image in a short time on several computers is definitely more convenient than taking a long time to install the system and configure it on each machine separately.

SuperDuper can create both full and incremental archives, works with editable scripts, can repair permission itself before copying, automatically erase the contents of the destination disk, save settings in a separate file, and much more.

The program interface is simple and will not raise any questions even for an untrained user. Which, however, is typical for most software for Mac. In total, the program offers you four copying options. First, Backup all files: if you are going to create a bootable and correct clone of your system, this is the option you need. An extremely simple and transparent operation for any user. Just specify the partition intended for archiving, the destination disk and click the Copy Now button. The program will require you to enter the administrator password before starting copying. If you do not want to limit yourself to simple copying, but prefer to create an archive image of the system, select “to” in the column instead of the proposed existing partitions Disk image. The program itself will prompt you to select a partition to save the image file, its type and degree of compression.


The second copying option that the program offers us is Sandbox - shared users and applications, and it differs from the first one in that when copying, the program will skip all user files and software from third-party developers, duplicating only the system itself and standard Apple applications. If for some reason this does not suit you, then there is a third option - “Sandox-shared users”, in which SuperDuper will copy the system with all installed programs, but, as in the first case, without the user files.

But the program's capabilities do not end there, and if you want to make your own adjustments to the copying process, select the option - New Copy Script.


By choosing this option, you yourself will determine how exactly the copying process will be carried out, which files and directories will be saved in the backup copy. However, it should be noted that this option is not suitable for a novice user. Before starting copying, you can select additional options that the program offers. Both options for action before the start of copying and after it is completed.

For example, by specifying “Copy Newer Files” in the settings, you will select the incremental copy option, in which the program will add to the existing archive only those files that were created or modified after the last save. By selecting Erase then copy files, you will first clear the destination disk on which you are going to duplicate your information.

If you made a direct copy to another partition or external drive, then after SuperDuper is finished working, you can boot from the system clone you created Restart from (archive name) or make this partition the main one - Set as Startup Disk. You can simply choose to end the program or automatically turn off the computer itself when it finishes running.

But the sun also has spots, and despite the rich possibilities offered by the program, it is worth paying attention to a couple of disadvantages. The program, unlike its PC counterparts, does not provide the user with the opportunity to make a system image by booting from a regular CD, or, conversely, to restore it in the same way. And if the first cannot be called a serious miscalculation, then the second creates certain inconveniences in the case when you have to deal with an already inoperable system.

In addition, the program does not have a Restore function at all. Of course, for recovery you can use the same copy, selecting the archived system image as the source, and the hard drive partition as the destination disk. Or, even easier, use the standard Disk Utility for this. But in any case, to restore the user will have to boot from an external drive with an already working operating system or another partition. There is also no scheduled backup option. However, despite these annoying omissions, the program is simple, reliable and fully performs all the tasks assigned to it.

Redo Backup

This is a LiveCD software. Which is very good, since it boots from a CD. Knows all Mac OS X file systems, including the new 10.8.3 recovery partitions. After booting from the disk, you can create a bootable USB flash drive by selecting Settings -> Create Bootable USB, which is also a good thing. That is, this software can create a complete image of an OS X disk and can save it either to a locally connected USB drive, a flash drive (if there is enough space on it), or even to the network and FTP. He made an archive on ftp, but refused to make a backup on an external USB drive to which TimeMichine was configured, saying that the file system was read-only, and he couldn’t write to HFS+.

Paragon Hard Disk Manager 12 Server

Here's our winner! As always on top!!! I calmly read all the sections of Mac OS X 10.8.3 and just as calmly wrote everything onto an external USB drive with the HFS+ file system, which I also use for TimeMachine :)

After creating a backup, a folder with the name I set for the backup was created on the external drive, but it was impossible to open it in MacOS, since there were no rights, which is also a problem, since even by accident it would be very difficult to erase it.

P.S. I also learned about Stellar Drive Clone http://www.stellarclonedrive.com/ but I couldn’t find it in the public domain anywhere to test it