Mastering the Process: How to Clone a Hard Drive or Solid State Drive on a Mac

Introduction

You will be using Carbon Copy Cloner for this guide. Cloning a Hard Drive or a Solid State Drive is about as easy as it gets with CCC. Sadly, CCC is only available to macOS users and is not compatible with Linux or Windows. Sometime soon I will create a guide for Windows and Linux users.

What you need

Parts

• 2.5″ Hard Drive Enclosure with USB 3.0 Cable$12.99Buy

1. Step 1 Downloading Carbon Copy Cloner
   • Download Carbon Copy Cloner from the Bombich Software Website.
   • Install it onto your macOS based computer. You will need administrator privileges later, as well as to move CCC into the Applications folder on your computer.
   • You can download it here.
   • I used CCC 5 for this process and if the user interface changes in the future I will promptly update the guide.
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2. Step 2 Preparing for Cloning – Source Disk
   • Once you are at the main screen of Carbon Copy Cloner, insert your SATA based SSD/SSHD/HDD into your enclosure and plug it into your Mac.
   • Under Source Disk, click your current HD/SSD. For example, my current drive is named “Macintosh SSD”.
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4. Step 3 Preparing for Cloning – Target Disk
   • Next, select your Target Disk. My target disk is named “Ubuntu”. Your disk can have any type of name ex. “Pie”.
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5. Step 4 Cloning
   • Lastly, click Clone.
   • Enter your administrator Username
   • Enter your administrator Password
   • Then finally, click OK
   • This process can take up to 4+ hours depending on your disk size, so have some patience!
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 CONCLUSION

After you finish, install your new Hard Drive/Solid State Drive and test if it works. If it does not, try cloning again. If it still does not work after that, leave a comment and I will try my best to support you.