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
- 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.
- 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”.
- 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”.
- 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!
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.
