It provides APFS snapshot support, and has a feature to let you copy Time Machine backups to other disks. Like Carbon Copy Cloner, SuperDuper! is native on Apple Silicon machines. That’s useful if you wish to boot from your external drive, then restore files from Time Machine. The developers of SuperDuper!, Shirt Pocket, note that you can use the same external drive for both Time Machine backups and a SuperDuper! bootable clone.
When I was doing a lot of Mac consulting, I chose SuperDuper! over other solutions because I could be sure that any client would understand how to use it. This is another favorite backup app of mine. SuperDuper! is an inexpensive, powerful, and easy-to-use backup solution.
The user interface makes even complex tasks easy to set up, although it may take novice users a bit of time to figure them out.įinally, if you’re in the middle of a backup and need to use all the resources of your Mac for some other purpose like rendering a video, you can pause a backup and resume later.Ī free 30-day trial of Carbon Copy Cloner is available, and a full license-for your entire household-is only $39.99. It can create Time Machine-like snapshots, and it’s also very speedy in completing backups due to a completely rewritten file copier. You can set up almost any automation or schedule you wish and get notified when tasks are done. Probably the best thing about Carbon Copy Cloner is its flexibility. I just booted from my clone, and then created a “recovery task” to restore all of the information back to my Mac. CCC’s clones saved me from a lot of work every time. As an Apple blogger, I spend a great deal of time experimenting with beta software, and on occasion I’ve completely wiped out my internal storage. This is my personal favorite backup app, and it has saved me several times. The app has been updated constantly as macOS has evolved, adding features that surpass Apple’s own Time Machine utility. The first third-party app we’ll look at is Carbon Copy Cloner 6 (CCC) from Bombich Software, a powerful and respected Mac backup utility. Installer now shows 15 min to go, I shall soon see what happens next.Carbon Copy Cloner’s user interface is clean and easy to use. The problems started when I attempted to boot from the CCC backup of macOS 11.2.3ĭoes this mean that one cannot boot a device from a bootable backup that is an earlier version of macOS than the one running on the internal drive? If so, I've been caught out. Let me just say that the initial process was not flawed in any way and is recommended by Bombich but I never got as far as launching the CCC app.
Installation progressing including a macOS Update which occurred in the middle of the process. Now booted from USB thumb drive with bootable Big Sur installer. I have given up on the option of Restoring on line due to 4 hr estimated time. I was able to access Recovery and used DU to run repairs but upon restart same issue persists. I was unable to boot from my TM backup, also made yesterday prior to updating, the Option screen does not even display TM as a boot option. While attempting to perform the process I described in post #2 I found that I was unable to boot from yesterday's CCC backup made prior to the macOS 11.3 update.Īfter attempting to re boot with the 11.3 internal drive I found i could not keep the MBP running for more than 30 secs or so before it would reboot again.Įverything I have tried resulted in a re boot after login. Please continue to make Time Machine backups. Messy and a bit complicated but until Apple provides a fix for their replicator, that's the only way we can create a bootable clone. Afterward, you will have a clone of 11.3 which will boot. You will then have to boot with that drive (which contains the pre-boot info from 11.2.1) and allow the update to 11.3 to be installed to the drive. The drive will still be bootable but will contain the pre-boot information from Big Sur 11.2.1. The only work around is to keep the CCC drive intact (do not erase it) and then allow CCC to copy the new "Data" portion of Big Sur 11.3 to the drive. You will be left with a copy of your "Data" portion, however, it will contain no pre-boot information and therefore will not be bootable. CCC will only copy the "Data" portion of your Macintosh HD and not the System portion. If you erase your CCC drive and then expect CCC to replicate Big Sur 11.3 to the newly erased drive, it will not work. This method no longer works using CCC 5.1.26 with Big Sur 11.3.
In other words allowing CCC to make a new clone of the latest version of Big Sur.
Prevously the way to make a new clone using CCC and Big Sur was to wipe the CCC external drive and start over.