Different Ways to Clone a Mac hard drive to Another Mac
Cloning the Mac hard drive allows you to create a backup of all the data you can make bootable. When you clone your Mac and connect its disk to another Mac, you need to reboot and carry where you left off earlier. Cloning also protects your data from losing accidentally and prevents your device against potential problems.
A clone of your Mac allows you to recover files from a failing system. It is always a better choice to clone your Mac hard drive when you want to upgrade your Mac with a new SSD. In this article, we will provide you with different ways to clone a Mac hard drive to another Mac.
Why You Should Clone Your Mac Drive?
Before you learn methods to clone a Mac hard drive to another Mac, it is important to know why you should clone your Mac drive. There are several reasons why you should clone your Mac drive. Some of these are:
- Backup: Cloning the Mac hard drive is one of the simplest ways to create a backup of your important files, apps, and settings. If any data loss occurs on your drive, you can switch to cloned drive and restore all the files or even continue using that drive without losing any data.
- Upgrade: If you want to upgrade your Mac’s hard drive or SSD, you can clone your Mac’s existing drive. This allows you to reinstall all your applications and settings to a new device quickly and easily.
- Migration to another device: If you are planning to switch to a new Mac, you can clone the existing drive to transfer all your files, apps, and settings to the new device.
How to Clone a Mac Hard Drive to another Mac?
There are different ways by which you can clone your Mac hard drive. But before you start cloning your Mac, we advise you to delete all the unnecessary files from your Mac. Deleting useless files will save space on the external hard drive and time to clone your Mac hard drive. Now let’s check different ways to clone a Mac hard drive to another Mac:
Method 01: Clone Mac Hard Drive Using Disk Utility
The Mac in-built Disk Utility tool allows you to clone your Mac drive. You have to use the Restore option to save all the data of your hard drive on another hard disk or Mac device. You can also use this option to recover previous disk images or stored files that were lost and were earlier stored on your hard drive. Go through the following steps to clone a Mac hard drive using Disk Utility:
- First, you need to connect an external storage drive with sufficient space to your Mac.
- Now, go to Applications > Utilities folder and then open Disk Utility.
- Select the Mac hard drive that you need to clone from the list of volumes that appear on the left side of your screen.
- Click on File Menu and select New Image > “Disk name“, then select the location where you want to save the disk image.
- Select the “read/write” option next to Image Format and click the “Save” button.
- After the successful creation of the disk image, select the external hard drive and click the “Restore” button from the top.
- Drag and drop the disk image and the external hard drive in the “Source” and “Destination” fields.
- Once done, click the “Restore” button to confirm your selection.
The time to clone your Mac hard drive using Disk Utility depends on the size of your hard drive and the amount of data you are transferring. Once you are done with the above steps, you will have access to the clone of your Mac hard drive on the external hard drive.
Method 02: Clone Mac Hard Drive Using Time Machine
You can also clone your Mac hard drive using Apple Time Machine. All you have to do is:
- Connect your external storage drive to your Mac and open System Preferences.
- Click on Time Machine and then click on the “Select Backup Disk” option.
- Now, select the external drive that you want to use for backup and click “Use Disk.”
- Wait till the Time Machine completes the initial backup of your Mac hard drive. Once the backup is created, turn off your Mac and disconnect the Mac’s external drive.
- After that, replace the existing hard drive of your Mac with the new one and connect the external hard drive to your Mac.
- Connect the external drive to your Mac and turn ON your Mac while pressing the Option key to enter Startup Manager.
- Locate and click on the external hard drive where you have created the Time Machine backup and click “Continue.”
- At last, go through the on-screen instructions to complete the Restore process.
Once the process is completed, you will have access to a fully functional clone of your Mac hard drive on the new drive or SSD.
How to Recover Lost Data on Mac Hard Drive?
Many users encounter loss of data while cloning their Mac hard drives. If you ever found that any data is deleted from your hard drive while cloning it, you can use a professional data recovery tool to get deleted data back. There are several third-party Mac data recovery software programs available online that you can use to restore deleted files. You can use Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Mac to get your deleted documents, photos, videos, audio, and other data files in no time. It even supports the recovery of data deleted from booting or non-booting Mac devices.
Check the following Step-by-Step instructions to know how to recover lost data using Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Mac:
- First, you need to download and install the Mac data recovery software on your Mac device.
- Launch the software and from the “Select What to Recover” window, select the type of files that you need to recover and click Next.
- Now from the “Recover From” window, select the location where your deleted file was earlier stored and click the Scan button.
- Once scanning gets completed, preview the recoverable files and select the files that you need to recover. Click the “Recover” button to save selected data on your Mac.
Wrapping Up
Hope, the above-mentioned different ways to clone a Mac hard drive to another Mac help you to transfer all your data, apps, and other files to any new storage drive. Cloning the Mac hard drive creates a backup of your drive that you can use in case of emergencies. Each method to clone the Mac hard drive has its own advantages and disadvantages, select the best method as per your specific needs and preferences.
If any data loss occurs while cloning the Mac drive, you can use tools like Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Mac to restore your deleted files. The recovery software is available in multiple versions, just check and select the one that best suits your requirement.