#CLONE MAC HARD DRIVE TO SSD SUPERDUPER SOFTWARE#
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OP asked what if anything are we losing without bootable clones. If you were making your backups bootable in case of hardware failure, then that’s an extra logistical chore that you can now retire from your backup strategy.'

#CLONE MAC HARD DRIVE TO SSD SUPERDUPER MAC#

Lacking a Mac whose internal storage I was willing to damage to prove this, I contacted the authoritative experts within Apple in April and they unambiguously confirmed that that is the actual result – you can’t boot an Apple Silicon Mac if the internal storage has died.Īpple has made clear that they will continue to support “external boot” on Apple Silicon Macs, but the reality is that it will be more limited in what it can do. What does all of that mean? In theory it means that Apple Silicon Macs cannot boot at all if the internal storage fails. The lightweight operating system on that volume (“iBoot”) evaluates the integrity of the boot assets and authenticates the OS on that external device, then proceeds with the boot process from that external device. A footnote at the very end of the document notes that, regardless of where the boot device is physically located, the boot process is always facilitated by a volume on the internal storage. What did come as a surprise, however, was a very subtle logistical change noted in a Product Security document published in February(link is external) regarding the new Apple Silicon Macs. ' An Apple Silicon Mac won’t boot if the internal storage has failed

#CLONE MAC HARD DRIVE TO SSD SUPERDUPER SOFTWARE#

Here’s a different CCC article from May: Beyond Bootable Backups: Adapting recovery strategies for an evolving platform | Carbon Copy Cloner | Bombich Software

#CLONE MAC HARD DRIVE TO SSD SUPERDUPER PLUS#

It’s why I have a Mac mini and a MacBook Air, and all of my important files live in Dropbox, plus multiple backups.

The only real defense is a second device, which isn’t as good as a bootable clone, and will be cost-prohibitive for some people. Of course, supply chain issues could make it take longer, but in the end, there’s not much we can do about it. My recent experience with Apple service has been that it takes a day for them to get the device, a day to fix it, and a day to return it. I would guess it will happen even less on Apple Silicon-based Macs, again due to thermal reasons. It could happen to me or you, even if we’re statistically anomalies, that won’t prevent it from being frustrating, but I suspect it will happen a lot less over time. I suspect it will eventually happen to a prominent podcaster or YouTuber who will get fantastic news coverage from the tech press, and lots of articles. SuperDuper and Carbon Copy Cloner both can make bootable clones.Ī 2010 iMac and a 2020/2021 Mac are very different things, because SSDs, having no moving parts and generating almost no heat, are much less likely to die as HDDs did. Since the bootable clone era appears to be over What’s best practice to manage this risk without a bootable clone? SSDs have different probability of failure than HDDs, but some of us will remember MPU cofounder Katie getting an MBP whose internal storage died suddenly and had to be replaced. Now we can only get MBPs that turn into paving slabs if the internal storage fails. In summary, in the olden days, having an MBP + bootable clone meant you could instantly recover from internal storage failure and continue working, buy a replacement part in your own time and replace it when convenient. Instead you have to send it for repair and do without it till it gets back. There’s no way to continue to use the MBP in the short term in the case of an internal storage failure. The situation could be much the same with a new MBP that can’t boot from external storage. While the machine was waiting for the warranty repair I wasn’t allowed to take it home and use it with a bootable clone. Those supply chain issues were apparently the cause of the second failure as well, since manufacturing issues were reducing quality when I had the HDD replaced the first time.

I could have paid for a different HDD and received it right away, but the warranty repair required a specific part that was experiencing supply chain issues.

In the case of the second failure, it took weeks to get the replacement HDD. My 2010 iMac had 2 failed internal HDDs under warranty. However, with a bootable clone on hand, it was always possible to boot from the clone right away if there was any failure of the internal storage. Part of the process involved cloning HDD to SDD. Years ago we opened up 3 family MBPs, removed the HDDs and replaced with SDDs for increased speed and storage. Since the bootable clone era appears to be over, I’d like to ask fellow MPU members what if anything we are losing.

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