Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Carbon Copy Cloner 6, not copying all applications

sparkie7

sparkie7

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Oct 17, 2008
2,505
273
Just bought CCC6, and did a copy of my main drive on Mac Studio to a volume on the same internal drive. However on checking the Applications folder on the Destination volume it's only copied 12 items out of the 48 items on the Source drive. What am I missing? – thought CCC was supposed to copy ALL applications and files from the Source > Destination
 
Just did a clone of my Mac Studio boot system/drive onto another volume with CCC6. Copy task said "The backup completed successfully".

However, on selecting Startup Disk in System Preferences, the other volume I cloned from the Startup doesn't show and on start up with Option key held down doesn't come up

Any ideas/tips to back up the boot drive properly?

Also, best method/practice to copy a bootable drive on an external SSD, such as a Samsung T7

TIA
 
sparkie7 said:
Any ideas/tips to back up the boot drive properly?
Click to expand...
If you're trying to protect yourself from data loss, you've already done it right. Making a bootable clone is old school, and modern Macs don't work that way any more. Your backup only needs to contain your data. The system on your Studio is signed and sealed, and cannot be corrupted or broken without rendering the machine unbootable. And if your internal SSD fails, the machine will also not boot.

Read this article:

eclecticlight.co

Rethinking recovery and re-installing macOS

How useful is the traditional panacea of re-installing macOS in Big Sur? And is it worth maintaining an external recovery disk to deal with problems?
eclecticlight.co eclecticlight.co

"Given that an external disk attached to an M1 Mac can’t provide Recovery, and lacks key tools such as Startup Security Utility, which can only be run from the primary copy of recoveryOS on the internal SSD, it’s hard to see any value in making an external backup bootable, or in trying to create an external recovery disk. One common reason in the past for preferring a custom recovery disk was to include file system repair tools, such as Disk Warrior and Drive Genius. Currently, no third-party disk utilities can work independently on APFS disks, and those which do so at present only use the same tools available to the user in Recovery mode.

Best practice for an M1 Mac is to ensure that it’s fully backed up, Data and external volumes only, to separable external storage. Should a problem arise which require Recovery, then it should be started up in primary Recovery mode. If necessary, it can then have its macOS container erased, a fresh copy installed, and migration performed from the backup. Cloning to or installing macOS on a backup disk serves no useful purpose, and just wastes 15 GB of space."
 
  • Like
  • Love
Reactions: KaliYoni, DotCom2 and Nigel Goodman
Off-the-wall suggestion:
Try using the latest downloadable copy of SuperDuper instead.
Then, erase the drive and start over.
SD is free to download and use for 30 days.

Off-the-wall suggestion #2:
Try booting to startup options --> recovery.
Then, try an OS install onto the cloned backup.
That -might- be able to replace the defective (non-bootable) copy of the OS that's on there now with a new one that IS bootable...
 
sparkie7 said:
App Store
Automator
Books
Calculator
Chess
Contacts
Dictionary
Facetime
Find My
Click to expand...
That's to be expected. Read this: https://bombich.com/blog/2021/05/19...dapting-recovery-strategies-evolving-platform
In particular: "When CCC creates a Standard Backup of your startup disk, it's backing up all of your data, all of your applications, and all of your system settings. That's everything about your Mac that is customized, and that's everything that you need to get back to productivity on either your Mac or on a replacement Mac."
The system-included apps don't get backed up because they get restored when you reinstall the operating system, and CCC cannot make a fully bootable clone of Monterey.
This is how you'd use a CCC backup with a Mac running macOS Big Sur or later: https://bombich.com/kb/ccc6/how-restore-from-your-backup#install_then_migrate
 
  • Like
Reactions: arefbe, kitKAC, chabig and 4 others
chabig said:
Cloning to or installing macOS on a backup disk serves no useful purpose, and just wastes 15 GB of space."
Click to expand...

Generally yes. However I have found it useful to install just the OS on an external SSD. If there are problems with my internal boot drive this gives me some additional options.
 
HDFan said:
Generally yes. However I have found it useful to install just the OS on an external SSD. If there are problems with my internal boot drive this gives me some additional options.
Click to expand...
Like what? Recovery mode is specifically built in for the highly unlikely case that the internal boot drive develops a problem. There is really nothing useful that you can do from an external SSD.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ignatius345 and chrfr
I always figured I wanted a bootable external SSD in the event the operating system on the primary internal drive became unstable or had trouble booting after doing a security update or another type of update to either the included apps or any third party apps. Or after installing a completely new app.

It would allow me to quickly restore the OS to the status before the attempted update or installation, and then try again.

Maybe what I'm trying to avoid is a worst case scenario where I end up needing to do a clean install of the OS over an internet connection. Have any of you guys ever needed to do that? Maybe it wouldn't take as long as I'm thinking it might.

But maybe I'm also worrying unnecessarily about the stability of the newer Mac operating systems. If sufficient safeguards are built into it, becoming unstable, corrupted or acting "wonky" after updates or installs just wouldn't be very likely at all.

"Recovery Mode" may be all that's really needed except under the most extreme and unlikely cases. It might be time to stop "clinging" to the perceived safety of a bootable clone. I'm still on Catalina mainly for that reason. Bootable clones are just so quick and easy to do (and update) before Apple changed that.
 
chabig:
"There is really nothing useful that you can do from an external SSD."

Depends on what you wish to do.

I've found that booting from an external makes it possible to do "surgery" on my internal drive that would be difficult to do when booted normally.

If things aren't right with the internal drive, one can boot from an external drive and completely erase, if need be. Yes, you can do this with internet recovery, but the range of operations/apps with internet recovery is very limited. Not so when booting from an external drive.

If you have a really old Mac that doesn't do internet recovery, booting from an external drive may be the only way to revive it.

However, I'm posting from the perspective of still being back on the Intel-based Mac OS. The new m-series Macs have built-in restrictions that thwart this.
 
  • Like
Reactions: beachmusic
Mm.. I'm still on iMac intel. I'm running/installing a new VENTURA on an external SSD. It's read and I will erase my internal SSD on imac (still running Mojave) and will clone the Ventura on my bootdrive on mac. This will still work on intel right?

So on m1 and onwards this isnt possible anymore? Having an external boot OSX specially for like only crypto was a nice feature.
 
I can second that, even though I was using SuperDuper! and not Carbon Copy Cloner. I installed a copy of my current OS on an external SSD. When I cloned it over, it just wasn’t right. So I redownloaded the installer, and installed my current OS while the original build was running and that fixed everything.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back