Clone iMac M3 to iMac M3 Sonoma

[stosopolis]

I work at a school and just got 25 iMacs for a computer lab. iMac 24-inch, 2023 Apple M3 16 GB Memory Sonoma 14.3

I setup one computer with usernames, applications, etc. and I wanted to clone that computer to all other computers one at a time. For many years (Since the Firewire days and up until now with Thunderbolt) I have done this by connecting the main computer to the computer I want to clone to. I would Target Disk Mode (Hold T) when booting up the computer I want to refresh. The computer that goes into Target mode would show up as an External and I could then Erase it with Disk Utility, load up SuperDuper and clone the computer.

Holding down T no longer works with these current computers for Target Disk Mode. I ended up purchasing AweClone and cloned the main computer to an External SSD. After plugging in the External SSD to the computer I want to refresh, I press and hold the power button and the External SSD pops up and I am able to select it as the boot up drive. After logging External SSD, the Internal Hard Drive shows up as Internal which does not allow me to Erase it with Disk Utility.

Is there any way to make the Internal HD show up as an External? Is there a way to Target Disk Mode on these new computers? Is there a better option to clone these computers from one computer? The process of setting up every single computer (Usernames, Applications, etc.) will be very time consuming so I'm hoping I don't have to do that.

Thanks for the help!

 

[Mr_Brightside_@]

Transfer files between a Mac with Apple silicon and another Mac

On a Mac with Apple silicon, use Mac Sharing to connect to another Mac and transfer files.

support.apple.com

 

[Fishrrman]

Can Apple Configurator 2 help with this?
(I've never had a need to do what the OP is doing)

 

[stosopolis]

Transfer files between a Mac with Apple silicon and another Mac

On a Mac with Apple silicon, use Mac Sharing to connect to another Mac and transfer files.

support.apple.com

Thank you but I don't think copying the files over will clone everything. Usernames, Applications, etc. I will try it tho and report back.

 

[stosopolis]

Can Apple Configurator 2 help with this?
(I've never had a need to do what the OP is doing)

Hmm. I will look into this.

 

[Mr_Brightside_@]

Thank you but I don't think copying the files over will clone everything. Usernames, Applications, etc. I will try it tho and report back.

Come to think of it, you are almost certainly right. If you've got one iMac set up the way you like it, get Carbon Copy Cloner instead. Once cloned, connect it to each of the target Macs and during setup you can restore from a mac. Choose this then select the external drive. If it's SSD it shouldn't take too long.

 

[chabig]

I think the way to accomplish what you want is to use Migration Assistant the first time you turn on each iMac. If you've already done something to them, Erase all content and settings (in System Settings) and start over.

(Mr._Brightside_@ beat me by 1 minute but we're saying the same thing)

 

[stosopolis]

Come to think of it, you are almost certainly right. If you've got one iMac set up the way you like it, get Carbon Copy Cloner instead. Once cloned, connect it to each of the target Macs and during setup you can restore from a mac. Choose this then select the external drive. If it's SSD it shouldn't take too long.

The problem is I cant Target the macs. The Internal does not show up as an External to erase and clone.

 

[stosopolis]

I think the way to accomplish what you want is to use Migration Assistant the first time you turn on each iMac. If you've already done something to them, Erase all content and settings (in System Settings) and start over.

(Mr._Brightside_@ beat me by 1 minute but we're saying the same thing)

Ahh yes. I will try this and report.

 

[chabig]

That will work. I didn't specify but I think you know that you'll migrate from the computer you've already set up. At the end you'll have 25 identical machines.

 

[okkibs]

You can no longer clone on Apple Silicon Macs. These devices have inherently different software architecture as to how the device hardware is initialized and MacOS boots. Early on with M1 Apple unfortunately didn't lock it down enough so people trying to clone or wipe their internal disks ended up with devices that couldn't boot a MacOS installer anymore due to missing firmware that's now stored on the internal SSD.

The internal disk is no longer a disk you can just wipe, this would break an ASi Mac to the point where you'd either have to restore with the Apple Configurator or bring it in for servicing. You really do not want to use this traditional way of cloning a device, imagine these Macs as supersized iPhones that happen to boot MacOS instead of iOS.

Target disk mode still exists in a way that is compatible with these changes, you can launch it from the recovery mode after authenticating with the admin account. However, it merely offers a network share. It's probably most helpful for file rescue.

Migration Assistant will certainly work, though some software -less software these days, maybe the Adobe creative cloud- might require a reinstallation and certainly reauthentication.

If you are going to use it make sure you create the first account on a new Mac with a user name you won't be using later on. Then launch the assistant from that (admin) user and choose to restore the account where you set up everything (as well as apps, settings and all other files/options). As long as the account name doesn't exist yet the restore will be simple. If already existing account name were the same as the user to be restored the assistant would run into a conflict.

What Apple would probably like you to do instead is use the Apple School Manager and Apple Configurator. It's what allows deployment to easily scale beyond a dozen Macs to hundreds. It allows you to assign a Mac to your school directly at the time of purchase and once it boots up for the first time it connects to Apple and finds your org's information and sets up automatically according to that with policies that you define beforehand. But it won't install any third party apps that aren't in Apple's store and it's more useful for schools handing out iPads to their students and want to make sure these devices only run approved software and are secured properly.

At least for iPhones and iPads this is the way to go, for the time being MacOS isn't as restricted.

To sum this up, I'd use Migration Assistant. I would not use a third party cloning tool as these will not be compatible or have a restricted feature set, or perhaps just use Apple's built-in features under the hood anyways. I wouldn't trust them not to break an installation either. With Apple I find it best to use Apple's tools when possible, often instabilities and problems on MacOS stem from third party software. (That's not to say that MacOS isn't quite buggy on its own...)

 

[stosopolis]

I think the way to accomplish what you want is to use Migration Assistant the first time you turn on each iMac. If you've already done something to them, Erase all content and settings (in System Settings) and start over.

(Mr._Brightside_@ beat me by 1 minute but we're saying the same thing)

This worked! Thank you!

 

[stosopolis]

You can no longer clone on Apple Silicon Macs. These devices have inherently different software architecture as to how the device hardware is initialized and MacOS boots. Early on with M1 Apple unfortunately didn't lock it down enough so people trying to clone or wipe their internal disks ended up with devices that couldn't boot a MacOS installer anymore due to missing firmware that's now stored on the internal SSD.

The internal disk is no longer a disk you can just wipe, this would break an ASi Mac to the point where you'd either have to restore with the Apple Configurator or bring it in for servicing. You really do not want to use this traditional way of cloning a device, imagine these Macs as supersized iPhones that happen to boot MacOS instead of iOS.

Target disk mode still exists in a way that is compatible with these changes, you can launch it from the recovery mode after authenticating with the admin account. However, it merely offers a network share. It's probably most helpful for file rescue.

Migration Assistant will certainly work, though some software -less software these days, maybe the Adobe creative cloud- might require a reinstallation and certainly reauthentication.

If you are going to use it make sure you create the first account on a new Mac with a user name you won't be using later on. Then launch the assistant from that (admin) user and choose to restore the account where you set up everything (as well as apps, settings and all other files/options). As long as the account name doesn't exist yet the restore will be simple. If already existing account name were the same as the user to be restored the assistant would run into a conflict.

What Apple would probably like you to do instead is use the Apple School Manager and Apple Configurator. It's what allows deployment to easily scale beyond a dozen Macs to hundreds. It allows you to assign a Mac to your school directly at the time of purchase and once it boots up for the first time it connects to Apple and finds your org's information and sets up automatically according to that with policies that you define beforehand. But it won't install any third party apps that aren't in Apple's store and it's more useful for schools handing out iPads to their students and want to make sure these devices only run approved software and are secured properly.

At least for iPhones and iPads this is the way to go, for the time being MacOS isn't as restricted.

To sum this up, I'd use Migration Assistant. I would not use a third party cloning tool as these will not be compatible or have a restricted feature set, or perhaps just use Apple's built-in features under the hood anyways. I wouldn't trust them not to break an installation either. With Apple I find it best to use Apple's tools when possible, often instabilities and problems on MacOS stem from third party software. (That's not to say that MacOS isn't quite buggy on its own...)

Thank you!