Cloning APFS SSD to disk image on HD?

[macmesser]

I have a 240GB boot drive on my CMP 5,1 running High Sierra which is about 90% filled and which I want to replace with a 500GB external SSD. Can I create an APFS disk image on a hard drive, clone the old boot drive to the disk image and then clone the disk image to the 500GB SSD?

 

[chabig]

Don’t bother with a disk image at all. Clone the HD to the SSD. Set the SSD as the boot drive in System Preferences and you’re done.

 

[macmesser]

Thanks for reply. Will there be a problem with cloning the smaller 240GB SSD to the 500GB SSD? I want the full 500GB partition on the new boot drive. I was planning on resizing an image of the 240GB SSD to 500GB and then cloning the resized image to the SSD.

 

[mikzn]

no issue with CCC - carbon copy cloner - done it many times when upgrading SSD and used the HDD for the back up - most recently update SSD / Mojave to back up on HDD and then migrate info to new SSD

 

[chabig]

It’s the files that get moved during a clone. The size of the volume doesn’t matter.

 

[th0masp]

Yeah that should work with CCC. No need to deal with partition images and the like.

I have a CCC clone job set up from my AFPS system SSD to a HFS+ formatted backup disk and cloning a bootable volume works both ways.
Btw. in my tests formatting an external spinning drive (USB3) with AFPS caused unbearably slow disk performance. All good after going back to HFS.

 

[macmesser]

It’s the files that get moved during a clone. The size of the volume doesn’t matter.

no issue with CCC - carbon copy cloner - done it many times when upgrading SSD and used the HDD for the back up - most recently update SSD / Mojave to back up on HDD and then migrate info to new SSD

Thanks again. Any issues with going from APFS to HFS and vice versa? The large SSD is HFS Mountain Lion used for running old programs. The smaller SSD is present High Sierra boot drive. I want to repurpose each to the other one's use.

 

[mikzn]

Thanks again. Any issues with going from APFS to HFS and vice versa? The large SSD is HFS Mountain Lion used for running old programs. The smaller SSD is present High Sierra boot drive. I want to repurpose each to the other one's use.

with CCC had no issues cloning from APFS to a HFS / HDD - on the new install I think migration assistant took care of the migration back from HFS to APFS

 

[macmesser]

with CCC had no issues cloning from APFS to a HFS / HDD - on the new install I think migration assistant took care of the migration back from HFS to APFS

Thanks. CCC is a great utility.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:

Did you get the job done?
All you have to do is use CCC to clone the old drive to the new one.
Just like that.
It's that easy.

 

[macmesser]

OP:

Did you get the job done?
All you have to do is use CCC to clone the old drive to the new one.
Just like that.
It's that easy.

I'm finishing it up now. I made two partitions on an internal HD and cloned my SSDs to them. Now I just have to clone the partitions back, each one to the other SSD. The rub is that my High Sierra boot drive is one I want to clone to a bigger SSD. So I needed a bootable clone of it to boot from to perform the operation. Other than that I should have no issues. Thanks again.
[doublepost=1547650867][/doublepost]

Yeah that should work with CCC. No need to deal with partition images and the like.

I have a CCC clone job set up from my AFPS system SSD to a HFS+ formatted backup disk and cloning a bootable volume works both ways.
Btw. in my tests formatting an external spinning drive (USB3) with AFPS caused unbearably slow disk performance. All good after going back to HFS.

I'm swapping systems between two SSDs, one of which is my High Sierra boot drive, so I did need the clone but I didn't use an image. I used a bootable partition on an internal HD. Bonus was CCC offered to create a new recovery partition, which I needed.

 

[Fishrrman]

"The rub is that my High Sierra boot drive is one I want to clone to a bigger SSD. "

There is NO ISSUE here.
There is nothing "additional" or extra you have to do.

CCC will clone from a smaller drive to a larger one -- it doesn't care about size.

You can even clone from a 1tb drive to a 500gb drive -- IF you have used only, say, 300gb.

The drive SIZE is of no importance.
What IS important is HOW MUCH SPACE has been used up on the drive.

Got it?

I think you have gone out of your way to do all of the above "for nothing".

All you really needed to do was connect the smaller drive to the larger one and... clone away.

 

[macmesser]

"The rub is that my High Sierra boot drive is one I want to clone to a bigger SSD. "

There is NO ISSUE here.
There is nothing "additional" or extra you have to do.

CCC will clone from a smaller drive to a larger one -- it doesn't care about size.

You can even clone from a 1tb drive to a 500gb drive -- IF you have used only, say, 300gb.

The drive SIZE is of no importance.
What IS important is HOW MUCH SPACE has been used up on the drive.

Got it?

I think you have gone out of your way to do all of the above "for nothing".

All you really needed to do was connect the smaller drive to the larger one and... clone away.

Thanks and I do understand. My point was that I have 2 SSDs and I can't immediately clone one to the other without losing the system I clone to, unless I make a copy first. So I made a copy volume for each on HD partitions, just in case something goes wrong. As it is, there is a problem with the High Sierra SSD as detected by Disk Utility and Drive Genius.

node_val: object(did 0X3):invalid children(-2)

I will make a new backup and try to fix. Probably I will need to reinstall (dreading) as some cursory repairs didn't solve it. Unfortunately I formatted my intended new and larger boot SSD as APFS and now can't go back. I think I'd have been better off with HFS, but at least it will be Mojave-ready.