Cloning Macpro 2014, where to find cheap SSD / HDD with 500,28 GB capacity to clone the buit-in NVMe?

[rin67630]

Hi,
i previously had a MBA2012 with a Built-in SSD listing 500,11 GB on the DiskUtility that was very easily cloned to almost every regular HDD / SSD listed for 512GB, which had the same Apple-capacity of 500,11GB.
The NVMe of the MBP2014 is however slighly larger with an Apple Disk Utility listed capacity of 500,28 GB so a dd cloning is failing.
Which HDD / SSDs on the bulk disk market do you know, that have the same capacity?
Thank you for your advice.

 

[tragicwinding]

I want to recommend an alternative approach to your issue. Instead of trying to find a drive with the exact same capacity, you could consider using a slightly larger drive for the cloning process. Most 512GB SSDs should provide more than enough space to clone your current NVMe drive. After the cloning process, you can then partition the drive if there's any unused space left.

Alternatively, you might consider using a software solution that allows for cloning to a smaller drive by excluding certain data during the cloning process. Tools like Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper can help with this.

 

[rin67630]

I want to recommend an alternative approach to your issue. Instead of trying to find a drive with the exact same capacity, you could consider using a slightly larger drive for the cloning process. Most 512GB SSDs should provide more than enough space to clone your current NVMe drive. After the cloning process, you can then partition the drive if there's any unused space left.

Alternatively, you might consider using a software solution that allows for cloning to a smaller drive by excluding certain data during the cloning process. Tools like Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper can help with this.

Thank you, but that does not solve the problem. Most "512GB" SSDs have exactly 500,11GB seen from a Mac Disk Utility. They are just too small. Slightly larger ones like 524GB or 640GB are pretty uncommon.

I want to clone the whole disk carrying several partitions with different file systems, so the usual Mac solutions do not fit.

 

[arw]

Not tested personally in this exact way, but:
You could shrink one (the last?) partition by ~200MB in DiskUtility.app and leave that free space unallocated.
Then get the number (end) of the last block with fdisk [*].
Then make use of the dd count parameter to stop cloning after said block. [count: Copy only n input blocks] [*]

dd on entire disk, but do not want empty portion

I have a disk, say /dev/sda. Here is fdisk -l: Disk /dev/sda: 64.0 GB, 64023257088 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7783 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Sector size (

serverfault.com

Or, if it’s only for transfer, buy a cheap 1 TB spinner.

 

[Fishrrman]

Get this:

SAMSUNG T7 Shield 1TB, up to 1050MB/s, USB 3.2 Gen2, Rugged, IP65 Rated, for Photographers, Content Creators and Gaming, Portable External Solid State Drive (MU-PE1T0S/AM, 2022), Black

Samsung T7 Shield Portable SSD delivers high performance on-the-go, not matter the terrain. It has an IP65 rating for water1 and dust2 resistance, with Dynamic Thermal Guard to manage heat control. Transfer huge files instantly. USB 3.2 Gen 2 and PCIe® NVMe achieve soaring sequential read/write ...

www.amazon.com

 

[tragicwinding]

Thank you, but that does not solve the problem. Most "512GB" SSDs have exactly 500,11GB seen from a Mac Disk Utility. They are just too small. Slightly larger ones like 524GB or 640GB are pretty uncommon.

I want to clone the whole disk carrying several partitions with different file systems, so the usual Mac solutions do not fit.

If cloning the whole disk without excluding any data is a must, you might want to consider using an SSD with a larger capacity than 640GB. Even though this might initially seem like an overkill, it could save you the headache of dealing with space constraints.

Another option could be to use a disk imaging tool that compresses the data during the cloning process. However, please note that this might cause some issues depending on the file systems used in your partitions.

 

[rin67630]

If cloning the whole disk without excluding any data is a must, you might want to consider using an SSD with a larger capacity than 640GB. Even though this might initially seem like an overkill, it could save you the headache of dealing with space constraints.

Another option could be to use a disk imaging tool that compresses the data during the cloning process. However, please note that this might cause some issues depending on the file systems used in your partitions.

I have now cloned on a 750GB HDD. It's just a backup after all...