Cloning

[ket.]

I would like to clone my iMac to an external HD.
1. Do I have to use a 3rd party app and if so are there security/privacy issues with that?
2.Once I have cloned my iMac am I safe to clean off my iMac
3. Can I leave my cloned iMac external plugged into my iMac and run both my iMac HD and the clone external HD at the same time?
The reason I want to do this ( if it helps with answering) is that my iMac is nearly full and I don't really want to delete anything so would prefer just to keep it as is, move it to a separate drive and hopefully start with a clean empty disk on my iMac, but be able to access everything on the external whenever I need anything.
Thanks for your help!

 

[Apple_Robert]

Carbon Copy Cloner and SuperDuper are two of the best third party cloners. I have found CCC to work a lot better and faster than the built in Time Machine in many ways.

Carbon Copy Cloner | macOS Backup Software | Bombich Software

bombich.com

SuperDuper!

In regards to backups, I would make at least 2 backups on different drives just in case one backup didn't go as expected or one of the drives unexpectedly failed or refused to mount for some reason.

Once you have made confirmed backups, you can clean up your Mac, by manually deleting clutter you don't want, or wiping the drive and then restoring only those programs and personal files you want etc.

You can leave the backup drives connected to your Mac if you wish. I backup to a Time Capsule, and then have CCC as a backup of my backup, as well as another manual backup drive that I connect once a month for a secondary Time Machine backup.

 

[ket.]

Thank you Apple_Robert. I also have a time machine backup for my iMac. Now if I clone to an external and wipe my iMac clean i.m guessing I will need to start a fresh new time machine as well? Also do continue to add backups to my cloned external how do I do that?
When the Clone external is attached can I use files off of their just as if they were in my iMac for example for iMovie?

Also when you use CCC or super duper do they gain access to all your files etc.?

 

[Apple_Robert]

Thank you Apple_Robert. I also have a time machine backup for my iMac. Now if I clone to an external and wipe my iMac clean i.m guessing I will need to start a fresh new time machine as well? Also do continue to add backups to my cloned external how do I do that?
When the Clone external is attached can I use files off of their just as if they were in my iMac for example for iMovie?

Also when you use CCC or super duper do they gain access to all your files etc.?

You don't need to remove any old backups from your Time Machine unless you want to, once you have cleaned up your Mac.

When a CCC backup drive is attached, you can use the files from it although it may be a slower process, depending on the type of backup drive you are using and other variables.

CCC and SuperDuper have to have access to your drive files to perform the bootable backup (M1 Mac excluded from bootable backup). However, no files leave your machine or drives. Anther words, nothing is send back to the developers or stored on app servers. You still have your privacy.

 

[mwidjaya]

my iMac is nearly full and I don't really want to delete anything so would prefer just to keep it as is, move it to a separate drive and hopefully start with a clean empty disk on my iMac,

Seems a round about way to your goal.

What is taking up most space on your iMac internal disk?

Can't you just copy that to external disk?

For eg, Photos and Music libraries are quite easy to point library to external disk.

 

[ket.]

Seems a round about way to your goal.

What is taking up most space on your iMac internal disk?

Can't you just copy that to external disk?

For eg, Photos and Music libraries are quite easy to point library to external disk.

You don't need to remove any old backups from your Time Machine unless you want to, once you have cleaned up your Mac.

When a CCC backup drive is attached, you can use the files from it although it may be a slower process, depending on the type of backup drive you are using and other variables.

CCC and SuperDuper have to have access to your drive files to perform the bootable backup (M1 Mac excluded from bootable backup). However, no files leave your machine or drives. Anther words, nothing is send back to the developers or stored on app servers. You still have your privacy.

Thank you!

 

[ket.]

Seems a round about way to your goal.

What is taking up most space on your iMac internal disk?

Can't you just copy that to external disk?

For eg, Photos and Music libraries are quite easy to point library to external disk.

Yes it's mainly my video, iMovie and music. Ive heard that you have to be very careful when moving your iMovie files so I thought it would be best if I just cloned the whole thing to avoid problems?

 

[justashooter]

This is what I would do. I don't know how large your drives are so this is hypothetical based on you having one 500gb drive internally and one 500gb drive for your time machine. Buy a drive that is AT LEAST twice the size of those two drives (2tb or larger), clone/time machine to that large drive, erase the 500gb time machine drive and use that as your second drive that is always attached to your iMac. Move a large portion of the files from your iMac internal drive to the second drive (your music files, video files, whatever). I try to keep 100g empty space on my drives. Then run clone/time machine again. I believe with time machine and maybe Carbon Copy Cloner also, you have to select the external drive for it to be backed up along with the internal drive, the programs don't select it by default.

I prefer CCC also, I believe it is faster than time machine. Either one will work, both will do incremental backups, so you are not cloning the whole drive each time it runs. What happens is each time a file is changed they will make a copy of the new file and keep the old file. It will do this until the backup drive is full and then it will start deleting the oldest file it has multiple copies of in order to make space for new files, etc.

 

[ket.]

This is what I would do. I don't know how large your drives are so this is hypothetical based on you having one 500gb drive internally and one 500gb drive for your time machine. Buy a drive that is AT LEAST twice the size of those two drives (2tb or larger), clone/time machine to that large drive, erase the 500gb time machine drive and use that as your second drive that is always attached to your iMac. Move a large portion of the files from your iMac internal drive to the second drive (your music files, video files, whatever). I try to keep 100g empty space on my drives. Then run clone/time machine again. I believe with time machine and maybe Carbon Copy Cloner also, you have to select the external drive for it to be backed up along with the internal drive, the programs don't select it by default.

I prefer CCC also, I believe it is faster than time machine. Either one will work, both will do incremental backups, so you are not cloning the whole drive each time it runs. What happens is each time a file is changed they will make a copy of the new file and keep the old file. It will do this until the backup drive is full and then it will start deleting the oldest file it has multiple copies of in order to make space for new files, etc.

Thank you for this. Sounds interesting! If I'm not mistaken a time machine backup isn't a bootable disk though correct? Whereas a ccc clone disk would allow me quick access to everything? Also do I have to partition on the drive that I put the time machine/clone on? I don't quite understand the partitioning of an external prior to backing up? Sure appreciate everyone's words of wisdom!!

 

[justashooter]

Thank you for this. Sounds interesting! If I'm not mistaken a time machine backup isn't a bootable disk though correct? Whereas a ccc clone disk would allow me quick access to everything? Also do I have to partition on the drive that I put the time machine/clone on? I don't quite understand the partitioning of an external prior to backing up? Sure appreciate everyone's words of wisdom!!

Correct, you can not directly boot from a time machine backup whereas you can boot from a CCC clone.
No, no partitioning.

Also, here is a link explaining how to back up two drives to one CCC clone:

I want to backup multiple machines or hard drives to the same hard drive | Bombich Software

bombich.com

CCC is well worth the $40 US or so, in my opinion.

 

[mwidjaya]

Yes it's mainly my video, iMovie and music. Ive heard that you have to be very careful when moving your iMovie files so I thought it would be best if I just cloned the whole thing to avoid problems?

Nah, moving iMovie is as simple as ABC.

Move your iMovie for Mac library - Apple Support

To save space on your Mac, you can move your iMovie library to an external storage device.

support.apple.com

So is moving photos and music.

Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support

To save storage space on your Mac, you can move your Photos library to a different storage device.

support.apple.com

How to move your iTunes library to an external hard drive

If your Mac's hard drive is getting full, you can move your entire iTunes library to an external hard drive to free up space.

www.imore.com

These 3 things would solve majority of your issues.

All that cloning, erase disk and reinstall OS, is more suited for solving other problems. I wouldn't suggest that unless there is a need to go there.

 

[ket.]

Correct, you can not directly boot from a time machine backup whereas you can boot from a CCC clone.
No, no partitioning.

Also, here is a link explaining how to back up two drives to one CCC clone:

I want to backup multiple machines or hard drives to the same hard drive | Bombich Software

bombich.com

CCC is well worth the $40 US or so, in my opinion.

Really great info, thank you!

 

[ket.]

Nah, moving iMovie is as simple as ABC.

Move your iMovie for Mac library - Apple Support

To save space on your Mac, you can move your iMovie library to an external storage device.

support.apple.com

So is moving photos and music.

Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support

To save storage space on your Mac, you can move your Photos library to a different storage device.

support.apple.com

How to move your iTunes library to an external hard drive

If your Mac's hard drive is getting full, you can move your entire iTunes library to an external hard drive to free up space.

www.imore.com

These 3 things would solve majority of your issues.

All that cloning, erase disk and reinstall OS, is more suited for solving other problems. I wouldn't suggest that unless there is a need to go there.

Thank you!!! Great articles, simple explanations!!

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:

I believe this might have been said already, but you're going about this the wrong way.

If you have large libraries of movies, music and pictures that are eating up your internal drive space, the solution is to get an EXTERNAL drive and just "move those libraries" off onto the external drive.

Then, you can delete them from the internal drive to free up space.

The applications you use to access these libraries (such as iTunes, Music, iPhoto, Photos, etc.) can be easily "re-directed" to the relocated libraries. Just hold down the option key as you launch them, and select the library that you wish to become the "main library".

The external drive now becomes your "primary external storage drive" -- that is, the "second place" you have on-hand to store things (the internal is first, of course).
You will quickly learn how to manage your data "across" two drives.

One VERY IMPORTANT consideration:
Since you now have important files residing on an external drive, you now have to BACK UP that drive, as well as your internal.

For "duping" a non-boot drive to another, NOTHING will work better than [either] CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper.

These are both free to download and use for 30 days.
The easiest way to see how they work is to download one or the other (or both) and TRY THEM.
Once you do this, you will immediately understand the value of these apps.

 

[IowaLynn]

Two or more backups. Preferably different methods for redundancy.
Two TimeMachine sets even. 350% size of your system data and media.

SD/CCC - two sets so you can avoid problems. Last month, last week, etc. Prior to OS updates.

I do put a small CCC system clone partition or volume on TimeMachine drive.