Copy Or Clone To A USB Flash Drive?

[jparker402]

I have been looking into moving and consolidating files from several USB drives to a single USB drive. This is on a MacBook Air with Monterey. Somewhere in my readings on how to do this I found an article on whether one should copy the files files or clone the files. Now I can't find the article again, of course. Have a bunch of questions on doing this, but though to tackle this one first. My only experience with cloning is using Carbon Copy Cloner, and that is very limited experience. First, as to the USB drive project, I do not think I need to make the USB drive bootable. My initial use will be simply to consolidate old files onto one drive to use with my MacBook Air or its successor. What is the difference between copying and cloning?

 

[JustAnExpat]

I'll give a quick overview that's good enough for you're question:

Copying: Transferring files from one location to another. The information in the files will be kept, however not the file system itself.

Clone: To duplicate the data structure of the drive from one USB drive to another. From the computers view, the two USB drives would be exactly the same.

>into moving and consolidating files from several USB drives to a single USB drive

You'll want to COPY (not clone) the contents from the several USB drives onto the single USB drive. I suggest using Finder, and clicking and dragging

 

[jparker402]

I'll give a quick overview that's good enough for you're question:

Copying: Transferring files from one location to another. The information in the files will be kept, however not the file system itself.

Clone: To duplicate the data structure of the drive from one USB drive to another. From the computers view, the two USB drives would be exactly the same.

>into moving and consolidating files from several USB drives to a single USB drive

You'll want to COPY (not clone) the contents from the several USB drives onto the single USB drive. I suggest using Finder, and clicking and dragging

Thank you! But I do not know what not keeping the file system means. Would have thought if the file system were important enough to be there in the first place that it would be good to keep it. Or is that something that the operating system or the application takes care of without repeating it with the information?

 

[Fishrrman]

If you're just moving files from one flash drive to another, connect them both and use the finder to copy the files. That's about it...

Hmmm....
Are these files important to you?
If so, you DO NOT want them on "only one" flash drive.
If something goes wrong with it.... POOF! -- they're all gone.

In this case, "cloning" the entire contents of one drive to another drive CAN be worth its while.

 

[elvisimprsntr]

1. Open source enterprise class NAS SW from https://www.truenas.com installed on 3 redundant OEM NAS appliances, which supports all file system protocols (including TM) and built in support for a long list of cloud storage providers. Data is automatically encrypted in transit and optionally encrypted at rest.
2. Enabled TM on all clients. I have successfully restored TM backups a number of times, including to a new M1 from an Intel backup.

I don't have to worry about manual intervention, i.e. manual backups to an external SSD, cycling SSDs off site, etc. It just works automagically!