I just started my M1 Mini from a SuperDuper! backup on an external USB3 SSD

[Partron22]

Mac Min1c M1, MacOS 11.4, SuperDuper! 3.5-beta.3 (Shirt Pocket 1 Shirt Pocket 2)
I've always preferred SuperDuper! to CCC, so was excited to find that they finally have a backup for Big Sur M1 Macs that lets you boot of an external drive. IOW, a complete backup.
After 11.4 came out, I downloaded the SD Beta 3.5-beta.3, and did an erase then copy of my 500GB Boot Drive, onto a spare 250GB USB 3 (A type connector, 6 Gb/sec, or whatever). NOT Thunderbolt. Used an Orico drive caddy. (I expect Thunderbolt will work too)
Once done, I shut down computer, then pressed and held power button on Mac and Opt key on keyboard, until options came up.
It let me choose the external or internal drive. I chose external, and after grumbling some the Mini booted to the slow external SSD. Had to reinstall a driver for VPN, but that's it. Now when the internal drive goes bad, I can switch to an external, and keep using the Mac.
Probably be better to hook the ext boot to thunderbolt, but I need to think about how to free up one of those measly 2 plugs.
Life is good. I don't have to worry about a major internal drive flakeout anymore. I don't like the possibility of all my tweaks disappearing.

Oddly, when running from ext drive, internal boot does not show in system boot prefs, and when running from internal, the external does not show up. So I'll need to continue using the power button opt key trick.

It's nice to have an essential piece of software running fully, once again.

 

[Ifti]

I got sick of waiting for SuperDuper so moved to CCC instead - now I much prefer it.

 

[MSKenyon]

Mac Min1c M1, MacOS 11.4, SuperDuper! 3.5-beta.3 (Shirt Pocket 1 Shirt Pocket 2)
I've always preferred SuperDuper! to CCC, so was excited to find that they finally have a backup for Big Sur M1 Macs that lets you boot of an external drive. IOW, a complete backup.
After 11.4 came out, I downloaded the SD Beta 3.5-beta.3, and did an erase then copy of my 500GB Boot Drive, onto a spare 250GB USB 3 (A type connector, 6 Gb/sec, or whatever). NOT Thunderbolt. Used an Orico drive caddy. (I expect Thunderbolt will work too)
Once done, I shut down computer, then pressed and held power button on Mac and Opt key on keyboard, until options came up.
It let me choose the external or internal drive. I chose external, and after grumbling some the Mini booted to the slow external SSD. Had to reinstall a driver for VPN, but that's it. Now when the internal drive goes bad, I can switch to an external, and keep using the Mac.
Probably be better to hook the ext boot to thunderbolt, but I need to think about how to free up one of those measly 2 plugs.
Life is good. I don't have to worry about a major internal drive flakeout anymore. I don't like the possibility of all my tweaks disappearing.

Oddly, when running from ext drive, internal boot does not show in system boot prefs, and when running from internal, the external does not show up. So I'll need to continue using the power button opt key trick.

It's nice to have an essential piece of software running fully, once again.

If I understand Apple correctly. External boot will only work as long as the internal drive is working correctly. Now, I'm not a hardware engineer nor anything else special. So from what I understand, yes, it will boot now. But if the internal goes bad, your stuck with nothing.

can some one correct me if I'm wrong?

 

[winna]

Mac Min1c M1, MacOS 11.4, SuperDuper! 3.5-beta.3 (Shirt Pocket 1 Shirt Pocket 2)
I've always preferred SuperDuper! to CCC, so was excited to find that they finally have a backup for Big Sur M1 Macs that lets you boot of an external drive. IOW, a complete backup.
After 11.4 came out, I downloaded the SD Beta 3.5-beta.3, and did an erase then copy of my 500GB Boot Drive, onto a spare 250GB USB 3 (A type connector, 6 Gb/sec, or whatever). NOT Thunderbolt. Used an Orico drive caddy. (I expect Thunderbolt will work too)
Once done, I shut down computer, then pressed and held power button on Mac and Opt key on keyboard, until options came up.
It let me choose the external or internal drive. I chose external, and after grumbling some the Mini booted to the slow external SSD. Had to reinstall a driver for VPN, but that's it. Now when the internal drive goes bad, I can switch to an external, and keep using the Mac.
Probably be better to hook the ext boot to thunderbolt, but I need to think about how to free up one of those measly 2 plugs.
Life is good. I don't have to worry about a major internal drive flakeout anymore. I don't like the possibility of all my tweaks disappearing.

Oddly, when running from ext drive, internal boot does not show in system boot prefs, and when running from internal, the external does not show up. So I'll need to continue using the power button opt key trick.

It's nice to have an essential piece of software running fully, once again.

Doesn't work for me. error coping files Mac mini M1 Big Sur 11.5. Suggestions?

 

[ignatius345]

Now when the internal drive goes bad, I can switch to an external, and keep using the Mac.

"When" it goes bad? Is this something that's happened a lot? I get the appeal of a bootable clone, but in my 20+ years of using Macs I'm not sure I've ever had a situation where my internal drive just spontaneously died, even back when we were all using platter-based HDDs. Not to say it can't happen, but it feels like a less and less likely scenario with SSDs and recovery partitions.

 

[winna]

Mac Min1c M1, MacOS 11.4, SuperDuper! 3.5-beta.3 (Shirt Pocket 1 Shirt Pocket 2)
I've always preferred SuperDuper! to CCC, so was excited to find that they finally have a backup for Big Sur M1 Macs that lets you boot of an external drive. IOW, a complete backup.
After 11.4 came out, I downloaded the SD Beta 3.5-beta.3, and did an erase then copy of my 500GB Boot Drive, onto a spare 250GB USB 3 (A type connector, 6 Gb/sec, or whatever). NOT Thunderbolt. Used an Orico drive caddy. (I expect Thunderbolt will work too)
Once done, I shut down computer, then pressed and held power button on Mac and Opt key on keyboard, until options came up.
It let me choose the external or internal drive. I chose external, and after grumbling some the Mini booted to the slow external SSD. Had to reinstall a driver for VPN, but that's it. Now when the internal drive goes bad, I can switch to an external, and keep using the Mac.
Probably be better to hook the ext boot to thunderbolt, but I need to think about how to free up one of those measly 2 plugs.
Life is good. I don't have to worry about a major internal drive flakeout anymore. I don't like the possibility of all my tweaks disappearing.

Oddly, when running from ext drive, internal boot does not show in system boot prefs, and when running from internal, the external does not show up. So I'll need to continue using the power button opt key trick.

It's nice to have an essential piece of software running fully, once again.

You should try a M.2 SSD Thunderbolt 4...as fast as the internal drive

 

[Sweetfeld28]

I just run Time Machine backups to my Synology NAS, and a spare USB 3 external drive. After trading in my MP for the new M1 Mini, I bought the Hagibis MC25 Pro w/DP, and put my drives in that. I then seamlessly did the Restore from Time Machine backup... worked like a charm.