Looking for reliable disc imaging software

[MacBook17]

Although we started a couple of threads in the past that have rendered posts mentioning imaging software, I never really asked this question specifically before now...

We have a failing early-2011 MacBook Pro 17 (OS X El Capitan 10.11.6) that's gotten to the point where we're afraid to restart it. It seems to be suffering with the dreaded 2011 MBP AMD GPU failure issue, so, long story short, we have now ordered an SSD enclosure that we will use to clone the 750 GB HDD that's in the MBP 17 and, with some luck, move the disc image to a mid-2015 MBP 15 (OS X Catalina 10.15.6), equipped with a 1 TB SSD, that we will borrow until we can purchase a new Mac Mini.

As it has been extremely stable for us, our goal is to use the OS X that we've been more than happy with, OS X El Capitan, and press on with the software we make a living with [please read: without compatibility issues].

With this in mind, I'd like to ask the board about disc imaging/cloning software and, more to the point, which cloning application you've been happy with? We're long-time Mac users, but our good luck with Mac hardware has effectively kept us out of the Mac loop for many years now, so an application that's not too advanced would be preferred.

Thank you for your time.

 

[Erehy Dobon]

I have used Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) to clone boot drives on pretty much every version of macOS/OS X for years on a variety of different Macs as I migrated between them. CCC has a lot of options that you can safely ignore for your purpose. Just use the basic cloning mode. You basically pick the source disk and the destination disk then just go.

I would clone the MBP 17 (early-2011) to the external SSD. Plug the external SSD into the MBP 15 (mid-2015), press the Option key during boot and select the external SSD as the boot drive. It should just run without any fussing.

Confirm that it all works fine then clone the external SSD to the internal SSD of the MBP 15 (mid-2015). Now you have two functional drives.

 

[Mac... nificent]

Used to use SuperDuper but then it went downhill so I switchEd to CCC. Really glad that I switched.CCC is incredible software.

 

[The Hammer]

Used to use SuperDuper but then it went downhill so I switchEd to CCC. Really glad that I switched.CCC is incredible software.

SuperDuper went downhill. How so? Maybe that's a topic for another time if you don't want to get into it right now.

 

[Fishrrman]

This seems to be pretty much the same post you posted once before.
And the answer remains the same:
CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper.

 

[MacBook17]

Please read the first sentence in the original post...

 

[Fishrrman]

If all you need to do is clone one drive to another, just use either CCC or SD.

There is NOTHING ELSE that will do the job as quickly and easily as will these two apps.

I like CCC because it can clone the recovery partition as well.

There's not much more to say about this.

 

[millerj123]

Please read the first sentence in the original post...

Wow. Ok. Seems some folks have repeatedly provided guidance.

 

[Apple_Robert]

Please read the first sentence in the original post...

You have asked the question before.

Looking for an external drive for TB1 and beyond?

First things first, here's what we're working with: MODEL: Early-2011 MacBook Pro 17 PROCESSOR: 2.3 GB Intel Quad-Core i7 OS: El Capitan 10.11.6 RAM: 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR 3 HDD: SATA 750 GB (450 GB of free space) Although it had to be returned to Apple twice for warranty HDD failures (early on)...

forums.macrumors.com

And there is no need to be rude. You seem to have a habit of asking for help and then being rude to some of the replies, which you have done here. People will stop responding to your threads if you keep it up.

 

[The Hammer]

If all you need to do is clone one drive to another, just use either CCC or SD.

There is NOTHING ELSE that will do the job as quickly and easily as will these two apps.

I like CCC because it can clone the recovery partition as well.

There's not much more to say about this.

I have been led to believe that SD now clones the recovery partition as well from other threads on imaging software.

 

[Apple_Robert]

I have been led to believe that SD now clones the recovery partition as well from other threads on imaging software.

If it does, I see no mention of that ability on the website. In my opinion, the developer of SD has done a poor job of app documentation from what I can see.

 

[Mac... nificent]

In my opinion, the developer of SD has done a poor job of app documentation from what I can see.

In my opinion, The developer of CCC is more concerned with his customer base, and the SD developer is more concerned with $$. It's one reason why even though I already owned SD, that I jumped ship and bought CCC.

 

[MacBook17]

Thanks to everyone who voluntarily contributed to this thread. Your help is much appreciated. ?

Have a nice day...over and out...

 

[Apple_Robert]

In my opinion, The developer of CCC is more concerned with his customer base, and the SD developer is more concerned with $$. It's one reason why even though I already owned SD, that I jumped ship and bought CCC.

I agree. I have been very pleased with CCC over the years. The few times I reached out to Mike, he was very prompt with helpful replies.

 

[The Hammer]

If it does, I see no mention of that ability on the website. In my opinion, the developer of SD has done a poor job of app documentation from what I can see.

A poor job of documentation I agree. The web site needs a SERIOUS make over and gives me pause as far as purchasing it. But other people have stated that SD does copy the recovery partition after checking in some way or other after using it.

 

[Omega Mac]

Having a weird issue - been using CCC for over 7 years, wonderful tool and saved ass many times.

I cloned an external USB boot drive for macOS Catalina (Evo 850) to a new Evo 870 9also external), because I could no longer properly clone to spinning drive with APFS and have a reliable bootable HDD backup - my plan was to once cloned and working, replace the HDD in the mac mini, to improve performance by being direct SATA connected, even though performance on USB 3 is still excellent.

Weirdly, the new boot drive (870) would not start up it stopped at the Apple logo, no progress bar.

Then I remembered, ah I've sen this before (including OS upgrades, happens), what I need to do is reinstall macOS using internet revcovery and I did and that worked. Great.

Yet I've had to do it again, after I shut it down, to test the old clone as a boot drive, neither would boot, new or old - I have had to run internet recovery on boot drives twice now. I am not sure I will shut anything down for a time if it's not going to boot up without a full macOS re-install each time!

What a total PITA - - - Anyone got any ideas?

I've never come across this issue before and I've cloned many HDDs to SSDs from laptop to Mac mini and never failed to fully resolve the macOS to booting status.

Perhaps the best course now is to fresh install Catalina on SSD instead, and then use migration assistant and one of these these Evo drives?