I just bought an external USB SSD to use as a boot drive because I'm worried about opening my iMac and breaking the display. I tried this a few years ago, but I had trouble with the enclosure I bought so I went back to using the internal HDD and returned the drive, but I thought I would give it another shot. At any rate, if I use Carbon Copy Cloner to copy the internal drive to the external, is that all I have to do? I know about changing settings to make it my startup drive and things like that. My concern is will I have any issues with iCloud, Office, Parallels or other software in terms of having to reactivate any of these programs? I just don't want to find that my Windows 10 install in Parallels will say it's not activated or that I may have issues with Office, etc... because the Mac will think that it's a different install. Hope this makes sense.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Question about cloning iMac drive?
- Thread starter I Need a Drink
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Either Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper. I prefer the latter as the registered version allow weekly SmartBackups which only take a few minutes.
With the cloned external SSD attached to USB3 port if a late 2012 model, or Thunderbolt if a 2011, go to System Preferences > Startup Disk and highlight the external drive by clicking, and reboot and it should the start from the external SSD.
Remember you will probably have to format the SSD Mac OS Extended (Journaled) using Disk Utility first off.
With the cloned external SSD attached to USB3 port if a late 2012 model, or Thunderbolt if a 2011, go to System Preferences > Startup Disk and highlight the external drive by clicking, and reboot and it should the start from the external SSD.
Remember you will probably have to format the SSD Mac OS Extended (Journaled) using Disk Utility first off.
OP:
Before going further, questions:
1. How much space have you used up on your INTERNAL drive?
2. How much capacity does the new SSD have?
The reason I asked: If there's "more stuff" on your internal drive than will fit on the SSD, a "full clone" ain't going to work. You need to "exclude" some stuff. But if it will all "fit", don't worry about it.
Having said that...
Put down the drink. There is nothing complicated about cloning a drive.
It's so simple that even I can do it.
Here's what you need to do.
I suggest you try it RIGHT NOW, as you're reading this posting.
1. Connect the external SSD (USB3, right?)
2. Does it mount on the desktop? Doesn't matter, we're going to re-initialize it anyway, so....
3. Open Disk Utility and select the SSD
4. Click the "erase" button
5. Choose "Mac OS extended with journaling enabled"
6. Give the drive a meaningful name that is DIFFERENT FROM the internal drive
7. Re-initializing the drive will probably take only a few seconds.
8. When done, quit Disk Utility.
Now... onto the clone process itself:
1. You mentioned CarbonCopyCloner, download the version that is specified for the version of the OS that you have from here:
http://www.bombich.com/download.html
(CCC is FREE to download and use for 30 days -- trying it costs you nothing)
2. Put CCC in the Applications folder, then, open it. Click the buttons to dismiss the trial notice.
3. You can accept CCC's defaults for now.
5. In the leftmost "box", select your internal drive (the "source")
6. In the box to the right of it, select your external SSD (the "target")
7. Click the "clone" button, then the "run now" button if that dialog pops up.
8. Sit back and let CCC do its thing. It may take a little while.
9. CCC may ask if you wish to clone the recovery partition as well. YES, I suggest that you do this.
10. When done, quit CCC.
Next, TEST the clone:
1. Power down, all the way off
2. Press the power on button and IMMEDIATELY hold down the option key and KEEP HOLDING IT DOWN until the startup manager appears.
3. You should see the SSD in the list of bootable drives. Is it there?
4. If it is, select it with the pointer and hit return.
5. The Mac should now boot from the external SSD.
6. When you get to the finder, it's going to look EXACTLY like the internal drive. In fact, the only way you may tell them apart is to go to the "about this Mac" item (Apple Menu) and check to see from which drive you're booted.
7. At this point, I suggest you start opening the apps you mentioned above. Do they work?
Try all this, and get back to us.
I promise you, it's easier than it sounds!
Before going further, questions:
1. How much space have you used up on your INTERNAL drive?
2. How much capacity does the new SSD have?
The reason I asked: If there's "more stuff" on your internal drive than will fit on the SSD, a "full clone" ain't going to work. You need to "exclude" some stuff. But if it will all "fit", don't worry about it.
Having said that...
Put down the drink. There is nothing complicated about cloning a drive.
It's so simple that even I can do it.
Here's what you need to do.
I suggest you try it RIGHT NOW, as you're reading this posting.
1. Connect the external SSD (USB3, right?)
2. Does it mount on the desktop? Doesn't matter, we're going to re-initialize it anyway, so....
3. Open Disk Utility and select the SSD
4. Click the "erase" button
5. Choose "Mac OS extended with journaling enabled"
6. Give the drive a meaningful name that is DIFFERENT FROM the internal drive
7. Re-initializing the drive will probably take only a few seconds.
8. When done, quit Disk Utility.
Now... onto the clone process itself:
1. You mentioned CarbonCopyCloner, download the version that is specified for the version of the OS that you have from here:
http://www.bombich.com/download.html
(CCC is FREE to download and use for 30 days -- trying it costs you nothing)
2. Put CCC in the Applications folder, then, open it. Click the buttons to dismiss the trial notice.
3. You can accept CCC's defaults for now.
5. In the leftmost "box", select your internal drive (the "source")
6. In the box to the right of it, select your external SSD (the "target")
7. Click the "clone" button, then the "run now" button if that dialog pops up.
8. Sit back and let CCC do its thing. It may take a little while.
9. CCC may ask if you wish to clone the recovery partition as well. YES, I suggest that you do this.
10. When done, quit CCC.
Next, TEST the clone:
1. Power down, all the way off
2. Press the power on button and IMMEDIATELY hold down the option key and KEEP HOLDING IT DOWN until the startup manager appears.
3. You should see the SSD in the list of bootable drives. Is it there?
4. If it is, select it with the pointer and hit return.
5. The Mac should now boot from the external SSD.
6. When you get to the finder, it's going to look EXACTLY like the internal drive. In fact, the only way you may tell them apart is to go to the "about this Mac" item (Apple Menu) and check to see from which drive you're booted.
7. At this point, I suggest you start opening the apps you mentioned above. Do they work?
Try all this, and get back to us.
I promise you, it's easier than it sounds!