- The bad news is that unlike Mac OS 9, where you could simply connect a drive or another computer, select all your files, and copy them over using drag-and-drop, Mac OS X requires some special tools. The Finder doesn't always copy invisible files properly (and there are lots of them in OS X), and because of permissions issues, it's difficult to.
- Simple and easy to use, MacDrive is recognized as the leader for accessing Mac disks from Windows for almost 20 years. Once you plug in your Mac disk, behind the scenes MacDrive works to seamlessly enable Windows understand HFS+ disks and allow you to read and write to the disk.
- Jul 28, 2016 Mac OS X one of the best operating system for Apple computers there are lots of series of computer available in Apple Stores. But sometimes performing several tasks on mac are very difficult in this article we went show you how to migrate folders and files of mac to external hard drive.
- Aug 11, 2019 Tip: This tutorial also applies to similar demands of copying OS from a laptop HDD/SSD to a USB pen drive. For example: how to transfer Windows OS from a laptop to USB drive and make it bootable? How to install the laptop OS on an external pen drive? Why Do You Copy OS from Your Laptop to a USB Pen Drive. Portable and accessible anywhere.
Jul 10, 2020 • Filed to: Solve Mac Problems • Proven solutions
You can create a Mac Drive by using disk utility in Mac OS easily and free. Learn the steps to clone Mac drive. It is also capable of making an almost cut to cut exact copy of the contents of the Drive. No important files, documents or data is left behind using Mac Disk Utility. It works in blocks and does not involve file to file transfer.
Apple claims that its Mac OS is fully equipped to assist its users for day-to-day PC activities, and they seem to have proven the same over the years. Since Mac users save a lot of important data on it, it is necessary to keep all such information secure. Mac Disk Utility does exactly that with the help of its “Restore” option. This function basically teaches you how to Clone a Mac’s Drive with Disk Utility.
In this article, learn how to copy all the data and clone a Mac’s Drive (internal/external) easily. Read and know more about Mac Disk Utility, its “Restore” function, how to clone a Mac’s Drive with Disk Utility and a simple way to recover your Mac’s Drive.
Part 1: Why You Need to Clone a Mac’s Drive?
“What is the need to clone a Mac’s Drive?” This thought must have crossed your mind atlas once while using Mac. To be precise, cloning of hard drives protects your important data which is under possible risk of physical destructions, loss, etc.
No matter how new or of what quality your hard drive is, you cannot say for sure that it will last forever and never crash or suffer from a system failure. Old hard drive or one suffering from mechanical, firmware or electrical error can permanently destroy your data, such as photos, documents, videos, music, and other files. Also, if important personal documents and business files are misplaced in the process, retrieving them is next to impossible.
Therefore, to prevent these and many more situations that may arise due to data loss, we recommend that you always know how to Clone a Mac’s Drive using Disk Utility. Mac Disk Utility and its “Restore” functions can keep your data, important information and files secure by literally copying it from your Mac Drive.
Difference Between Time Machine Backup and Cloning Hard Drive
If you’re wondering whether to use Time Machine or Mac Disk Utility to clone a Mac’s Drive, let us clear the confusion for you. Time Machine is a built-in application to back up and make an up-to-date copy of the data you save on the Mac. Its unique feature is that it makes real-time backups to recover files easily whenever needed. When set-up for the first time, Time Machine performs a full backup of the Mac and its contents. Time Machine keeps, hourly, daily and monthly backups all categorized separately.
If Time Machine can do so much, then why consider using Mac Disk Utility?
To start the discussion, Mac Disk Utility is free and also comes built-in with every Mac OS version. It has various new features that makes it more suitable than the Time Machine. Say for example, its “Restore” option does something what is called block copy and make the entire cloning process swifter. It is also capable of making an almost cut to cut exact copy of the contents of the Drive. No important files, documents or data is left behind using Mac Disk Utility. It works in blocks and does not involve file to file transfer.
Some changes have been introduced in the Mac Disk Utility toolkit which makes more accurate cloning and copying data from the Drive.
Part 2: How to Clone Mac’s Drive using Disk Utility?
Curious to know how to clone a Mac’s Drive with Disk Utility? Follow these simple steps and you’re good to go:
- Open Mac Disk Utility on your Mac from Utilities or Applications.
- Click “Erase” from the top of the Disk Utility interface.
- Now chose a media on left panel to make it your backup drive.
- At the drop down list which has “Format” options, choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Then hit “Erase” again and wait for the drive to remount on Mac.
- Then at Mac Disk Utility interface, click “Restore”.
- Now comes the tricky bit. Select the target drive, drag it and drop it at the “Source” field.
- Now drag and drop the destination Disk/Drive and leave it at the “Destination” field.
- Hit “Restore” once and for all. The contents of the drive will be copied and saved on the destination drive.
Mac Os X Copy To External Drive
Part 3: How to Recover Mac’s Drive Data?
What does one do if some data is lost during cloning the mac’s Drive? Don’t worry. The loss isn’t permanent and the destroyed data can be recovered with the help of Recoverit for Mac. It is a recovery tool for MacBook, iMac, Hard Drives, Flash Drives, Memory Cards, phones, cameras and camcorders. It can instantly retrieve the lost contents from the Mac Drive and provide reliable data recovery solutions. It can recover documents, images, videos, audio files, emails and archives files.
The steps given below will help you use Recoverit for Mac to recover Mac’s Drive:
- Download, install and launch Recoverit hard drive recovery software. Now choose the target drive where the data gets lost, and click 'Start' to recover lost data.
- And then the data recovery tool will set in motion an all-around scan to search the lost files.
- Finally, you can preview the whole scanned results, select the ones which need to be restored, click “Recover” as shown below and save the recovered data in another drive/disk to keep it secure for future.
Conclusion
Bottom-line, we have attempted to answer a commonly asked question on online forums, i.e., how to clone a Mac’s Drive with Disk Utility. We hope you will find this red useful and now be able to clone your Mac’s drive and keeps its contents safe.
Also, the Recoverit drive data recovery toolkit is a safe, effective and trustworthy medium to retrieve your lost documents and file. So go ahead and follow the instructions in this guide to clone a Mac’s drive or recover hard drive data deleted accidentally during its process.
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Mac OS X one of the best operating system for Apple computers there are lots of series of computer available in Apple Stores. But sometimes performing several tasks on mac are very difficult in this article we went show you how to migrate folders and files of mac to external hard drive.
So, first of all, you’ve to select the best external hard drives for mac backup from which you can easily restore important documents in case of the reboot of mac. Generate a backup on mac of videos, photos, and files on an external drive.
It was easy to move files from mac to mac but moving files from Mac to external hard drive is kinda hard which also relate to recovering files from the external hard drive.
However, sometimes due to the virus and some other error the data stored in external hard drive corporate and to recover the files from external hard drive recovery software for mac.
Now focus on, given below steps by steps guides let you know how to transfer files from mac to external hard drive.
Move Files To External Hard Drive (Drag and Drop)
Step 1
Connect the external hard drive to your mac using a USB cable and wait until the hard drive successfully connected to your computer. (Name of the drive should appear on your Mac screen).
Step 2 :
Open “Finder”, then locate the files to move to external hard drive.
Step 3 :
Create a New Folder in hard drive, then drag each file you want to backup from Mac system to external hard drive.
Step 4 :
Close the external hard drive once all files moved to from mac to external hard drive.
Sometimes your external hard drive doesn’t allow you to transfer files from Mac. Because it’s your hard drive may be formatted with NTFS which is normal in a windows environment.
Mac Os Copy To Usb Drive
While OS X is able to READ from a drive that is formatted at NTFS, it cannot WRITE to one. You will get a warning saying that the drive cannot be modified. To fix this error you’ve to use Disk Utility. Remember to save everything to Mac before formatting the apple external hard drives.
Step 1 :
Plug-In external hard drive to Mac using the USB cable. Wait until the hard drive name appears on Mac Desktop screen.
Step 2 :
In Mac OS X disc into your mac and restart your computer. Continue pressing the “C” key when the system is started.
Step 3 :
Choose the language and then select Disk Utility from Utilities menu. Now select the disk which you want to connect to your mac and click on “Verify Disk”.
Step 4 :
Click on “Repair Disk” button to repair the external hard drive. Click on “New Image” and named your hard drive then select “128-bit” or “256-bit AES” from the encryption menu to add security to the backup.
Step 5 :
Click on the “Save” button and type the administration password, Conform it. (Wait till process to begin ).
Step 6 :
Now choose the new backup from the device. After completing the imaging process, select ”Image” and then Click on “Scan Image for Restore”.
Mac Os Copy Usb Drive
Step 7 :
Press “Command Q” when the scan completes and then again press the same key to quit Mac OS X Installer window.
In my research. I’ve found that lots of Mac users how to purchase a new hard drive for mac. When they connected that hard drive to the Mac OS X system. The external Mac hard drive successfully connected to mac but files can’t transfer.
Mac Os Disk Copy
To resolve this issue, you’ve to reformat your external hard drive using Mac OS Extended option.
Step 1 :
Mac Hard Drive Copy Utility
Connect hard drive to Mac via USB slots.
Step 2 :
Now go to Utilities Folder > Disk Utility. Select the external hard drive.
Step 3 :
As long as you don’t have any important files in the external hard drive, choose “Ease” Tab and then select “Mac OS Extended(Journaled)”.
Mac Os Copy To Ntfs Drive
Step 4 :
Enter the new named of drive and Click Erase.
Mac Os Copy Files To External Drive
I hope any of these methods will work for you to transfer files from mac to external hard drives with or without formatting the drive. Give your feedback via comment box.