Clone HDD to SSD in El Capitan

[charks]

I have a mid-2011 Mac Mini and want to replace the hard drive with a new SSD. My initial plan was to use a USB to SATA cable and just copy my hard drive to the new SSD using disk utility...make sure it boots alright...open up the Mac and swap the drives.

However...I've since discovered that Disk Utility has drastically changed in El Capitan. There used to be a Restore option...then you could set the Source and Destination drives...then click Restore and the cloning would begin.

Is this still possible through El Capitan? Or is there a more elegant solution?

Thanks for any help.

 

[MacUser2525]

Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper do what you need to do.

 

[charks]

Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper do what you need to do.

Thanks. I initialized the SSD through Disk Utility...then kind of freaked when I couldn't find the Restore function.

Downloaded CCC this morning and currently halfway through the cloning. Dead simple program to use.

Thanks again.

 

[MacUser2525]

Thanks. I initialized the SSD through Disk Utility...then kind of freaked when I couldn't find the Restore function.

Downloaded CCC this morning and currently halfway through the cloning. Dead simple program to use.

Thanks again.

Your welcome. Indeed it is one damn fine program I have used for years, ever since Apple removed that option from Disk Utility on a live running system years ago. You have to do it now through the Recovery HD Disk Utility the option is there when booted from it.

 

[tibas92013]

CCC is one great product that I have been using for around 6 months.

 

[Bob95]

Restore is still in Disk Utility, but it is more hidden now sadly.

Select the partition to which you want to restore, and then select the restore from partition. I have had this working with some bootable devices, so you shut be fine.