How can i create a bootable external drive?

[BrittWentz]

I have the WD My Passport 1TB external hard drive and i wanted to clone my system as i'll be replacing the HDD with an SSD. I already have a Time Machine backup on a different WD drive, but just to be on the safe side i'd like to be able to access my old system, as i have several adobe files that might not work on newer software. I'm currently running OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion), and i'll be doing a clean install of either El Capitan/Sierra on the new SSD.

What steps do i need to follow to create this copy? I understand i need some software like SuperCarbonCopy, where can i get it?

Also, how long will the actual copying process take? I have about 480GB of used space in my current HDD.

Thanks

 

[Juicy Box]

I have Carbon Copy Cloner to create clones, although I think Disk Utility can do this for free.

I suggest taking a drive, reformat and partition it a few times using Disk Utility. You can do periodic back ups on each partition.

Or, you can do what I do, and back up each OS X version when I upgrade, just incase I want to quickly go back to an old OS.

Each partition is bootable, and in one place, so I can access multiple boot drives if I want.
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I have Carbon Copy Cloner to create clones, although I think Disk Utility can do this for free.

I just did a quick search on it and found this guide.

I remember that Apple nerfed Disk Utility a few upgrades ago, and now it sucks, but according to the guide I found, it still can be done.

They removed the GUI to do certain things in Disk Utility, such as creating a software RAID. It also looks like Apple made creating a bootable copies a little harder too. I haven't tried it using Disk Utility in at least 4 years I think, as I purchased CCC, and it is easy to use, and does exactly what I want it too.

Also, if I am reading the guide I linked correctly, using Disk Utility, you cannot copy a boot drive that is currently mounted, so you need to either use another boot drive, or you could boot in recovery mode and use Disk Utility there.

Using CCC, you can copy a boot drive that is mounted, so it is a little easier.

 

[BrittWentz]

I have Carbon Copy Cloner to create clones, although I think Disk Utility can do this for free.

I suggest taking a drive, reformat and partition it a few times using Disk Utility. You can do periodic back ups on each partition.

Or, you can do what I do, and back up each OS X version when I upgrade, just incase I want to quickly go back to an old OS.

Each partition is bootable, and in one place, so I can access multiple boot drives if I want.
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I just did a quick search on it and found this guide.

I remember that Apple nerfed Disk Utility a few upgrades ago, and now it sucks, but according to the guide I found, it still can be done.

They removed the GUI to do certain things in Disk Utility, such as creating a software RAID. It also looks like Apple made creating a bootable copies a little harder too. I haven't tried it using Disk Utility in at least 4 years I think, as I purchased CCC, and it is easy to use, and does exactly what I want it too.

Also, if I am reading the guide I linked correctly, using Disk Utility, you cannot copy a boot drive that is currently mounted, so you need to either use another boot drive, or you could boot in recovery mode and use Disk Utility there.

Using CCC, you can copy a boot drive that is mounted, so it is a little easier.

Thank you so much, this helped a lot. I'll try with Carbon Copy Cloner then. Hope i don't mess anything up in the process!

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:
Here's what to do:

First, you don't want anything on "the target drive". It's going to be erased.

Next, you want the WD external drive "in Mac format".
Open Disk Utility and erase it to HFS+ with journaling enabled.

Now, download CarbonCopyCloner from here:
http://www.bombich.com/download.html
CCC is FREE to download and use for 30 days.

Now, open CCC.
You can accept CCC's default settings for now.
On the left, choose your source drive (the internal drive).
To its right, choose your target drive (the WD drive you just erased).
Click the "clone" button.
Then just wait a while while CCC "does its thing".

When it's done, you can test the cloned backup for bootability by doing this:
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 both your internal drive and the external cloned backup
4. Select the cloned backup drive with the pointer and hit return.
5. The Mac should now boot from the backup.

IMPORTANT:
When you get to the finder, you're going to find that the backup LOOKS JUST LIKE your internal drive -- that's what a clone is supposed to be about, right?
SO... go to "about this Mac" (apple menu) and check to see that you really are booted from the backup!

 

[BrittWentz]

OP:
Here's what to do:

First, you don't want anything on "the target drive". It's going to be erased.

Next, you want the WD external drive "in Mac format".
Open Disk Utility and erase it to HFS+ with journaling enabled.

Now, download CarbonCopyCloner from here:
http://www.bombich.com/download.html
CCC is FREE to download and use for 30 days.

Now, open CCC.
You can accept CCC's default settings for now.
On the left, choose your source drive (the internal drive).
To its right, choose your target drive (the WD drive you just erased).
Click the "clone" button.
Then just wait a while while CCC "does its thing".

When it's done, you can test the cloned backup for bootability by doing this:
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 both your internal drive and the external cloned backup
4. Select the cloned backup drive with the pointer and hit return.
5. The Mac should now boot from the backup.

IMPORTANT:
When you get to the finder, you're going to find that the backup LOOKS JUST LIKE your internal drive -- that's what a clone is supposed to be about, right?
SO... go to "about this Mac" (apple menu) and check to see that you really are booted from the backup!

Thank you! Took over nine hours but i just booted successfully from the backup drive and everything looked alright. With the Time Machine backup + clone drive i should be good to go right? Am i missing anything?

The only things i think i'll be bringing into the new drive are documents, iTunes Library and my iPhoto Library. How can i retrieve the iPhoto Library from the TM backup? I tried to upload it to dropbox, as i didn't have any spare drives around and it's over 100GB, but ended up somehow dragging the actual library onto dropbox and now iPhoto won't recognize any other source library.

It's on a "shared" folder (even though i'm the only one with access to it) and when i drag it out to the finder it gives me an error message that this can't be done, that i should try via the web page. But in the webpage i can't drag items to my finder...any idea how can i get it out of there?

Had to sign up for a free trial to get the extra space, which means in a month my library will be deleted. So unless i can somehow copy it from the TM Backup, i'll lose all my data.

 

[Juicy Box]

Took over nine hours

Wow, wonder why it took so long to copy, was it a large backup?

I tried to upload it to dropbox, as i didn't have any spare drives around and it's over 100GB,

You could have partitioned your new external drive, the one that you used CCC on. If it was big enough, you could have used one partition for the boot copy, and one to use as a spare drive.

The only things i think i'll be bringing into the new drive are documents, iTunes Library and my iPhoto Library.

You could use Apple's Mac Migration app.

This takes another Mac, or in your case, another boot drive, and copies over the files you want. I am pretty sure you can use this for Time Machine drives too.
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Apple's Mac Migration app

Migration Assistant

It is super easy to use.

 

[BrittWentz]

Wow, wonder why it took so long to copy, was it a large file?

540GB. I noticed it took around three and a half hours to copy a dropbox file, which i'm guessing was the iPhoto Library. Cloning the Adobe Suite also took its time. Other than that, it ran pretty smoothly so i thought it was just standar for it to take that long.

You could have partitioned your new external drive, the one that you used CCC on. If it was big enough, you could have used one partition for the boot copy, and one to use as a spare drive.

Somehow with the iPhoto fiasco my drive went up from 480GB to 540GB, and i couldn't manage to partition the drive into unequal parts (600/400 GB, f.e. I know it can be done because i used to have my main HDD partitioned like this), it only let me create two 500GB partitions. I really needed to get it done quickly so i just gave up. Perhaps once my new system is stable, and since i'll have my original drive around, i'll give it another try.

I'll try with the migration app, thanks for the tip!

 

[Fishrrman]

For 540gb, yes, that's going to take time to do the first "full" cloned backup.

However -- now that the entire drive has been cloned -- subsequent "incremental backups" should go much faster.