MP 7,1 MP 7,1: Internal 8TB Bootable Clone Solution?

[Agent_Apple]

Braintrust,

I have a 2019 MacPro 7,1 and I am in search of a bootable solution to clone my OEM 8TB startup/OS drive. Previously, I was using a 10TB WDD HDD, but it was simply too slow. I replaced the WDD HDD with a 8TB Samsung EVO 870. At the time, I had no reason to believe that I could not reboot and start from the Samsung EVO. No issues running SuperDuper to clone my startup/OS drive, but many of you are probably aware (I didn't at the time of purchase), you can't reboot and start from the Samsung EVO (unclear why). I have always had an internal bootable clone backup in my MacPros and would like to continue doing so as part of my backup strategy (I also have TM backups via a networked Drobo and external USB drive). Any suggestions or thoughts would be appreciated, thanks.

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

This is probably a useful thread:

Bootable PCI SSD Cards/Drives for Mac Pro (NVMe M.2, U.2, EDSFF E3.S, etc.)

 

[benmuetsch]

Why should you not be able to boot from the EVO 870? How did you connect the drive?
Did you allow to boot from external media via Startup Security Manager?

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

Braintrust,

I have a 2019 MacPro 7,1 and I am in search of a bootable solution to clone my OEM 8TB startup/OS drive. Previously, I was using a 10TB WDD HDD, but it was simply too slow. I replaced the WDD HDD with a 8TB Samsung EVO 870. At the time, I had no reason to believe that I could not reboot and start from the Samsung EVO. No issues running SuperDuper to clone my startup/OS drive, but many of you are probably aware (I didn't at the time of purchase), you can't reboot and start from the Samsung EVO (unclear why). I have always had an internal bootable clone backup in my MacPros and would like to continue doing so as part of my backup strategy (I also have TM backups via a networked Drobo and external USB drive). Any suggestions or thoughts would be appreciated, thanks.

Wait, what version of macOS are you running? I forget, but I think with Ventura or newer, you can no longer make a bootable clone with SuperDuper or CCC or anything else because of the stupid certificate-signing way apple does security now, that actually threatens your security/up-time by not allowing you to make a bootable clone.

The only thing you can do now is keep time machine or something like it, and if you lose your main drive, do a clean install on the internal drive, and do a migration assistant from the time machine drive (or the SuperDuper non bootable clone you've been keeping).

 

[Agent_Apple]

Wait, what version of macOS are you running? I forget, but I think with Ventura or newer, you can no longer make a bootable clone with SuperDuper or CCC or anything else because of the stupid certificate-signing way apple does security now, that actually threatens your security/up-time by not allowing you to make a bootable clone.

The only thing you can do now is keep time machine or something like it, and if you lose your main drive, do a clean install on the internal drive, and do a migration assistant from the time machine drive (or the SuperDuper non bootable clone you've been keeping).

Thanks for the reply, still running Monterey (12.7.5) - no issues with creating a bootable clone drive. I have always liked having a backup cloned boot drive to minimize any potential down time if I lose my main OS drive. It's starting to look like this strategy may no longer work (unless I revert back to a platter drive or can find an 8TB SSD that I can boot to).

Note: SuperDuper now claims bootable support for Ventura and Sonoma on both Intel and Apple Silicon boxes (I have not tested or confirmed).

 

[Agent_Apple]

Why should you not be able to boot from the EVO 870? How did you connect the drive?
Did you allow to boot from external media via Startup Security Manager?

There are some long running threads about problems associated with booting from an EVO 870 - the older 860 Pro seems to work, but something changed with the 870 (I confirmed it has the latest firmware).

 

[Agent_Apple]

This is probably a useful thread:

Bootable PCI SSD Cards/Drives for Mac Pro (NVMe M.2, U.2, EDSFF E3.S, etc.)

Thanks, will check this out.