I just got my first M1 Mac and am having problems with SuperDuper. SuperDuper made a copy of my startup disk to an external drive as expected. I tried to boot from the disk but my Mac reported an error and suggested a restore on the disk. I declined and the machine started from the internal disk. Afterwards, I tried to do a smart update on the external disk, but now SuperDuper reported an error? I am using SuperDuper 3.7.5, which should work? I am interested in having a backup of my startup disk, but how do I restore it when I can't start from the disk? The documentation in the help menu is outdated and only covers Intel Macs :-(
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.
Ventura 13.2 & Superduper
- Thread starter mogens
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Bootable backups by Superduper! and Carbon Copy Cloner on Silicon Macs have been unreliable from the start of Silicon Macs, sometimes working sometimes not. The situation is such that Carbon Copy Cloner no longer recommends bootable backups, though still has the capability.
The recommended way of restoring a CCC Backup, SuperDuper backup or Time Machine backup is boot from Recovery, erase and reinstall and migrate from the backup with Migration Assistant. This will migrate the contents of your -Data volume on to the fresh System Volume. Alternatively you can "Erase all Content and settings" (which will return your Mac to factory state) and migrate from your CCC, SD or TM backup.
It is no longer necessary to back up the operating system on Apple Silicon machines. Your SSD already has two bootable copies of an operating system, called Recovery and Fallback Recovery. They are accessed by booting to recovery mode. Read this:
An illustrated guide to Recovery on Apple silicon Macs
A step-by-step fully illustrated guide to how to use every feature in Recovery Mode on an M1 or M2 Mac running Big Sur, Monterey or Ventura.
eclecticlight.co
All you need for backup is your personal data.
Time Machine doesn't back up the operating system either. You would boot to recovery and reinstall from there, as described in the linked Apple Support article.
If by up-to-date copy you mean to include your user data, then you would reinstall the OS and migrate your user data from a Time Machine, Carbon Copy Cloner, or SuperDuper backup.
Note that it is never necessary to reinstall the operating system on Apple Silicon machines. The OS cannot become corrupted or altered as it is read only. If you just wanted to wipe your data and reinstall it, the easiest way is to Erase all Content and Settings. That will restore your machine to factory new. Then migrate your backed up data.
Erase your Mac and reset it to factory settings - Apple Support
Use Erase All Content and Settings to quickly and securely erase all of your settings, data, and apps, while maintaining the operating system currently installed.
So reading above....
I have just done a SD clone of my Studio, which shows as a startup disk.
But when I restart from the clone it takes me to the Recovery screen saying the OS needs re-installing.
Is it worth keeping this clone, can it still be used to migrate if required?
I have just done a SD clone of my Studio, which shows as a startup disk.
But when I restart from the clone it takes me to the Recovery screen saying the OS needs re-installing.
Is it worth keeping this clone, can it still be used to migrate if required?
Yes, or make a fresh one of the -Data volume only. Because of the on/off problems of booting external clones with Apple Silicon, CCC has made cloning the -Data volume only the standard method. SD has persisted with the bootable clone route but not always successfully as you just found. SD can be set to clone the -Data volume only. As you say using the clone of a -Data volume as a migration source is the way to achieve the same end result as a bootable clone. Time Machine also only backs up the -Data volume.
Thought experiment after reading above:
Let's say my new Mac Sstudio runs fine until I update to 13.2, 13.6, or whatever. Thats when a boot clone comes in handy, as you can boot back into the happy place if going forward is problematic.
Super cool, that the Mac Studio has two OS clones built in called "recovery" and "fallback recovery" ... but what are these exactly? If these are mirrors, it would not help me go back in time to a previous OS, or to a previous week, correct?
Let's say my new Mac Sstudio runs fine until I update to 13.2, 13.6, or whatever. Thats when a boot clone comes in handy, as you can boot back into the happy place if going forward is problematic.
Super cool, that the Mac Studio has two OS clones built in called "recovery" and "fallback recovery" ... but what are these exactly? If these are mirrors, it would not help me go back in time to a previous OS, or to a previous week, correct?
Not directly no. What @chabig said was “Your SSD already has two bootable copies of an operating system, called Recovery and Fallback Recovery.“ Not the operating system.
From Recovery you can reinstall the System Volume, use Disk Utility, etc etc. If Recovery won’t boot you have to use Apple Configurator from another mac, a serious situation that some would call bricked. Having additional Recovery mode makes the scenario less likely.
Ability to rollback the System Volume easily is a good reason to keep a bootable installer of previous macOS versions handy.
I was able to clone the Boot drive on my Mac Studio running Ventura 13.4.1, using SuperDuper! 3.7.5 (v131)
Have read through this thread several times and it has cleared up most uncertainties for me, thanks for all the knowledge drops from @Mike Boreham, and @chabig. A few questions still bouncing around in my melon.
1. I was successful cloning onto an external, unpartitioned SSD. But not successful cloning onto a slow (4000 rpm WD Green) that had two partitions. Both were formatted AFPS, both were completely empty. I am guessing it is the partitions in the HDD? or it needs to be an SSD? My strategy with my old MP 5.1 workstation that's still chugging along in High Sierra, was to partition a HDD into 3 sections. This allowed me to boot into last week, or boot into 10.13.1, 10.13.2 etc.
Q1: Do I need to drop the partition strategy? I could also devote 3 separate drives if needed.
2. I wasn't able to actually boot into the clone, but I understand that it would be handy if I needed to boot into the recovery mode, and then restore/migrate my Mac Studio into that state that has all my applications, drivers, SoftRaid etc. Getting a factory state computer into the place that can actually do work is the time consuming thing that takes me days.
Q2: But, can't I also get that from TM? I mean, I get the advantage of a bootable clone, but apparently it works sometimes, and sometimes not works. If I fall into the camp that cant create a bootable clone, then doesn't that put TM and SuperDuper! on equal footing for me? I have a large 24TB TimeMachine that allows me to go back a month or so.
Thanks!
Have read through this thread several times and it has cleared up most uncertainties for me, thanks for all the knowledge drops from @Mike Boreham, and @chabig. A few questions still bouncing around in my melon.
1. I was successful cloning onto an external, unpartitioned SSD. But not successful cloning onto a slow (4000 rpm WD Green) that had two partitions. Both were formatted AFPS, both were completely empty. I am guessing it is the partitions in the HDD? or it needs to be an SSD? My strategy with my old MP 5.1 workstation that's still chugging along in High Sierra, was to partition a HDD into 3 sections. This allowed me to boot into last week, or boot into 10.13.1, 10.13.2 etc.
Q1: Do I need to drop the partition strategy? I could also devote 3 separate drives if needed.
2. I wasn't able to actually boot into the clone, but I understand that it would be handy if I needed to boot into the recovery mode, and then restore/migrate my Mac Studio into that state that has all my applications, drivers, SoftRaid etc. Getting a factory state computer into the place that can actually do work is the time consuming thing that takes me days.
Q2: But, can't I also get that from TM? I mean, I get the advantage of a bootable clone, but apparently it works sometimes, and sometimes not works. If I fall into the camp that cant create a bootable clone, then doesn't that put TM and SuperDuper! on equal footing for me? I have a large 24TB TimeMachine that allows me to go back a month or so.
Thanks!
This was my finding also.
I cloned to a partitioned SSD, which showed as a Startup Disk, but was unable to boot from it.
Last edited:
Just an additional thought to this topic.
Based on the above (great advice), after a Recovery install of the OS, would a migrate from SD or TM put the Mac back EXACTLY as it was, or do you still have to re-install 3rd party applications.
Is 'data' just pictures/videos/music/documents etc....?
Based on the above (great advice), after a Recovery install of the OS, would a migrate from SD or TM put the Mac back EXACTLY as it was, or do you still have to re-install 3rd party applications.
Is 'data' just pictures/videos/music/documents etc....?
Yes, exactly. All apps, settings, all data you have added anywhere on the drive, not just the data in your user folder.
Can I safely delete the SD plist file, to reset it with no history?
I initially created a Clone partition to try, then deleted it (when it wasn't bootable).
When SD opens it selects the previous script, but can't locate it.
Previously on intel Macs, it would then appear blank and you can select a new destination.
AS version just locks up, requiring a force quit.
I initially created a Clone partition to try, then deleted it (when it wasn't bootable).
When SD opens it selects the previous script, but can't locate it.
Previously on intel Macs, it would then appear blank and you can select a new destination.
AS version just locks up, requiring a force quit.
Is this a "Backup — user files" script, or custom copy script needs to be introduced for this? I assume "Backup — all files" attempts to perform bootable backup, so it can't be used to clone the -Data volume only.