Disk to disk clone

• Clonezilla Vs Ghost
• Clonezilla Image File Extension

In this example: Clone small disk to larger disk (e.g. 8 GB to 20 GB) (Step by step)

Prepare Clonezilla live^TOP^ FIRST OF ALL, BACK UP IMPORTANT DATA BEFORE YOU USE CLONEZILLA LIVE TO DO ANYTHING. In this example, the machine has 1 disk (8 GB), we want to clone it to an external disk (20 GB). This is a normal case when you buy a new disk to replace old disk on your machine. Here since we use virtual machine to give this example, we use small disk size, i.e. 8 GB to 20 GB instead of modern disk size. Besides, modern 'light' laptop normally comes WITHOUT CD drive, or you happen to leave your USB CD drive in another place, it's a good idea to use USB device to boot Clonezilla live. In this example, we use a better, neater method, i.e. put Clonezilla live on the new disk and use it to boot clonezilla live. By doing this, you do not have to burn a CD, or prepare another USB flash drive. This is an one-time-use Clonezilla live, because later the clonezilla live files on new disk will be overwritten. Of course, you still can put Clonezilla live in CD or USB flash drive, then boot it to clone the 8 GB disk to 20 GB disk. The procedure is quite similar. Just remember to choose the correct source and destination disks. Prerequisite: A new, equal or larger disk, an external disk closure, a USB cable. A running MS Windows or GNU/Linux. Put the new disk inside your external disk closure, connect that to your running MS Windows or GNU/Linux via USB cable, then follow here to put Clonezilla live zip file on your external disk and make it bootable. Of coure, if your machine has the space to put 2 disks, the 2nd disk can be the internal disk, not necessary as the external disk. Boot your Clonezilla live via USB^TOP^ Insert the new hard drive (which is bootable with Clonezilla live builtin) with the USB cable to your machine. Most modern PC comes with USB boot function, you can refer to your montherboard manul to see how to set it during boot. E.g. On the IBM thinkpad X61, you can press F12 and choose USB device to force the machine to boot via USB device. Choose 'ToRAM' option in the boot menu^TOP^ In the boot menu, we choose 'Other modes of Clonezilla live' Then choose 'Clonezilla live (To RAM. Boot media can be removed later)' By doing this, all the Clonezilla live file on the new hard drive will be copied to RAM. Therefore the partition of new hard drive can be released, i.e. it won't be busy and locked by running programs. Press Enter, you will see Debian Linux booting process, and it will spend a few minutes when copying the files to RAM: Choose language^TOP^ Choose keyboard layout^TOP^ The default keyboard layout is US keybaord, therefore if you are using US keyboard, just press enter (i.e. use the option 'Keep'). If you want to change keymap, you can choose 'Change' then follow the dialog to change it. Choose 'Start Clonezilla' ^TOP^ Choose 'device-device' Choose 'Beginner' If you choose 'Expert' mode, you will have some chances to choose advanced parameters, e.g. tune the CHS values of target disk, how to create partition table on the target disk, etc.. You can see more details here. ///NOTE/// By deafult, Clonezilla will clone the 'same' size of source disk to target disk. i.e. in this example, only 8 GB will be cloned to target disk, so the rest of 12 GB on the destination disk will be unallocated. If you want to make use all of the target disk size, remember to enter 'Expert' mode and choose option '-k1'. Choose 'disk_to_local_disk' ^TOP^ Choose source disk^TOP^ Here the source disk is sda, which is 8 GB in size'. ///WARNING/// Be careful! Do not choose the wrong disk. Since all the data on the target disk will be overwritten!!! Choose target disk^TOP^ Here the target disk is sdb, which is 20 GB in size' ///WARNING/// Be careful! Do not choose the wrong disk. Since all the data on the target disk will be overwritten!!! Select if the source file system need to be checked or not: Select the mode you want after the disk cloning is done: By default we will choose later, but if you have decided, you can choose to reboot or poweroff the machine. Clonezilla shows you the complete command to run this disk to disk clone action: Start cloning^TOP^ Before doing the real cloning, Clonezilla will ask confirmation: Ask confirmation agin: Now Clonezilla starts cloning, first it will prepare a pseudo image of source disk Then Clonezilla creates partition table on the destination disk: Clonezilla is cloning the data from source disk to destination disk: Disk is cloned^TOP^ When everything is done, Clonezilla will prompt you if about reboot, poweroff, etc. Then we choose poweroff: and the machine will be halted: That's all. The new hard drive is ready to be used. You can remove the old (8 GB) disk from your machine, and put the new one (20 GB) in your machine. Boot it, you can enjoy the new disk. //NOTE// You can only keep one of the disks in the same machine before you boot it. If you boot the machine with the source disk and the cloned destination disk on the same machine, the booting OS will be confused since there are two identical file systems on the same machine. They have same UUID so the booting OS might mount the wrong file system.

We all understand the necessity of data backups, and an excellent hard drive cloning software for Mac can easily copy all the data from your hard drive, in case the data gets corrupted accidentally. Although Apple also offers its in-built mechanism, Time Machine, to make copies of your system in an external drive, the free best cloning software for Mac helps you to safely settle your data in another location without the need of an external drive.

Although, one can back up their data through cloud services like Right Backup now and then, a Mac hard drive clone software gives you additional features like disk partition, the security of data location and ease of restoring the data the way you like.

Also Read :How To Fix It: External Hard Drive Not Showing Up On Mac

We all believe that Mac is a robust machine; however, every device tends to slow down, due to wear and tear over time. Hence, it is advisable to keep the backup of your data with any of the Mac hard drive cloning apps so that you can transfer it from one system to another whenever required. So, here are some of the most reliable hard drive cloning software for Mac free explained below.

I recently upgraded my NVME raid 0 setup to new drives. Rather than clone I used WinPE recovery media to make a backup of the original raid 0 array to a secondary external drive. I then removed the old drives and installed the new ones. Then I booted the computer entering the bios and setup the new drives as a raid 0 array. How to Clone HDD to Server 2008 R2 using Clonezilla and NFS.

How To Select Cloning Software For Mac?

You can look for the attributes mentioned below to find if the software you have come across is worth testing.

• Advanced features like extraction of data when needed, getting volume video files, etc.
• Easy to use and understand for a beginner who is new to technology and in a hurry to get the data copied.
• It must be compatible with all the latest versions of macOS like Catalina.
• The software must not be tagged with viruses, malware or adware that hampers the overall security of the system.

Keeping these factors in mind, we have collated some software that helps in hard drive cloning of Mac.

Best Hard Drive Cloning Software for mac

Software	Features	Price
1. EaseUS Todo Backup	Disk cloning Image backup Cloud backup	Starts $29.95 (30 days trial)
3. Stellar Drive Clone	Disk image creation Clones NTFS partition	Starts $39 (Free download & 30 days money-back guarantee)
2. Carbon Copy Cloner	Transfers files from block level instead of file to file. Cloning coach to assist in making the right choice.	Starts $39.99
4. Clonezilla	MBR & GPT partitions supported AES-256 encryption supported	Free and Open source
5. SuperDuper	Straightforward bootable hard drive cloning Organize disk management flow	Starts $30
6. ChronoSync	Creates a backup on the cloud. Schedule automatic cloning of disk.	Starts $40

1. EaseUS Todo Backup

Whether one wants to look for hard drive cloning on Mac for commercial or non-commercial purposes, EaseUS never fails to amuse Mac or Windows users. It is compatible with macOS 10.15 Catalina and secures your data from getting lost when you set it up in an automated stealth mode for backup. Cloning your disk volume allows you to boot the disk any moment and migrate to a new device.

Pros:

• Paid versions support advanced features like email backup, offsite copy, etc.

Cons:

• There are issues with file sync and mirroring.

Download: EaseUS Todo Backup

2. Stellar Drive Clone

This free disk cloning software for Mac effectively protects your data from system failure. It creates an identical and ready to use a copy of your hard drive and even makes the partitions in the same way as they are in the actual location. Thankfully, this cloning software for Mac supports cloning like HFS-to-HFS, FAT-to-FAT, and NTFS-to-ExFAT. It can even clone encrypted Mac drives and volumes. So, before you upgrade your Mac, make sure that the data is cloned in a separate location.

Pros:

• It can clone exFAT formatted devices. Also, cloning of Mac hard drive to SSD, and vice versa is also possible.

Download:Stellar Drive Clone

3. Carbon Copy Cloner

Carbon Copy Cloner is pretty much standing alone for hard drive cloning of Mac. It is because of the legacy, ease of use and many pointers & hints to guide you through the process of cloning. You can easily arrange your tasks in the tool ranging from Bootable backup, RAID backup, scheduled backup, etc. Whenever you are facing difficulties in running the system, ask for the tips or solutions. Moreover, you can even control your preferences via the Preferences tab with Carbon Copy Cloner.

Cons:

• It does not integrate with cloud backup systems.

Download:Carbon Copy Cloner

4. Clonezilla

Clonezilla can be called the best free cloning software for Mac that helps in system deployment, metal backup and recovery. File systems supported include ext, FAT, HFS+, VMFS3 and more, LVM, etc. The good thing about Clonezilla is AES-256 encryption to secure the data and its storage.

Pros:

• BitTorrent is supported in the Clonezilla lite server.

Cons:

• Differential or incremental backup is not supported.

Download:Clonezilla

5. SuperDuper

The reason why SuperDuper is called the best Mac hard drive clone software is its simple user interface and ease of use even for a beginner. Once you explore inside, you will find the disk management flow and variety of scripts built inside the tool which can be later used to back up the data. Not just this, advanced features allow the user to control which files need to be copied or ignored from one drive to another. And yes, if anything goes wrong, then you can always roll back the system to avoid unexpected errors. Quite apt and worthy of trying the software for hard drive cloning of Mac.

Download:SuperDuper

6. ChronoSync

As ChronoSync saves your chosen cloned data on the cloud, it naturally makes space in the system side by side. In the beginning, you need to create a synchronizer task where the selection of source and destination drive is being made. Along with this, you can make rules and preferences as per your requirements. This will help you to create a backup. You may find that completion of tasks may take a little longer, but impressive results would want you to download this fantastic cloning software for Mac.

Pros:

• Setup assistant is available for management of tasks.

Download:ChronoSync

Pro Tip

Where Hard drive cloning software maintains the health of the system at one end, one shall also keep the system optimized to save from accidents that could cause loss of data instantly. So how could one keep their system optimized in a better way? Using CleanMyMac X!

CleanMyMac X is a powerful tool to leave Mac clutter free and frees up space for saving files in the future. It handles the responsibility of protecting your system by uninstalling the unwanted apps, cleaning the browser history & cookies, and removing the heavy CPU consumers side by side.

FAQs: Best Mac Hard Drive Clone Software

1. What is the best cloning software for Mac?

EaseUS Todo Backup for Mac and Carbon Copy Cloner are the hard drive cloning software for Mac for their efficiency and accuracy of results.

Clonezilla Vs Ghost

2. What is the best free software to clone a hard drive?

Clonezilla is one of the best free and open-source software to clone a hard drive. However, other software like EaseUS and Carbon Copy Cloner offers a free trial and money-back guarantee for user’s satisfaction.

Conclusion

All the cloning software for Mac that are being discussed above are exceptionally amazing. When you talk about SuperDuper, it is very straightforward in cloning your hard drive whereas when it comes to EaseUS Todo, it comes with lots of other features which is why the world trusts it. We also recommend EaseUS Todo, but you must also look for Stellar Drive Clone and Chronosync for their features.

Clonezilla Image File Extension

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