How To Clone An Existing Drive Repair Guide

Difficulty

Easy

Steps

Time Required

                          3 - 4 hours

Sections

How to Install a 2.5" Hard Drive into an External Enclosure
6 steps
How to Clone an Existing Drive
9 steps

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Introduction

(SuperDuper is now compatible with Big Sur & Monterey.)

NOTE: With the introduction of macOS Catalina, certain steps in this guide are out of date.

IMPORTANT: Cloning the hard drive is not recommended if you have a Mac that uses a recovery partition (MacOS 10.7 - present) or internet recovery (2011 - present). Instead, to move your data to a new drive, first create a backup of your existing drive. Then, either use internet recovery or create a bootable external drive so you’ll be ready to install macOS onto your new drive and migrate your data afterward.

If you are happy with your existing operating system installation and would simply like to upgrade your hard drive capacity, you can clone your existing hard drive to your new drive.

To clone a hard drive, you will need a way to connect the second hard drive to your Mac. Our 2.5" Hard Drive Enclosure or one of our Hard Drive Upgrade Kits works great for cloning your drive over.

To clone your hard drive, we recommend a program called SuperDuper!, by Shirt Pocket Software.

The following instructions assume that you’ll be using SuperDuper! and the 2.5" hard drive enclosure to clone onto a new 2.5" drive. If you are using a different setup, your installation process may be somewhat different.

What you need

Step 1

              Install the drive into the enclosure

Before you begin, look at your hard drive’s ports and make sure that it has the right connectors:
Narrow data port
Wide power port

Before you begin, look at your hard drive’s ports and make sure that it has the right connectors:

Narrow data port

Wide power port

1024

Step 2

              Open the enclosure

Use the included screwdriver to remove the two Phillips screws.

Use the included screwdriver to remove the two Phillips screws.

Step 3

Slide the plastic tray out of the aluminum housing.

Slide the plastic tray out of the aluminum housing.

Step 4

              Install the SSD

Set the drive in the plastic tray and align the drive ports with the tray socket.
To prevent strain on the enclosure socket, lay the drive as flat against the tray as possible.
Carefully push the drive into the tray socket to seat the ports.
Press the drive’s raised edge down into the plastic tray.
If the drive edge catches on the foam block, the drive is not fully seated against the tray socket. Continue pressing the drive into the socket until it clears the foam block.

Set the drive in the plastic tray and align the drive ports with the tray socket.

To prevent strain on the enclosure socket, lay the drive as flat against the tray as possible.

Carefully push the drive into the tray socket to seat the ports.

Press the drive’s raised edge down into the plastic tray.

If the drive edge catches on the foam block, the drive is not fully seated against the tray socket. Continue pressing the drive into the socket until it clears the foam block.

Step 5

Flip the drive tray over.
Use the a Phillips screwdriver to install the four mounting screws (included in the kit) to secure the drive to the tray.

Flip the drive tray over.

Use the a Phillips screwdriver to install the four mounting screws (included in the kit) to secure the drive to the tray.

Step 6

Slide the tray back into the aluminum housing.
Reinstall the two Phillips screws to secure the tray.

Slide the tray back into the aluminum housing.

Reinstall the two Phillips screws to secure the tray.

Step 7

              How to Clone an Existing Drive

Power on your Mac and wait for it to fully load.
Plug the enclosure into your Mac’s USB port.

Power on your Mac and wait for it to fully load.

Plug the enclosure into your Mac’s USB port.

Step 8

Under the Go pulldown menu, select Utilities.
Open Disk Utility from the Utilities window.

Under the Go pulldown menu, select Utilities.

Open Disk Utility from the Utilities window.

Step 9

Select your new hard drive from the left column in Disk Utility.
If the new drive is not showing up, disconnect the enclosure and check if the hard drive is properly connected to the enclosure.
Select the Erase option near the top row of buttons.
Select a name for your new drive, and select “APFS” for the format.
Warning: Pressing the erase button will erase the entire contents of the drive. Make sure you have selected the new hard drive!
Press the erase button.
This process may take up to 10 minutes, so be patient.
Quit Disk Utility once the erase is complete.

Select your new hard drive from the left column in Disk Utility.

If the new drive is not showing up, disconnect the enclosure and check if the hard drive is properly connected to the enclosure.

Select the Erase option near the top row of buttons.

Select a name for your new drive, and select “APFS” for the format.

Warning: Pressing the erase button will erase the entire contents of the drive. Make sure you have selected the new hard drive!

Press the erase button.

This process may take up to 10 minutes, so be patient.

Quit Disk Utility once the erase is complete.

Step 10

Download and install SuperDuper!
Under the Go pulldown menu, select Applications.
Open SuperDuper!

Download and install SuperDuper!

Under the Go pulldown menu, select Applications.

Open SuperDuper!

Step 11

In the copy pulldown menu, select your current drive.
In the destination pulldown menu, select the new drive.
In the method pulldown menu, select “Backup—all files”.

In the copy pulldown menu, select your current drive.

In the destination pulldown menu, select the new drive.

In the method pulldown menu, select “Backup—all files”.

Step 12

Press the “Copy Now” button.
If prompted, provide your password.
Click “Copy” when warned about erasing the drive.

Press the “Copy Now” button.

If prompted, provide your password.

Click “Copy” when warned about erasing the drive.

Step 13

Wait for the drive to copy (this could take several hours if you have a lot on your hard drive).
When prompted for registration by SuperDuper!, either choose “Register” to purchase the software or “Later” to register later.
After the copy is complete, click “Ok” and quit SuperDuper!

Wait for the drive to copy (this could take several hours if you have a lot on your hard drive).

When prompted for registration by SuperDuper!, either choose “Register” to purchase the software or “Later” to register later.

After the copy is complete, click “Ok” and quit SuperDuper!

Step 14

At this point, your new hard drive should be a clone of your existing drive and ready to install.
However, we recommend testing the cloned drive before physically swapping the drives. This can be done by attempting to boot from the new cloned drive through the USB enclosure.
Keep the enclosure connected to the computer and restart the computer. Hold down the “option” key as it reboots until a boot option menu shows up.

At this point, your new hard drive should be a clone of your existing drive and ready to install.

However, we recommend testing the cloned drive before physically swapping the drives. This can be done by attempting to boot from the new cloned drive through the USB enclosure.

Keep the enclosure connected to the computer and restart the computer. Hold down the “option” key as it reboots until a boot option menu shows up.

Step 15

Select your new hard drive from the boot option menu.
Wait for the computer to boot up to verify if it works properly.
Your new hard drive is now ready to be installed in your computer.

Select your new hard drive from the boot option menu.

Wait for the computer to boot up to verify if it works properly.

Your new hard drive is now ready to be installed in your computer.

Remove your new hard drive from the external enclosure and install it in your computer. Installation instructions are available for a variety of Macs.

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                    Mike

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Melissa Smith - Feb 4, 2017

jimkidd1 - Feb 23, 2017

Great except you extol the use of the SATA Wondercable but you don’t sell it hen I followed the link to eBay, it listed dozens of various adapters. I did not see this SATA Wondercable.

Disappointed with the answer

charlesspowell - Jul 17, 2018

Wow! Thank you Mike.

Everything went very well with a big bonus. My older version of Photoshop does not work with the newer Mac operating systems. Now that I installed a new 1TB hard drive, I can upgrade OS if I want. Then I can use the old drive in an internal enclosure replacing the DVD running the old OS X keeping all of my older Adobe apps!

Ifixit rocks!

BuckNYC - Jul 21, 2018

If I have a BootCamp partition, will it clone that as well?

Arthur Shi - Jul 23, 2018

Hi BuckNYC,

As far as I know, SuperDuper will not clone the BootCamp partition. You will have to use something like Winclone to do that.

Introduction#

What you need#

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Introduction

What you need

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