Thank you for this video. In 23 years of IT, I've rarely encountered Macs. I need to clone a Mac Book Pro's hard drive to an SSD and you made my day easier. I don't even have to install a 3rd party utility! Much appreciated.
You are a life saver, my SSD wasn't detected as boot drive because I didn't partitioned it as same as old one (MacOs extended journal), thanks to you I figured it out😎
OK... real talk GUNNER TIERNO... take a bow! This has worked to perfection on my Mac. Im a DJ in Vegas and got thousands and thousands of music files and videos. EVERYTHING popped right back up on the new Samsung 860 EVO 1TB. Faster & smoother. In the past I always used "Super Duper" and at the end of the whole process it would of taken me at least 1 day in a half. After all the files (iOS, my music programs, videos, etc.) I would have to my Serato do a "relocate" which took a whole day to do. Your process to only 2 1/2 hours and I didn't even have to "relocate" my files. Everything popped right back up on my Macbook Pro 2012, 16gb ram, i5 3.1, High Sierra, and now the Samsung SSD. My laptop now is super fast and powerful! I shared this with my other DJs around the country so Thanks! A+ ~DJ LAROSE ROYCE
This video still takes the cake in September 2022. Watched countless videos on how to do this, and yours is the best. I’ve been dealing with having a slow imac for years and you helped me fix all of that in just 10 minutes. Truly, thank you!
It took me about 60 minutes watching several videos and reading a bunch of google searches to figure this out. Never found anything that said that, read your comment after I figured it out, I wish I would of started off with this video and read your comment!
*SOLUTION* for those with *13" MBP mid 2012 with MojaveOS and internal HD formatted as APFS* Do the following, since Disk Utility won't work: 1) Connect your SSD with SATA-usb connection and erase it as the same format as your HD (APFS). 2) Download and install MojaveOS in your SSD. 3) Boot/start up WITH your SSD; you won't have nothing, it's clean and empty but with MojaveOS. 4) Open Migration Assistant and move/migrate ALL your data, apps, documents etc 'from a BackUp or from the same drive to this Mac'. It will basically move all your hard drive to your SSD, since you've started up/booted from your SSD, so your SSD is 'This Mac', if that makes sense. Will take a little while but will be done 5) The cloning is done! If u want to double check everything looks as with your HD, just start up your computer again with your SSD and see that your desktop, apps, everything is the same! (Should be! it was for me doing these steps) 6) Just turn everything off, leave for 30 minutes minimum and swap the drives internally. And that's it! It should obviously start with your SSD, which is your internal drive now and everything will be how it was before with your HD. Thanks for everything, Gunner Tierno!
Remember, you can download Mojave into the new SSD when you boot the computer in recovery mode. An option it gives is to “reinstall macOS” and you choose the new SSD 👍🏼
Can you tell me now how to get my bootcamp partition on my new ssd? I've got Mojave and my apps and have cloned the bootcamp partition using disk utility so I have a bootcamp.dmg file but don't know what to do with it now. The ssd is in APFS format
Thank you so much for this comment. I followed the video 📹 and ran into the same problem. I was really frustrated. But I used migration like you said and it worked Thank you so much sir I really appreciate 👍
@@GunnerTierno mine says while restoring while booting Not recognise /Dev/null as an image file Could not get source volume Operation failed.. What do I do
couldn't agree more. i've watched a dozen or so other videos and this one is top notch, simple, well explained and easy to follow. i'm super novice on this stuff, but i just followed the steps to a T and it worked perfectly
I thought you were extremely drunk at the beginning of the video, but by the end I've managed to clone my hard drive easily and now ready to fit haha cheers man
The most important thing here is that the guy gives easy and clear instructions for the task at hand, not that he is mispronouncig couple of words. All you laughers should get a life!
Hi Gunner. Thank you for taking the time to put together this video. I used it to install and clone a new SSD in a 2013 MacBook Pro. Your method made much more sense than trying to restore using the Time Machine Back-up method. Your instructions were easy to understand and you took the time to explain things in detail. Thanks again. Great work!
My wife has a 2015 21.5" iMac that has become really slow. I've learned that the HD in these is usually the problem. So, I am replacing it with a Samsung SSD. Your video gave me all I needed to clone the new drive. The process worked perfectly! For whatever reason all of the OS and data cloned in about half an hour. But, I restarted after the clone, and everything is there! Thanks so much! You're the man!
Great video man, helped me a lot. I cloned my macOS Catalina APFS to an SSD. I just made sure the Filevault is turned off and the disk is decrypted. After that I followed your steps and it worked perfectly! Thanks.
Hi Gunner, Great help. I used to clone a hard drive to a ssd drive in Mac OS Catalina. It seems with Catalina, we need to proceed as you did, going into Recovery mode to clone it. However, I had a doubt that others may have. In Catalina, there are two partitions, with the almost the same name being the biggest called Macintosh HD - Data. I used this one to clone as a source and the disk utility created two in the ssd drive, like the source hard drive. So, if others have this doubt, copy the Macintosh HD - Data and it may work well as it did for me. Keep doing these great videos.
I’ve been sitting on all my upgrade “stuff” until I found this answer. Thank you! I was worried if I chose Mac HD-Data, that it would not allow the OS to boot.
You're an absolute legend for this. I used this video to speed my Mac. I run the Hard Drive externally and it made an unbelievable difference. Thanks for making the video so easy to follow along with.
Great video! I ran into a few problems that required extra steps while upgrading an early 2011 Macbook Pro. The new SSD I installed was 250GB while the HDD I cloned was 320GB. This required me to create a new partition on the HDD that was a little larger than the difference between the HDD and the SSD (i.e. 320GB-250GB=70GB Partition). I made the new partion 75GB just for a little extra room. The HDD now has a 245GB partition containing the macOS and my data plus a new 75GB empty partition. At that point I was able to clone the 245GB HDD partition to the 250GB SSD. Works great? Hope this may help someone with a similar problem.
you're an absolute lifesaver I've been through crazy amounts of videos trying to restore ,cope my old 2012 Mac hdd .. this work like a charm.. I'm a complete newbie when it comes to Mac... subscribed:-)
For anyone struggling with an error when you restore in recovery mode: I was seeing an error message "restore process has failed" and when opening the details saw "could not recognize 'dev/(null)'", so I did some digging and found if you boot into internet recovery mode, you're fully disconnected from both the current HDD and the recovery drive. From there, I was able to "unlock" the Macintosh HD with your standard OS password and recovery seems to be going well
This video is an absolute life saver! I know next to nothing about computers and I just successfully installed a new 500GB SSD into my old late 2010 Macbook Pro. Even though I'm still waiting on my new RAM sticks to come in...the computer is running considerably faster as is. I started and stopped this video all the way though the process and it worked perfectly. THANK YOU!!
Si ce l'ho fatta, ho clonato la memoria principale (Macintosh HD, non Macintosh HD-data) nell'SSD nuovo e lo ho impostato come disco di avvio. Ha funzionato
This video is great. I have a question though that I just tried to research... When upgrading to Catalina you are given two internal drives: 1. Macintosh HD 2. Macintosh HD - Data Apparently this only happens once you've installed Catalina. Some security measure Apple took in this OS. My question is when I get to the part when I'm in recovery (or earlier???) which drive to I restore? And if I restore both how do I go about doing that. I was so excited to find your video because it's so easy to understand and follow but now I'm not quite sure how I clone/recovery now? Any help would be great! Thank you!
I’ve searched all over for the answer to this! On this thread, some people have said to choose Macintosh HD-Data and it worked fine. I will probably back everything up and try it.
Excellent and to the point videos without crap and everything explained thoroughly without confusion. I was a bit confused to clone my friends Mac to his new SSD. Now I can do it without a hiccup. You are grrrrreat!
Great video! My wife's computer. First time she tried it she did not change the settings that allowed the computer to go to sleep. Newer version of High Sierra OIS perhaps because the process was slightly different. Did not need to restart the computer in recovery mode. Computer went to sleep in the process and caused an error in the cloning process. DON'T ALLOW YOUR COMPUTER TO SLEEP and it'll work.
I am absolutely thrilled with this video. I followed your instructions step by step and was successful. Thank you for providing this high quality instructional video. You saved me a lot of grief and lost time and money having to take this to a Mac center which is over an hour away from me. You have an excellent way of presenting technical material.
Excellent tutorial, absolutely perfect! You made it easy work to follow something that seemed quite intimidating to carry out. Your clear, concise instructions took away any fears I had! Thank you!
I finally did it! Went to MicroCenter bought the cheapest 256GB SSD $29 and follwed your directions. i went from a 2min 30sec start up time to 21seconds! It's like a bran new computer. Thank You!
oh i was reading regarding issues relating to APFS (Encrypted) on the internal HD and some faced difficulties while doing recovery. How do i go about this?
Great tutorial video! 👍🏼 I got a MacBook Pro (13”, early 2011) OS X Yosemite. Processor 2.3 GHz Intel Core i5 Memory 4 GB 1333 MHz DDR3 Graphics Intel HD Graphics 3000 384 MB Bought a Samsung 860 EVO 1tb SSD and 16 gb RAM. will be installing in the next few days. When doing this cloning with this method does it matter what MacOS you currently running? Pros and Cons of doing it this method or using Carbon Cloner? Thanks
Thank you very much Gunner! I am cloning for a late 2008 MacBook Pro. I just wanted to add that when in disk utilities there was no restore button to choose! But, I found it at the top of the screen in the drop down menu. It unmounted and mounted both. It took my cool name and changed it to the exact name of the internal drive, so you just have to decide to choose internal or external. Thx again! You are making me look like a tech wizard to my family. Keep up the great work! And, with those glasses, can I call you,”Hollywood “ ? 😃
Thanks so much! This video was perfect and so much better than all the rest I found. My mid2012 MBpro 15 feels like a new computer with the upgraded 1Tb SSD from the old 512 HD. As an example startup previously took 3.5min.... now under 30 sec from a full system power off.
The best OS X tutorial I have seen in all my years on RUclips. I will still wait to hear back from you. I got adventurous and installed Catalina Beta. Its stopping my password program, so I want to downgrade, but how? I thought Time Machine would simply restore, but now I find its not a clone, only individual files. Would you do a safe reformat which would put it back to El Capitan (late 2015 5K) and then have to get it back up to Mojave, or is there an even better way? I subbed and clicked the notification.
@@GunnerTierno Great suggestion. I took the path of least resistance and dumped the password manager for something better. Catalina works flawlessly on the 70 or paid programs I have. How is Catalina for you?
Hey man, awesome video but I had a quick question. If my mid 2012 MBP is formatted in APFS currently, should I change it to Mac OS extended Journaled? I'm replacing the current hard drive with a SSD but backing it up with just time machine and a separate external hard drive. Is it alright if i just match it with APFS when I switch to the new SSD?
If your MacBook is encrypted, you will need to unencrypt the HD before you can restore the SSD. You’ll have to turn off Firevault in privacy settings (which takes forever).
Fantastic. I've just cloned my MacBook Pro 2012 to a new SSD using just this video and it was easy. Never done anything like it before. You're the Man!
It was all fine until I tryed the external SSD (After the migration). It starts and in the middle of the loading appear a "prohibition" sign, and it stopped. Any help?
Just used this guide to update my late 2013 27” iMac from its old slow internal drive to a new Samsung 860 EVO. Worked flawlessly on the fist try! Thanks for making this great video tutorial!
Hey! Great videos! Just watched this and the second part waiting for the SSDs and RAM I ordered. Do you know if apps like PP, AE and FL Studio will work just fine after cloning the HD? Keep up the awesome content!
Thanks, thanks, thanks. Used this today to replace 5400 HDD in my 2014 Mac Mini 2.6ghz 8gb. It was getting lethargic and now is practically instant! For reference the new SSD would not boot from Startup after data transferred to test. The choice was there but it just hung up. After waiting 20 minutes I restarted, went to disk utility and compared drives. The volumes were identical (within half gig) and I made the swap. So grateful! Almost as fast as my iOS devices.
Thank you, thank you. I have viewed several other people doing this but only yours gave me the confidence to do it to my 2015 iMac. I have just finished fitting a 2TB Crucial MX500 and it works!!! It's about 10 times faster to startup and my office suite, which used to take about 15 seconds, started in 1 yes one(1) second. I'm very impressed. Thank you again
Save a step. Plug in External Hard Drive - THEN Reboot your Mac to Recovery Mode - Then Erase your New Drive and continue with the rest of your procedures. Sam difference but most don't know you can reboot into Recovery mode at any time (assuming you have it). HINT. I always create a "disk image" of my computer and save it on an external drive. If your computer is running poorly or has too much junk on it - Once you have a clone or your hard drive - You might want to boot into recovery mode and ERASE your primary drive. Then Restore your Mac OS.(need Network connection). Once you restore your OS - you will have a clean operating system again and it may run like new again!
That is exactly what I am planning to do tonight when I get home. What did you mean you need to have a network connection? If you are in recovery mode how can you be connected to the internet? May be I misunderstand what you meant.
Did you find an answer to this? HD and HD - Data are from Catalina upgrade where HD is now read-only for start up files. I cannot proceed with this much needed move to a SSD boot disk until I know how this affects things. Cheers
@@GunnerTierno Hi! When you made this video, were you using OSX El Capitan? I haven't upgraded my OS yet, the new one is Catalina.. Should I clone my HD to my SSD while I have El Capitan or do I upgrade first.
@@rebesway I thought so after I saw your post was a year old. I was thinking a better option would be to do a clean install and then do as Javi (about five comments lower) suggested, to use migration assistant to transfer your old data. I curious to know what you did and then how did it work out?
@@NormBellas I actually followed this video.. bought an external Hard Drive enclosure that allowed me to plug in the SSD and clone it with Disk Utility. Went perfectly. But now I'm thinking of upgrading to the new M1 MBP 13'
Thanks for posting this. I’ll call myself a Mac newbie. I used to work on them a lot back in the 90s and am getting back into the world of Apple. One caveat with the video. Your destination clone drive must be at least equal to or greater in size of the original drive or the restore will fail. My original drive was 499GB and new SSD was 479GB. Restore complained of lack of disk space. Fortunately I had another 512GB SSD and it worked perfectly.
So, just to be absolutely clear about this, this process will move everything that is on my current HD over to my recently purchased SSD drive, correct? The reason I ask is: 1) I am not too tech savvy (but your video looks easy enough to follow) 2) Other videos I have seen seem to want me to download a copy of a macOS installer application file(to get the .app file) and then create a USB boot drive from there. Of course, they aren't clear about the process and that's why I am not sure what they are talking about.
It worked!!! I was a little concerned because my system has these weird partitions but it was all good. Only thing, make sure your Original HD is not encrypted. This will save you time an frustration.
yes i think it's because Catalina...which partition do you have to select and clone? MACINTOSH HD or MACINTOSH HD DATA? and do you need to select AFTS when you erase/format the new SSD at the start? before try anything i want to be sure and I hope you can reply to my question ..thanks
Hi dbradford22, I've got a macbook pro 15inch mid 2012 Mac OS Mojave 10.14.1 and am trying to upgrade to SSD. My HD is APFS Encrypted!! Is there a way to de-encrypt the HD first? Will is it still be possible to clone as encrypted? Thanks very much
Thanks man for the video. I was trying to find out how to clone my hard drive without using a third party application. This video helped a lot and now I have a backup clone just in case the internal drive fails. Thanks again!
Doing this tomorrow, wish me luck!!! Very very very helpful and detailed Thank you very much Only a little question: If I do this operation, does this copy the operating system as well? So if I copy everything like you did in the video, Can I mount the ssd right away?
Absolutely perfect. Shame I wasted time looking at other videos first which didn't mention the "safe mode" reboot and didn't explain everything as well as you did.
Hello Gunner Tierno, a very well done video, with clear explanation, congrats!!!. Just one question. The SSD disk, must be similar in size (GB) as the one is going to be cloned??? My MBP has a HDD of 750GB and I'm planning to buy a 960GB (Kingston SA400S37/960G Solid State Drives, 960 GB, 2.5-Inch). I'll really appreciate your kind response, due to I'm about to buy an SSD for my MacBook Pro of mid 2012.
I followed all the instructions to the letter and never got it to work. Got my drive replaced, as I thought it was bad as started again. The first time thru, I formatted as apfs, and that failed to work. All the error codes pointed to guided partition table as the answer. I had turned off file vault and tried with the replacement SSD, and the first format to appear was GPT(guided partition table), so I went with that, and after an hour or two, the drive was cloned and I test booted from it and it worked like the original. Didn’t have to go into recovery mode, it just worked. Swapped drives and put in a new battery and we are gold. Don’t know why it didn’t work the first time, but the video did help.
I recently bought an ssd drive to cloan my Mac HD to. I followed all the steps here but for some reason when I go to check the startup disk, the external drive doesn’t even show as an option to boot from. When I start up on the internal drive I can view the external and see that it copied the data successfully, we’ll except some apps that seem to be grey out or a line going across them. I’ve done this several times but have had no luck. I also show Mac HD and Mac HD Data I’m not sure what that means. Any help will be much appreciated
I think I’m most amazed you got this to work without even knowing how to say SATA correctly or getting the explanations for why you’re doing what you’re doing wrong. ‘Booting from a partition on your drive’.
How long should it take my computer to reboot after final step in recovery mode? I followed instructions to the tee on a 2014 Mac Mini. Clicked Restart & selected the external for the reboot and I now have the beach ball icon spinning for the last 15 minutes or so.
Hi great simple explanatory video by the way ...well hereI go I got a macbook pro late 2009 core 2duo running Mac Os Yosemite and a Mac mini also late 2009 core 2duo also running Mac Os Yosemite ..only the ram is different ...got 8 GB only the Macmini and 4 GB on my Macbook pro ...my question is... since the two are almost identical... will the Mac mini cloned hard disk work on on the macbook pro ?...thanks in advance...you are doing a good job.
thanks for this great video! I have OS Catalina and for me there were 2 volumes showing, one for DATA, so I picked up the other one to be restored into my SSD... when finished, on my SSD now there were 2 volumes, one of them greyed out ( ASRDataVolume ). I clicked on it and went to Restore button again, and was able to select my HD-Data and proceeded with the restore successfully. After that, I selected the Container and clicked on the button "Mount" and left the Utility, and was able to select Startup Disk among the HD and the SSD. Thank You!
Great simple cut and dry how to clone MacOS video, I have a question: could I be able to clone out of Macbook Air and install the SSD(the clone) on a Macbook Pro?
OMG I found this by accident and I’m gonna definitely give this a shot. I’m already waiting for my solid state and when I do I will let you know how it went down. Thank you for a thorough instruction
@@GunnerTierno If I wish to speed up my late 2013 iMac (Catalina OS) by using an SSD as boot disk, which do I have to clone and use as the boot disk? The HD or the HD-Data? The HD, according to what i've read, is read-only start up files…. which sounds kind of important if being used as a boot up disk?! However it is HD-Data where 990gb of the maxed out 1TB storage is sitting. The SSD I've bought is 2TB so i've got headroom. I can't proceed until I know answer to this. A few people have asked the question but they never seem to get a reply from anywhere. Thanks so much, great vid just wish I wasn't already running Catalina!
Hey! Thank you so much for the video! I have only one doubt: could the same process be done with the SSD already installed? The reason I’m asking this is because all the USB ports of my iMac 2011 can’t work anymore. So I thought I could install the SSD first, boot normally from the original drive, then follow all the steps from the video... Would it work?? Thanks again!
You are a genius lifesaver, the way you have the detailed steps explained with clean voice. Brilliant work. I used to relay on Super duper and it failed on me this time, so happened to watch this. One thing I learned from my process was When in DIsk Utility in EL Capitan you have to Go to Edit in the Menu bar and select Restore. Good job!
Had to decrypt my internal hard drive. Following these steps and it appears to be working well. I installed two TIMETEC 8GB cards making the 15" Mac Pro 2012 run 16 GB. Added Samsung 1T SSD hard drive and a new battery. Will use the old 500 GB hard drive for additional external storage. This should be good to go for another 6 years.
should the external hard drive be of the same size/capacity as the internal hard drive to be cloned? i have a 1 TB internal HDD and planning to get a 500gb SSD. thanks!
Thank you for this video. In 23 years of IT, I've rarely encountered Macs. I need to clone a Mac Book Pro's hard drive to an SSD and you made my day easier. I don't even have to install a 3rd party utility! Much appreciated.
In Mojave you don't have to un-mount your drives, just restore and go.
You are a life saver, my SSD wasn't detected as boot drive because I didn't partitioned it as same as old one (MacOs extended journal), thanks to you I figured it out😎
OK... real talk GUNNER TIERNO... take a bow! This has worked to perfection on my Mac. Im a DJ in Vegas and got thousands and thousands of music files and videos. EVERYTHING popped right back up on the new Samsung 860 EVO 1TB. Faster & smoother. In the past I always used "Super Duper" and at the end of the whole process it would of taken me at least 1 day in a half. After all the files (iOS, my music programs, videos, etc.) I would have to my Serato do a "relocate" which took a whole day to do. Your process to only 2 1/2 hours and I didn't even have to "relocate" my files. Everything popped right back up on my Macbook Pro 2012, 16gb ram, i5 3.1, High Sierra, and now the Samsung SSD. My laptop now is super fast and powerful! I shared this with my other DJs around the country so Thanks! A+ ~DJ LAROSE ROYCE
Question, Did it work also with your software previously installed? for instance the software you use to work
@@JeimsBe Yes... everything worked! Only difference is the hard drive! Take the old one out and put the new one in!
I have this different error failed, operation time out and couldn’t be complete error Osstatus error60
This video still takes the cake in September 2022. Watched countless videos on how to do this, and yours is the best. I’ve been dealing with having a slow imac for years and you helped me fix all of that in just 10 minutes. Truly, thank you!
For those using older operating system, their wont be an icon for “restore”. Instead, go to the menu bar, edit, then restore for there :D
THANK YOU
Thank you
I panicked for about 30 seconds before finding your comment. Thanks! 🙏
It took me about 60 minutes watching several videos and reading a bunch of google searches to figure this out. Never found anything that said that, read your comment after I figured it out, I wish I would of started off with this video and read your comment!
Your comment saved me as well. Thanks man
*SOLUTION* for those with *13" MBP mid 2012 with MojaveOS and internal HD formatted as APFS*
Do the following, since Disk Utility won't work:
1) Connect your SSD with SATA-usb connection and erase it as the same format as your HD (APFS).
2) Download and install MojaveOS in your SSD.
3) Boot/start up WITH your SSD; you won't have nothing, it's clean and empty but with MojaveOS.
4) Open Migration Assistant and move/migrate ALL your data, apps, documents etc 'from a BackUp or from the same drive to this Mac'. It will basically move all your hard drive to your SSD, since you've started up/booted from your SSD, so your SSD is 'This Mac', if that makes sense. Will take a little while but will be done
5) The cloning is done! If u want to double check everything looks as with your HD, just start up your computer again with your SSD and see that your desktop, apps, everything is the same! (Should be! it was for me doing these steps)
6) Just turn everything off, leave for 30 minutes minimum and swap the drives internally.
And that's it! It should obviously start with your SSD, which is your internal drive now and everything will be how it was before with your HD.
Thanks for everything, Gunner Tierno!
Javi Carles thank youuuuu
Remember, you can download Mojave into the new SSD when you boot the computer in recovery mode. An option it gives is to “reinstall macOS” and you choose the new SSD 👍🏼
I really wish I read this comment before wasting half a day and re watching this video to make sure I wasn’t missing anything. Thank you so much
Can you tell me now how to get my bootcamp partition on my new ssd? I've got Mojave and my apps and have cloned the bootcamp partition using disk utility so I have a bootcamp.dmg file but don't know what to do with it now. The ssd is in APFS format
Thank you so much for this comment. I followed the video 📹 and ran into the same problem. I was really frustrated. But I used migration like you said and it worked
Thank you so much sir I really appreciate 👍
2022 and i am still coming back to this video. Excellent explanation!
i appreciate that!
Ridiculously well done instructional video.. so much crap out there that is poorly explained. Keep up the good work and thank you!
Thank you for the informative video. Extremely clear and easy to follow.
whats your os at the time of your video? @@GunnerTierno
@@GunnerTierno mine says while restoring while booting
Not recognise /Dev/null as an image file
Could not get source volume
Operation failed..
What do I do
couldn't agree more. i've watched a dozen or so other videos and this one is top notch, simple, well explained and easy to follow. i'm super novice on this stuff, but i just followed the steps to a T and it worked perfectly
elefterios78 ‘’k
I thought you were extremely drunk at the beginning of the video, but by the end I've managed to clone my hard drive easily and now ready to fit haha cheers man
This dude saying STATA kills me haha XD
@@mynditran3123 me too...where'd that extra t come from??😂
@@robertmuckle2985 Tourette's syndrome?
I think he lost his man card when he called a button a "buddon".
Stopped watching the instant I heard that and found another video.
The most important thing here is that the guy gives easy and clear instructions for the task at hand, not that he is mispronouncig couple of words. All you laughers should get a life!
Here in Holland from an old grandma. Thank you so much! Explained very cleary.
Yes, a good explanation. I am from Indonesia also understood it very well
Hi Gunner. Thank you for taking the time to put together this video. I used it to install and clone a new SSD in a 2013 MacBook Pro. Your method made much more sense than trying to restore using the Time Machine Back-up method. Your instructions were easy to understand and you took the time to explain things in detail. Thanks again. Great work!
My wife has a 2015 21.5" iMac that has become really slow. I've learned that the HD in these is usually the problem. So, I am replacing it with a Samsung SSD. Your video gave me all I needed to clone the new drive. The process worked perfectly! For whatever reason all of the OS and data cloned in about half an hour. But, I restarted after the clone, and everything is there! Thanks so much! You're the man!
Great video man, helped me a lot. I cloned my macOS Catalina APFS to an SSD. I just made sure the Filevault is turned off and the disk is decrypted. After that I followed your steps and it worked perfectly! Thanks.
Did you clone using Mac HD or Mac HD-Data? Thanks!
Would you perhaps know if it also copy’s my windows partition I have installed on my Mac? Or would it exclude that … or do I like need to select it?
Hi Gunner,
Great help. I used to clone a hard drive to a ssd drive in Mac OS Catalina. It seems with Catalina, we need to proceed as you did, going into Recovery mode to clone it. However, I had a doubt that others may have. In Catalina, there are two partitions, with the almost the same name being the biggest called Macintosh HD - Data. I used this one to clone as a source and the disk utility created two in the ssd drive, like the source hard drive. So, if others have this doubt, copy the Macintosh HD - Data and it may work well as it did for me.
Keep doing these great videos.
HI, helpful comment! Did you format the new ssd to APFS (just like the source HD)?
Stimulatedsoulrec Yes, APFS with journaling.
Thanks! Worked exactly as you said: restore the HD-data and the other partition was created as well.
I’ve been sitting on all my upgrade “stuff” until I found this answer. Thank you! I was worried if I chose Mac HD-Data, that it would not allow the OS to boot.
At last!!!! Just scrolled through 5 months of comments on this video before found this answer!!!! thank you
You're an absolute legend for this. I used this video to speed my Mac. I run the Hard Drive externally and it made an unbelievable difference. Thanks for making the video so easy to follow along with.
Great video! I ran into a few problems that required extra steps while upgrading an early 2011 Macbook Pro. The new SSD I installed was 250GB while the HDD I cloned was 320GB. This required me to create a new partition on the HDD that was a little larger than the difference between the HDD and the SSD (i.e. 320GB-250GB=70GB Partition). I made the new partion 75GB just for a little extra room. The HDD now has a 245GB partition containing the macOS and my data plus a new 75GB empty partition. At that point I was able to clone the 245GB HDD partition to the 250GB SSD. Works great? Hope this may help someone with a similar problem.
you're an absolute lifesaver I've been through crazy amounts of videos trying to restore ,cope my old 2012 Mac hdd .. this work like a charm.. I'm a complete newbie when it comes to Mac... subscribed:-)
For anyone struggling with an error when you restore in recovery mode:
I was seeing an error message "restore process has failed" and when opening the details saw "could not recognize 'dev/(null)'", so I did some digging and found if you boot into internet recovery mode, you're fully disconnected from both the current HDD and the recovery drive. From there, I was able to "unlock" the Macintosh HD with your standard OS password and recovery seems to be going well
How do you do this? I keep getting the error message even when I manually unmount both the Mac HD and the new SSD
@@Duojett71 where you able to fix it ?
@@alvaritowdiesel1 yes I eventually got it....but it was 10 months ago....so I don't remember what I did.
This video is an absolute life saver! I know next to nothing about computers and I just successfully installed a new 500GB SSD into my old late 2010 Macbook Pro. Even though I'm still waiting on my new RAM sticks to come in...the computer is running considerably faster as is. I started and stopped this video all the way though the process and it worked perfectly. THANK YOU!!
Hi Gunner, I have two internal storages named Macintosh HD and Macintosh HD - data in APFS Volume, which one I have to copy?
I have the same thing I cloned Macintosh HD and it cloned both mac HD and mac HD data but I'm having trouble booting it from the usb
@@kibukirichards5873 did you make it? before try i want to be sure what to do.. thanks
ce l 'hai fatta poi?
Si ce l'ho fatta, ho clonato la memoria principale (Macintosh HD, non Macintosh HD-data) nell'SSD nuovo e lo ho impostato come disco di avvio. Ha funzionato
This video is great. I have a question though that I just tried to research... When upgrading to Catalina you are given two internal drives:
1. Macintosh HD
2. Macintosh HD - Data
Apparently this only happens once you've installed Catalina. Some security measure Apple took in this OS. My question is when I get to the part when I'm in recovery (or earlier???) which drive to I restore? And if I restore both how do I go about doing that. I was so excited to find your video because it's so easy to understand and follow but now I'm not quite sure how I clone/recovery now? Any help would be great! Thank you!
I’ve searched all over for the answer to this! On this thread, some people have said to choose Macintosh HD-Data and it worked fine. I will probably back everything up and try it.
Excellent and to the point videos without crap and everything explained thoroughly without confusion. I was a bit confused to clone my friends Mac to his new SSD. Now I can do it without a hiccup. You are grrrrreat!
Great video! My wife's computer. First time she tried it she did not change the settings that allowed the computer to go to sleep. Newer version of High Sierra OIS perhaps because the process was slightly different. Did not need to restart the computer in recovery mode. Computer went to sleep in the process and caused an error in the cloning process. DON'T ALLOW YOUR COMPUTER TO SLEEP and it'll work.
I am absolutely thrilled with this video. I followed your instructions step by step and was successful. Thank you for providing this high quality instructional video. You saved me a lot of grief and lost time and money having to take this to a Mac center which is over an hour away from me. You have an excellent way of presenting technical material.
In disk utility click the view all top left to make sure you see the partition type as well when comparing drive types and formats
Excellent tutorial, absolutely perfect! You made it easy work to follow something that seemed quite intimidating to carry out. Your clear, concise instructions took away any fears I had! Thank you!
..
I followed you step by step and brought my old 2012 Mac back to life !!! It was so easy ! You are the man !!!
After so many videos, yours takes the cake; clearly explained and straight to the point. Thank you!
I finally did it! Went to MicroCenter bought the cheapest 256GB SSD $29 and follwed your directions. i went from a 2min 30sec start up time to 21seconds! It's like a bran new computer. Thank You!
oh i was reading regarding issues relating to APFS (Encrypted) on the internal HD and some faced difficulties while doing recovery. How do i go about this?
I m trying to figure it out . Even my system hdd is apfs encrypted which doesn’t match with my new ssd format Mac OS extended( journaled)
Great tutorial video! 👍🏼
I got a MacBook Pro (13”, early 2011)
OS X Yosemite.
Processor 2.3 GHz Intel Core i5
Memory 4 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
Graphics Intel HD Graphics 3000 384 MB
Bought a Samsung 860 EVO 1tb SSD and 16 gb RAM. will be installing in the next few days.
When doing this cloning with this method does it matter what MacOS you currently running?
Pros and Cons of doing it this method or using Carbon Cloner?
Thanks
Got this message:
Restoring “Backup MacBook” from “Macintosh HD”
Validating target...
Validating source...
Validating sizes...
Restoring
Verifying
Inverting target volume...
APFS inverter failed to invert the volume - Invalid argument
The operation couldn’t be completed. (OSStatus error 22.)
Operation failed…
Me tooooo 22222 2 two :(
Same here
Same here
Hey I am having this issue to. Have you found a solution?
Yep, same here. Anyone managed to sort it out?
Thank you very much Gunner! I am cloning for a late 2008 MacBook Pro. I just wanted to add that when in disk utilities there was no restore button to choose! But, I found it at the top of the screen in the drop down menu. It unmounted and mounted both. It took my cool name and changed it to the exact name of the internal drive, so you just have to decide to choose internal or external. Thx again! You are making me look like a tech wizard to my family. Keep up the great work! And, with those glasses, can I call you,”Hollywood “ ? 😃
Why in the internal it’s showing two partitions? How to merge both of the partitions ?
Clone the drive with the most data. Most likely the first one has the operating system, and the other image has all of your data on it
15” MacBook Pro mid-2012
Thanks so much! This video was perfect and so much better than all the rest I found. My mid2012 MBpro 15 feels like a new computer with the upgraded 1Tb SSD from the old 512 HD. As an example startup previously took 3.5min.... now under 30 sec from a full system power off.
The best OS X tutorial I have seen in all my years on RUclips. I will still wait to hear back from you. I got adventurous and installed Catalina Beta. Its stopping my password program, so I want to downgrade, but how? I thought Time Machine would simply restore, but now I find its not a clone, only individual files.
Would you do a safe reformat which would put it back to El Capitan (late 2015 5K) and then have to get it back up to Mojave, or is there an even better way? I subbed and clicked the notification.
@@GunnerTierno Great suggestion. I took the path of least resistance and dumped the password manager for something better. Catalina works flawlessly on the 70 or paid programs I have. How is Catalina for you?
Hey man, awesome video but I had a quick question. If my mid 2012 MBP is formatted in APFS currently, should I change it to Mac OS extended Journaled? I'm replacing the current hard drive with a SSD but backing it up with just time machine and a separate external hard drive. Is it alright if i just match it with APFS when I switch to the new SSD?
If your MacBook is encrypted, you will need to unencrypt the HD before you can restore the SSD. You’ll have to turn off Firevault in privacy settings (which takes forever).
Gunner Tierno I might having this problem now. Do you have a video already?
@jusToofresh thanks that was a very helpful tip! 👍👊
Fantastic. I've just cloned my MacBook Pro 2012 to a new SSD using just this video and it was easy. Never done anything like it before. You're the Man!
Great to hear! thanks!
It was all fine until I tryed the external SSD (After the migration). It starts and in the middle of the loading appear a "prohibition" sign, and it stopped. Any help?
Any fixes?
Just added an internal PCIe SDD to my 2014 MacMini and WOW what a difference! Thanks so much for your step by step no fail instructions!
Thank you for your video, your advice helped out setting up a external ssd that I could run my computer from it.
Just used this guide to update my late 2013 27” iMac from its old slow internal drive to a new Samsung 860 EVO. Worked flawlessly on the fist try! Thanks for making this great video tutorial!
Dude, amazing. So easy! I’m fired up and ready to clone to my new SSD!
Will USB 3.0 connection be fast enough to boot from? Or should I invest more in a Thunderbolt 2 enclosure? Mac Mini 2014.
Hey! Great videos! Just watched this and the second part waiting for the SSDs and RAM I ordered. Do you know if apps like PP, AE and FL Studio will work just fine after cloning the HD? Keep up the awesome content!
Should work fine. It’s an exact copy of all your files
Thanks, thanks, thanks. Used this today to replace 5400 HDD in my 2014 Mac Mini 2.6ghz 8gb. It was getting lethargic and now is practically instant!
For reference the new SSD would not boot from Startup after data transferred to test. The choice was there but it just hung up. After waiting 20 minutes I restarted, went to disk utility and compared drives. The volumes were identical (within half gig) and I made the swap. So grateful! Almost as fast as my iOS devices.
Yes! A guy who knows how to do a tutorial. Thank you.
Thank you, thank you. I have viewed several other people doing this but only yours gave me the confidence to do it to my 2015 iMac. I have just finished fitting a 2TB Crucial MX500 and it works!!! It's about 10 times faster to startup and my office suite, which used to take about 15 seconds, started in 1 yes one(1) second. I'm very impressed. Thank you again
Save a step. Plug in External Hard Drive - THEN Reboot your Mac to Recovery Mode - Then Erase your New Drive and continue with the rest of your procedures. Sam difference but most don't know you can reboot into Recovery mode at any time (assuming you have it). HINT. I always create a "disk image" of my computer and save it on an external drive. If your computer is running poorly or has too much junk on it - Once you have a clone or your hard drive - You might want to boot into recovery mode and ERASE your primary drive. Then Restore your Mac OS.(need Network connection). Once you restore your OS - you will have a clean operating system again and it may run like new again!
That is exactly what I am planning to do tonight when I get home. What did you mean you need to have a network connection? If you are in recovery mode how can you be connected to the internet? May be I misunderstand what you meant.
I have Macintosh HD and Macintosh HD - Data. Not sure what to do. Any suggestions will be most grateful. Thanks
Did you find an answer to this? HD and HD - Data are from Catalina upgrade where HD is now read-only for start up files. I cannot proceed with this much needed move to a SSD boot disk until I know how this affects things. Cheers
Doing this on OS Mojave, dont need to restart in Recovery Mode. Didn't get that warning
@@GunnerTierno Hi! When you made this video, were you using OSX El Capitan? I haven't upgraded my OS yet, the new one is Catalina.. Should I clone my HD to my SSD while I have El Capitan or do I upgrade first.
@@rebesway Clone, install drive, then upgrade
@@NormBellas Thanks :) I did this last year..
@@rebesway I thought so after I saw your post was a year old. I was thinking a better option would be to do a clean install and then do as Javi (about five comments lower) suggested, to use migration assistant to transfer your old data. I curious to know what you did and then how did it work out?
@@NormBellas I actually followed this video.. bought an external Hard Drive enclosure that allowed me to plug in the SSD and clone it with Disk Utility. Went perfectly. But now I'm thinking of upgrading to the new M1 MBP 13'
Thanks for posting this. I’ll call myself a Mac newbie. I used to work on them a lot back in the 90s and am getting back into the world of Apple. One caveat with the video. Your destination clone drive must be at least equal to or greater in size of the original drive or the restore will fail. My original drive was 499GB and new SSD was 479GB. Restore complained of lack of disk space. Fortunately I had another 512GB SSD and it worked perfectly.
I'm assuming the process would work in reverse if I wanted to restore from the hard drive backup?
That’s what I wanna know!
So, just to be absolutely clear about this, this process will move everything that is on my current HD over to my recently purchased SSD drive, correct? The reason I ask is: 1) I am not too tech savvy (but your video looks easy enough to follow) 2) Other videos I have seen seem to want me to download a copy of a macOS installer application file(to get the .app file) and then create a USB boot drive from there. Of course, they aren't clear about the process and that's why I am not sure what they are talking about.
Hard to keep watching after "STATA"... lol. But still, good vid with clear instructions.
Thanks! Got a good one! ;)
Thank to your video and a little tweaking, I was able to upgrade my mid 2012 mbp. Runs like brand new. Thank you again!
You're welcome!
I tried this and “apfs inverter failed”
anything I can do to fix this?
Same. Halp
@@msfootballplayer i used carbon copy cloner. Solved the issue
@@msfootballplayer i asked some commenters and told me to use carbon copy cloner
Great video thanks. will it be just the same if i have a bootcamp partition too?
Brilliant! Saved me a whole heap of time and expense, thank you - you're the man!
It worked!!! I was a little concerned because my system has these weird partitions but it was all good.
Only thing, make sure your Original HD is not encrypted. This will save you time an frustration.
yes i think it's because Catalina...which partition do you have to select and clone? MACINTOSH HD or MACINTOSH HD DATA? and do you need to select AFTS when you erase/format the new SSD at the start? before try anything i want to be sure and I hope you can reply to my question ..thanks
Hi dbradford22, I've got a macbook pro 15inch mid 2012 Mac OS Mojave 10.14.1 and am trying to upgrade to SSD. My HD is APFS Encrypted!! Is there a way to de-encrypt the HD first? Will is it still be possible to clone as encrypted? Thanks very much
"Stata" lmao
Thanks man for the video. I was trying to find out how to clone my hard drive without using a third party application. This video helped a lot and now I have a backup clone just in case the internal drive fails. Thanks again!
*sata :P
also, good job, i'm your new subscriber now ;) hy5 from spain
This really is a secret. Developing companies take advantage of unaware people to sell unnecessary software to clone. Great job and thanks!
Great video! Used this to clone the hard drive on a 2011 iMac onto an external SSD as boot drive connected via Thunderbolt. Worked flawlessly.
Question: what do you choose if you're cloning a Catalina OS? It has 2 partitions(?) Catalina and Catalina data??
is one very small? like 10GB?
Doing this tomorrow, wish me luck!!!
Very very very helpful and detailed
Thank you very much
Only a little question:
If I do this operation, does this copy the operating system as well?
So if I copy everything like you did in the video, Can I mount the ssd right away?
Sorry, I am so late to seeing this, but it is the most succinct explanation of I have heard of this process.
Excellent video !!
Absolutely perfect.
Shame I wasted time looking at other videos first which didn't mention the "safe mode" reboot and didn't explain everything as well as you did.
Hey Gunner, you kind saved my work because i just needed this video to fix my Mac, it is too slow, thank you so much, your video is cool!!
Hello Gunner Tierno, a very well done video, with clear explanation, congrats!!!. Just one question. The SSD disk, must be similar in size (GB) as the one is going to be cloned??? My MBP has a HDD of 750GB and I'm planning to buy a 960GB (Kingston SA400S37/960G Solid State Drives, 960 GB, 2.5-Inch). I'll really appreciate your kind response, due to I'm about to buy an SSD for my MacBook Pro of mid 2012.
Purchased a mid 2010 white mac with original Hitachi HD. Cloned it to a Crucial SD. Now boots in less than 30 seconds. Thank you.
I followed all the instructions to the letter and never got it to work. Got my drive replaced, as I thought it was bad as started again. The first time thru, I formatted as apfs, and that failed to work. All the error codes pointed to guided partition table as the answer. I had turned off file vault and tried with the replacement SSD, and the first format to appear was GPT(guided partition table), so I went with that, and after an hour or two, the drive was cloned and I test booted from it and it worked like the original. Didn’t have to go into recovery mode, it just worked. Swapped drives and put in a new battery and we are gold. Don’t know why it didn’t work the first time, but the video did help.
Thanks for doing this. If my hard drive is encrypted, will this still work? Will it also copy the recovery partition?
Could you get it to work? Mine is also encrypted, having a hard time here...
I recently bought an ssd drive to cloan my Mac HD to. I followed all the steps here but for some reason when I go to check the startup disk, the external drive doesn’t even show as an option to boot from. When I start up on the internal drive I can view the external and see that it copied the data successfully, we’ll except some apps that seem to be grey out or a line going across them. I’ve done this several times but have had no luck. I also show Mac HD and Mac HD Data I’m not sure what that means. Any help will be much appreciated
you need to replace your internal sata cable inside the macbook. i've heard this fixes that issue
@@GunnerTierno internal sata cable for external drive?
Great to the point explanation. Would there be any difference with an additional BootCamp installed as well. ? Thanks. 🙏🏻
I think I’m most amazed you got this to work without even knowing how to say SATA correctly or getting the explanations for why you’re doing what you’re doing wrong. ‘Booting from a partition on your drive’.
How long should it take my computer to reboot after final step in recovery mode? I followed instructions to the tee on a 2014 Mac Mini. Clicked Restart & selected the external for the reboot and I now have the beach ball icon spinning for the last 15 minutes or so.
Couldn’t have done a better job. I never did anything more than turn a computer on and off and was able to clone my drive. You are a gifted teacher!
Hi great simple explanatory video by the way ...well hereI go I got a macbook pro late 2009 core 2duo running Mac Os Yosemite and a Mac mini also late 2009 core 2duo also running Mac Os Yosemite ..only the ram is different ...got 8 GB only the Macmini and 4 GB on my Macbook pro ...my question is... since the two are almost identical... will the Mac mini cloned hard disk work on on the macbook pro ?...thanks in advance...you are doing a good job.
thanks for this great video! I have OS Catalina and for me there were 2 volumes showing, one for DATA, so I picked up the other one to be restored into my SSD... when finished, on my SSD now there were 2 volumes, one of them greyed out ( ASRDataVolume ). I clicked on it and went to Restore button again, and was able to select my HD-Data and proceeded with the restore successfully. After that, I selected the Container and clicked on the button "Mount" and left the Utility, and was able to select Startup Disk among the HD and the SSD. Thank You!
Does the replacement SSD have to be the same capacity as the HD being replaced? What if I’m upgrading from 500GB to 2TB?
Thank you so much your video was so helpful, today I cloned my very first MacBook Pro SSD 1tb to upgrade it to a 2TB SSD.
Thanks for the video. Worked like a charm. Just upgraded my Macbook air 2015 to 1 TB WD Black SN850X. Working great.
Great simple cut and dry how to clone MacOS video, I have a question: could I be able to clone out of Macbook Air and install the SSD(the clone) on a Macbook Pro?
Its great to find someone who is clear about working on macs. Thank you so much.
thanks i appreciate that!
OMG I found this by accident and I’m gonna definitely give this a shot. I’m already waiting for my solid state and when I do I will let you know how it went down. Thank you for a thorough instruction
Hi Gunner, do you know if it is possible to copy the cloned image on the SSD back to a different macbook (same model)? 🙏🤔
Hi Gunner, is it the procedure for macOs Mojave too?
Thanks for a clear and useful video. Question: do you need a sata connection or will a ssd with type c to usb 3.0 work?
does this process work in Catalina?
@@GunnerTierno If I wish to speed up my late 2013 iMac (Catalina OS) by using an SSD as boot disk, which do I have to clone and use as the boot disk? The HD or the HD-Data? The HD, according to what i've read, is read-only start up files…. which sounds kind of important if being used as a boot up disk?! However it is HD-Data where 990gb of the maxed out 1TB storage is sitting. The SSD I've bought is 2TB so i've got headroom. I can't proceed until I know answer to this. A few people have asked the question but they never seem to get a reply from anywhere. Thanks so much, great vid just wish I wasn't already running Catalina!
fantastic, it helped me to make a backup copy of my ssd, without needing to use carbon copy cloner. Thank you!
Hey! Thank you so much for the video! I have only one doubt: could the same process be done with the SSD already installed? The reason I’m asking this is because all the USB ports of my iMac 2011 can’t work anymore. So I thought I could install the SSD first, boot normally from the original drive, then follow all the steps from the video... Would it work?? Thanks again!
You are a genius lifesaver, the way you have the detailed steps explained with clean voice. Brilliant work. I used to relay on Super duper and it failed on me this time, so happened to watch this. One thing I learned from my process was When in DIsk Utility in EL Capitan you have to Go to Edit in the Menu bar and select Restore. Good job!
Had to decrypt my internal hard drive. Following these steps and it appears to be working well. I installed two TIMETEC 8GB cards making the 15" Mac Pro 2012 run 16 GB. Added Samsung 1T SSD hard drive and a new battery. Will use the old 500 GB hard drive for additional external storage. This should be good to go for another 6 years.
should the external hard drive be of the same size/capacity as the internal hard drive to be cloned? i have a 1 TB internal HDD and planning to get a 500gb SSD. thanks!