Cloning disks

The usual copy operation does not make your new hard drive identical to the old one. For example, if you open Finder and copy all files and folders to the new hard drive, macOS will not start from the new hard drive. The Clone disk utility allows you to duplicate all your data and make macOS bootable on your new hard drive. As a result, your new disk becomes an exact clone of your old one. Refer to Clone disk utility for details.

To clone a Mac with Apple silicon (with M1, M2, or M3 chip), you must first clone the data to an external disk. Then, transfer the data from the external disk to the destination Mac.

To clone a disk

  1. If you have Parallels Desktop virtual machines running on your Mac, make sure that they are turned off.
  2. Make sure that the source and destination drives are connected to your Mac. If you need to connect another Mac, make sure that it is connected in target disk mode. Refer to Connecting two Macs for details.
  3. Open Acronis True Image.
  4. On the sidebar, click Disk Cloning, and then click Continue.
  5. By default, your internal system drive is pre-selected as a cloning source. If you want to change it, click the cloning source icon, and then select the drive that you want to clone.

  6. Connect the destination drive.

    Cloning is not supported for APM disks and disks initialized with SoftRAID. If you have an APM disk, we suggest converting it to GPT or to MBR.

  7. Click the cloning destination icon, and then select the destination drive for the cloned data.

    When you start the cloning operation, the destination drive will be formatted, and all of the data stored on it will be irreversibly erased. Make sure that the disk is empty or does not contain valuable data.

  8. Click Clone.

Additional steps for a Mac with Apple silicon (with M1, M2, or M3 chip)

  1. Connect the clone disk to the destination Mac.
  2. Shut down your destination Mac, then hold down the Power button until you see the startup options.
  3. To configure macOS recovery, click Options.
  4. Select Disk Utility. In the toolbar, click Show All Devices.
  5. Select your Mac's internal disk and click Erase in the toolbar. Select the APFS format and confirm erasing. After that, your Mac will be restarted.
  6. Activate your Mac. After that, exit to Recovery Utilities.
  7. Select to reinstall macOS, and then follow the steps to install macOS on the internal disk.
  8. When macOS boots for the first time, configure the system settings.
  9. In the Migration Assistant window, select to transfer data From a Mac, Time Machine backup or Startup disk.
  10. In the Transfer information to this Mac window, select the cloned disk.
  11. In the Select the information to transfer window, select all the information displayed, and create a password.
  12. Install Acronis True Image on your Mac.

If the cloning operation is stopped for some reason, you will have to configure and start the procedure again. You will not lose your data, because Acronis True Image does not alter the original disk and data stored on it during cloning.

Cloning a Fusion Drive

A Fusion Drive is a hybrid drive that combines a relatively slow hard disk drive (HDD) with a fast solid-state drive (SSD). On your Mac you see the Fusion Drive as a single logical volume with the space of both drives combined.

Acronis True Image allows you to clone a Fusion Drive either to a Fusion Drive or to any other target drive.

To clone a Fusion Drive

  1. If you have Parallels Desktop virtual machines running on your Mac, make sure that they are turned off.
  2. Ensure that the source and destination drives are connected to your Mac. Disconnect all unnecessary external devices.
  3. Open Acronis True Image.
  4. On the sidebar, click Disk Cloning, and then click Continue.
  5. Select a Fusion Drive as a cloning source.
  6. Connect the destination drive.

  7. Click the cloning destination icon, and then select the destination drive for the cloned data.

    When you have more than one disk, the Create a Fusion Drive check box appears1. Select it, if you want to create a Fusion Drive, and then choose two disks. Confirm your choice.

    When you start the cloning operation, the destination drive will be formatted and all of the data stored on it will be irreversibly erased. Make sure that the disks are empty or do not contain valuable data.

  8. Click Clone.