Clone won't boot

[gbdoc]

Using a MBAir M2, Monterey 12.5.1, SD 3.6.2, external Toshiba HDD connected via hub’s USB 3 Superspeed. I can make a clone (which I assume is OK), but can’t boot from it - as I was able to on previous Intel Macs. When I try to boot from the clone, the Mac’s power shuts down briefly and the HDD loses power, and when the Mac re-boots and the HDD gets power again, it seems that the clone doesn’t get mounted quickly enough (or something similar) for the Mac to boot from it. It tries again and again, but never boots. Am I missing something? Is there a solution?

If I needed to simply repopulate the Mac from the clone I could probably use Migration Assistant, but if the Mac’s drive got so corrupted that it wouldn’t boot, I wonder if the clone would ultimately boot - something I obviously haven’t tried?

[dnanian]

Since you cannot restore the OS into an Apple silicon Mac, you would always fully restore by installing the OS from recovery/network recovery and then selecting the copy when prompted to restore.

A bootable copy, made with "Erase, then copy", is a replication of the source, made by Apple's tools (since 3rd party apps are not allowed to copy the OS). It's as close as possible to the source. I fit's not booting, it may be that the drive is too slow or not fully compatible: I would suggest a WD MyPassport SSD (which is about $120 for 1TB). I think you're more likely to get satisfaction with that.

I would also try booting in Safe Boot from the backup to see if that works.

[gbdoc]

Thanks, Dave, but some of what you say is a bit above my head; I'm simply interested in whether/how I can boot from the clone with my M2 MBA. (The Safe Mode trial was unsuccessful with the Toshiba drive I'm now using.) I'm willing to buy another backup drive as you suggest (the 1TB WD MyPassport SSD is in fact EU246.99), but first I want to be sure. Do you have an M2 Mac and such an external drive and can you boot from the clone?

[dnanian]

I do not yet have an M2 Mac, although we've received very few reports of problems with them. Just recognize that we - as in SuperDuper - cannot change the way the copy of the OS is made. It's made with Apple's own tool, and if there are problems booting that can't be resolved with a different drive, it's a bug of Apple's we cannot fix...they have to do so.

[gbdoc]

Good, and I*m glad I asked. For now, I*m content that I have a clone I could repopulate from. Once you have an M2 Mac and have tried it, or someone with experience could answer this thread, I*d appreciate the information. Thanks.

[mmurray]

Originally Posted by gbdoc

Good, and I*m glad I asked. For now, I*m content that I have a clone I could repopulate from. Once you have an M2 Mac and have tried it, or someone with experience could answer this thread, I*d appreciate the information. Thanks.

Hi gbdoc,

I have the same setup as you but backing up to a Sandisk, Extreme Pro 1 TB. Like you I can't get it to boot and the description sounds similar. I'm happy enough knowing I can use Migration Assistant if I need the data. In fact that is how I set up the MacBook Air M2 in the first place. So I was just ignoring the issue for now. I guess now that Monterey 12.6 is out I should do an Erase / Install and try the whole thing again. I'll post the results back here if I do that.

Regards Michael

[gbdoc]

I just found this recent article on Macworld, *How to start up your M1 or M2 Mac from an external drive* https://www.macworld.com/article/331...nal-drive.html. He says it can be done. I*m loathe to try it myself (not lazy, but I don*t have time to spare on what might ultimately be futile, and I don*t want to risk messing up my external drive which is partitioned for a clone + Time Machine) until you, Dave (who may have an M2 Mac by now), tests this and reports your results.

[dnanian]

As you know, you can use "Backup - all files" with "Smart Update" to copy the entire data volume to a drive and then install the OS over it, if you'd like to try that. I can't see how it would cause a problem with a separate partition.

[sdsl]

Originally Posted by gbdoc

I don*t want to risk messing up my external drive which is partitioned for a clone + Time Machine)

Just a random editorial comment -- putting a clone and a Time Machine backup on the same physical drive is not a resilient backup strategy. If a power surge takes out both your Mac and the physical drive, you lose everything. I have seen external drives fail with first one partition won't mount rapidly followed by the other one becoming inaccessible. Much safer to put the clone and the Time Machine backup on separate drives. Then you would feel more secure about installing a clean system on one of those physical drives as you would still have a good backup on a separate device in case something went amiss.

[dnanian]

Yes, as I recommend in my own "best practices" post, you want both software and hardware redundancy.

[gbdoc]

I*ve been bugging you about creating a bootable clone. Now I*ve done it, and even more: I also wanted to offload Windows stuff from my MBAir M2 which was filling up onto an external drive and use it via Parallels Desktop. Now I've done it and it all works.

Just FYI, so you can advise others:

I got an OWC Envoy Express and fitted it with a 1 TB OWC Aura P12 Pro (very fast, very easy installation; also fast, customs-free delivery from OWC's Belgian branch), on which I created 3 volumes, Windows, Stacks (for sundry stuff, no programs), and a bootable clone (which boots nearly as quickly as my Mac). That last was a little tricky. I first make a clone with SuperDuper!, after that, I installed OS Ventura 13.1 on that volume, then I had to allow that drive to boot, administrator privileges, and a little back and forth, but it finally works. Now I have a 1.5 TB MBAir rather than just my built-in 512 GB, at an additional price of *225.00. And if I ever need to have to even more external storage space (I don*t think I will), Aura P12 Pro*s come in up to 8 TB.

[davebarnes]

Two machines both running MacOS 13.4 and SuperDuper! 3.7.5

First machine is Intel iMac. Created bootable backup on G-Technology HDD and then restarted from this. Was slow in restarting, many apps were verified. But, in the end, it was successful.

Second machine is Mac Mini M2. Created bootable backup on G-Technology HDD and then restarted from this. Failure. Got a message: “The version of MacOS needs to be reinstalled”.

Any ideas on how to fix this?


P.S. I just realized that I have been using SuperDuper! for 17 years.

[dnanian]

It's an issue with the replicator on some systems, and the solution is in the message - install the OS over the backup.

PS - I've realized that I've been working on SuperDuper for 20 years. Also, I'm old.

[davebarnes]

Originally Posted by dnanian

It's an issue with the replicator on some systems, and the solution is in the message - install the OS over the backup.

I do not understand what this means nor how to do it.