Having Trouble Cloing My Internal Drive to an SSD

macos tips
1

I’m having trouble cloning the internal hard drive to an external SSD in order to create a bootable backup and a “portable” version of my system. Both drives are formatted as APFS.

I’m using macOS Mojave on an iMac and attempting the clone through Disk Utility, but the process keeps failing. When I try to format the external drive, Mac OS Extended (Journaled) isn’t available as an option — could that be the reason it’s not working?

2

Hey, if Disk Utility can’t help you, you can read this post: Guide on How to Clone Mac Hard Drive to External SSD

3

Disk Utility is not always reliable for creating a bootable clone, especially with APFS drives. Instead, try using a dedicated and professional cloning app, iBoysoft DiskGeeker for Mac, which is good at cloning APFS drives with a high rate of success.

  1. Install and open it. (Remember to connect the disk before.)
  2. Select your internal disk on the left and click the Clone icon on the right.
  3. Choose your external SSD as the target drive from the window and click Start clone.

It is highly recommended for macOS Mojave and APFS system~ Have a try.

4

If you are sticking with Disk Utility, make sure you’re setting the correct format and scheme.

You can erase the external SSD with Format APFS and Schme GUID Partition Mac.