Creating Mac bootable dvd using Disk utility and recommended application

In Mac there are various methods available for creating bootable Dvd. One can create it using Apple's disk utility or using third party recommended application.

Although there are many important reasons to create Mac bootable dvd but here some important one's are mentioned:

Disaster can happen anytime so it is advisable and good to have a bootable disk always in order to be prepared for it.

It is essential to create an emergency disk for the security of data from drive crash.

Apart from the above reasons it is also needed when someone want to install Mountain lion on multiple Macs. It means creating bootable install drive would be more easy and efficient process than downloading and copying the entire drive to each machine.

Among various methods of creating Mac boot dvd first we will discuss with the Disk utility application.

Requirements before making a bootable install drive: 

·        You need a copy of the install OS X Mountain Lion app (make sure you have the latest version of ML installer).

Even if you previously had this, recheck it in your application folder as it may not be on your drive, because OS X unhelpfully deletes it once after it get used by you. If you didn't find it, redownload it from App store.

·         Next, you need to extract the InstallESD.dmg file(the file that is used to create the install drive) from the app’s store package.

Process to extract InstallESD.dmg file:-

·        Now, right-click or control-click on the Install OS X Mountain Lion app and from the contextual menu choose Show Package Contents. Then a folder will appear to you.

·         Open Contents and then open 'Shared Support'. Inside it you'll see your desired file InstallESD.dmg.

Creating bootable drive or emegencey disk using Disk utility app:

·        Launch Disk Utility (inside /Applications/Utilities)

·        Now, drag the InstallESD.dmg file onto the left side of the Disk Utility window.

·        Using Disk Utility, in order to mount disk image in finder, select the file and then click 'Open' .

·         Now, inorder to restore this image, select Mac OS X Install ESD in the left sidebar of Disk Utility and click Restore tab.

·        Now, drag the Mac OS X Install ESD icon into the Source field.

Now, you are ready with your flash drive. This process will erase the drive, so make sure to take backup or clone of the data that you want to keep safe.

Connect the flash drive and then find it in your Mac Disk Utility.

Drag this flash drive into the Destination field of Disk utility.

Click Restore and then Erase it with the resulting dialog box.

Now, you need to enter an administrator username and password. It will take some time to format the drive. 

But, unfortunately this method won't work in every case. For example if you buy a 13-inch Mac Book Pro with Retina display or newest iMac, such models use OS X 10.8.2 version which is not available from Mac App Store. So, you should either use the Recovery Disk Assistant method, third part application or wait for updating OS X 10.8.3.

Also note that, in case you have a new iMac with Fusion Drive, Apple states that the Disk Utility version that comes with Fusion Drive is unique. But, earlier versions of Disk Utility can’t be used with a Fusion Drive.”

So, it is great to take clone of your Mac drive in some external drive. 

Creating bootable dvd using some third party application like Stellar Drive Clone is great and easy task. It enables you to create image, restore backups and clone individual volumes including recovery disk.

It supports window file formats in your Mac drive and gives you fascility for creating emergency drive within few clicks. One can create bootable clone of their Mac OS X 10.3 or later versions.

Clone Mac Disk Drives including Boot Camp Partition

You might be on the edge of losing all essential data stored in one place (i.e. hard drive) until you are sure that everything is backed up. No one is going to help you out, but only you. Therefore, what are you going to do in order to get your data and the OS protected?

You might have tried cloning the entire Mac hard drive with single or multiple boot partitions to another hard drive using Disk Utility or any other software. However, how to clone the entire Mac drives at once that have a Windows partition? Although Disk Utility enables to clone Mac partition individually or the entire hard drive at once, you cannot include the Windows partition if it is there. Following are the steps to clone the entire Mac drive along with a Windows partition to an external drive using Disk Utility.

• Attach the destination (external) drive to Mac.
• Launch Disk Utility and select destination drive in the left pane.
• Format the destination drive with Mac OS Extended (Journaled) file system.
• Choose GUID Partition Table as the Partition Map Scheme.
• Restart the Mac and go to Recovery Mode.
• Select Recovery HD and launch Disk Utility.
• Select the source drive (i.e. current boot drive) in Disk Utility and go to ‘Restore’ tab.
• Drag the source drive to the Source field
• Drag the destination drive to the Destination field.

(Before Restore button is clicked, make sure the drives are selected correctly.)

• Click Restore button to start cloning.

After the process is completed, boot from the clone drive to check whether the process to clone Mac partition was successful. However, do you think the clone drive contains the Windows partition? Well, not yet! as the process is not yet finished.  Therefore, restart Mac machine with the original boot drive.

• Launch Disk Utility again, and
• Select the boot camp partition and click ‘New Image’ option in the Disk Utility menu bar.
• Specify a name for the image (.dmg) file.
• Choose a destination to save this image.
• Click Save, and let the process complete successfully.

Now, run Boot Camp Assistant wizard and create a new Windows partition of required size on the clone drive. After the Windows partition is created, click ‘Quit & Install Later’ to exit the Boot Camp Assistant wizard.

Now, restore the image (.dmg) file to newly created Windows partition on the clone drive. Once the image is restored successfully, boot from Windows partition on the clone drive to check whether the process was successful.

If you find difficult to clone boot camp partition using Disk utility app then one could go for many alternatives available in market. Stellar Drive Clone is one such utility used for creating clone and image of Mac drive.

How to create an emergency bootable drive or clone of your Mac before it crash?

Here, in this article we have explained about the process of creating emergency flash drive or bootable clone of your Mac drive. It will be an important topic for all the Mac users who are concern about their data safety.

However there have been a lot of articles on web describing the same thing, but here is something you find complete, easy and reliable information. This is because of the reason we have created it after a good amount of research on Mac technology and  applications. 

So, we come to the conclusion by providing you the best possible and easy process for creating emergency flash drives for the data prevention purpose.

Process to create an emergency drive:

This emergency drive contains only those files which are required to boot your Mac machine and able to run troubleshooting utilities such as Disk Utility. 

Creating emergency drive using Recovery Disk Assistant method: 

Apple’s Recovery disk assistant tool is easy to use, the only requirement to be able to work is to have Recovery HD on your Mac's hard drive.

What is Recovery HD?
 

"Recovery HD is a hidden partition installed automatically at the time of installation of Mac OS X lion and mountain lion only." 

So, in above para, I called this partition hidden, it doesn't mean that we can't access it. One can access recovery HD or can check it by holding down Command-R or the Option key during restarting of your Mac drive.  A screen appear showing you all connected boot drives with Recovery HD as one of your option. 
It is important to note here that to be able to create emergency drive on an external device you need to have a partition on your Mac drive.
It is probably because the recovery disk assistant requires the data on the partition to create the external drive. In the absence of partition or corrupt, you'll see an error.

Steps to create emergency drive using recovery disk assistant:

Step1 : From Apple’s Support site download the OS X Recovery Disk Assistant. Step2 : Connect your USB flash drive to your Mac.
Step3 : After launching OS X Recovery Disk Assistant, select your connected USB drive.
Step4 : Follow the on-screen prompt messages. This is a quick and easy process.

Cases when Recovery Disk assistant method will not work:

·        If your startup drive is lacking with recovery HD partition.

·         In some cases, an assistant-created drive will work only with Mac specified versions that made it. But, fortunately we have another method to create an emergency flash drive using disk utility and third party application.

In my next article, I will explain the method of creating Mac bootable dvd using disk utility and its alternatives.

Here, I want to discuss alternative of recovery disk assistant method that with an application independent of OS X version your Mac has. This application is known as Stellar Drive Clone software, a sought after application for its cloning, imaging and backups features. You can create emergency drive in few clicks.

It is compatible with OS X 10.3 and later versions. It supports ExFat, MBR, Fat32 file system. It means you can create clone of windows partition on your Mac drive. Its latest 2.5 version support SSD. It has an exceptional feature of creating minimal system that means emergency boot drive. By selecting minimal system under tools tab it gives bootable clone of your Mac drive within few steps by copying only default apps. 

Effective Ways to Clone Mac Hard Drive

Data is the root of any business, which anyhow has to be protected. With evolving technology, various techniques have been coming up for safe data storage, out of which data backup is the nicest strategy to prevent you from becoming crippled due to data loss. Today, SMBs as well as large businesses are using advanced mechanisms to save their data. Well, when it comes to Mac computers, fear of data loss reduces to some degree, but it does not mean that you should become inattentive and leave your data without backing it up.

There are various methods to back up the data, one such popular and effective method is cloning, i.e. creating an exact copy of your entire Mac hard drive or replicating the hard drive. A clone offers various advantages in addition to providing a functional backup of the entire system, such as you can use the clone DVD as a bootable drive that helps you in the event of system crash. Moreover, if there are problems with primary hard drive, you can easily replace it with your clone and get access to the whole data of your system. Besides, clone Mac hard drive is also useful while you upgrade your system, as the process requires you to have a full backup of the system. You can also use the clone, if your system has been controlled by virus infections and you need to bring the system to its original state.

So, the next concern is how to perform cloning? As you know that there is an inbuilt tool in Mac known as 'Disk Utility', it facilitates you to carry out the task. However, prior to beginning the process, make sure that you have an external drive with free space equal to or larger than the source drive that has to be cloned. Also, note if there is any data stored on external drive; it will be erased, as cloning will start. Therefore, make sure to back up this data.

Plug in external hard drive, press and hold down 'Command+R' keys to turn on your system; the command will start your computer in Recovery Mode. It is obvious that you do not want any changes to the hard drive data during the cloning process; booting in recovery mode will maintain the data integrity. After the system boots in recovery mode, perform the following:

Step 1: On your Mac, click 'User', 'Applications' -> 'Utilities' -> 'Disk Utility.app' to launch the Disk Utility or you can also use 'command+space' on the keyboard to search Disk Utility.

• If you have created a desktop shortcut, double-click the Stellar Drive Clone on desktop.

Step 2: A window will pop up, select the drive that you want to copy and click it in the right column.

Step 3: You will see some more options, navigate to the 'Restore' tab located on the top.

Step 4: In the next window, the drive that has to be cloned will appear in 'Source' box. Select the drive where you want to place the clone and drag it into 'Destination' box.

Step 5: Click on the 'Restore' button located at the bottom-right corner.

If you have performed everything as instructed, you will have a clone of your system on the external drive.

Therefore, the process is simple. Admittedly, Disk Utility creates a successful clone of the entire system, however, does not include cloning everything on the system, such as Recovery HD partition, which is an inaccessible partition that helps you recover Mac in case of logical failures. The partition is considered a separate volume on the system and is invisible to the Disk Utility; for this reason, the utility fails to clone it. Recovery HD can be used when your system encounters serious issues and does not boot up from startup volume. It is also helpful when you need to repair or reinstall Mac OS X.

Since the partition is immensely helpful and important, it is essential to clone it, which is not done by any inbuilt method. That means, you need to look for a solution that could clone your entire system along with Recovery HD. Yes, there are various solutions in market; Stellar Drive Clone is the most effective out of them. The software possesses meritorious features and offers an interactive and easy-to-understand user interface.

The software is developed to provide you an exact copy or replica of your Mac hard drive and logical volumes; it also creates a mirror image of drive/volume. The clone drive is a ready-to-use copy; while with the help of image file, you can restore the data. Well, for now, we are concerned with cloning. The next section will describe the required steps for cloning the drive through Stellar Drive Clone.

Run the Stellar Drive Clone application by any of the following method to copy Mac drive:

• Click the 'Stellar Drive Clone icon in the dock.

• Go to the 'Applications' folder and double-click 'Stellar Drive Clone'.

Step 1: When you open the application, you will see the main user interface as shown in the following snapshot. Click on 'Clone & Imaging' option, and then click 'Clone'.

Step 2: The cloning is divided into two options: 'Disk Clone' and 'Volume Clone'. Both the options are described in separate sections:

 

Disk Clone

When you choose 'disk clone', it is further categorized into the following options:

• 'Clone without resizing'
• 'Clone with resizing'
  
  

Choosing 'Clone without resizing'

The software allows you to clone without resizing when the destination drive has equal or larger space than the source drive and the left out space is not needed to store the data. With choosing this option, you need to perform the following steps:

• Select 'Clone without resizing' option.
• From the two lists: 'Select Source' and 'Select Destination', select the respective drives
• Click on 'Continue' button. The software will now start the cloning operation.
  
  

Choosing 'Clone with resizing'

With this feature, you can make full use of the extra space, if destination drive space is larger than the source drive and the space is required for data storage. To use the option, carry out the following procedure:

• Select 'Clone with resizing' option.
• For the 'Select Source' and 'Select Destination' lists, select respective drive from each list.
• Click 'Continue', you will be directed to a resizing window, as shown in the below given snapshot.
• From the appeared list, select the volume that you want to resize.
• In the 'Enter New Size' box, enter the size for the volume or you can also slide the bar to specify the size.
• Click 'Accept Size' button each time the changes are made.
• Click 'Continue' button to allow the application to initiate the process.

Volume Clone

From the main user interface, select 'Clone', and then click the radio button associated with 'Volume Clone', which is further divided in the following options:

• Clone to Volume
• Clone to Network
• Clone to Folder

Let us cover them one by one:

Choosing 'Clone to Volume

 

The 'Clone to Volume' feature allows you to clone a volume to another volume either of the same drive or any other drive. The clone consists of all the data of source volume and can be used as backup or a bootable volume. Note that the cloning process overwrites the existing data. Perform the following steps to clone a volume to another volume:

• Choose 'clone to volume' option.
• In the same window, select source and select destination in the respective lists. The software will warn you through a message that the process will overwrite existing data.
• Click on 'Continue' to begin the cloning process.

Note that the process will erase the volume you have chosen as destination or if you select free space as destination, the software will first create partition with the space, and then initiate the cloning process.

Choosing 'Clone to Network'

With this feature, you can successfully create a clone of the source volume on a drive that is located on the network. This clone can only be used as a backup. Begin with the below given steps:

• Select 'Clone to Network' option from the same window that you used above.
• Select the Source and Destination drives from the respective lists. Ensure that all other network drives are disconnected. The 'Select Destination' list shows all the connected network drives.
• Click on 'Continue' button for starting the cloning process.

On completion, the source drive will be cloned on the network drive. Similarly, you can choose the 'Clone to Folder' option and perform the same steps for cloning a source drive to a folder.

As explained above, the Mac cloning software also clones Recovery HD partition when you perform cloning of the drive and that is how you can save all yourself from coming across any kind of data loss. In order to get the application, you need to place an order online.

Disk Utility or an External Application: which is better to Clone Mac Drive?

Data loss is the biggest fear for computer users. Mac systems are a dream for those who do not own it and true companions for its users; however, when it comes to security, no computer is away from glitches. Mac computers are designed with high level of security and other important measures in mind, yet some adverse situations are just impossible to control. To manage such cases, it is your job to understand and implement useful mechanisms helpful in saving your important data. You might have heard of many techniques, such as data backup and others. However, if we take an example of data backup, it is a great strategy to keep the data safe, but may not contain everything of your Mac. Even if it does, it will take you hours to accomplish the whole task.

Therefore, sometimes, it is good to omit taking a simple backup and adopt advanced techniques like cloning. As you understand with the name, cloning is an exact copy or replica of your entire hard drive, and hence provides you a backup of every bit of data as it is. When you clone your system to an external drive, it can be used to boot and with this, clone works for you as a bootable drive. Clone Mac drive helps you out in the following ways:

• When you clone your hard drive, you are simply provided with a functional backup of the entire system. Clone contains users' home directories as well as operating system files and as explained earlier that you easily boot from the clone.

• When you intend to upgrade your Mac to its higher version, of course, you need full system backup. This is where you can simply clone Mac drive to back up the data and restore the data after upgrading is done.

• In some unfortunate conditions, your primary hard drive may come across corruption or damage and you lose access to it. In this case, if you have a clone of the drive, it can be an alternative to primary hard drive so that you need not wait for a long time to get started again.

• You can also use the clone for testing new applications before getting them installed on the primary system. It can also be used if there are problems with the system. You can boot from the clone for identifying what causes the problem.

However, you must ensure that the destination drive has equal to and larger space than that of the source drive (the drive that has to be cloned). You can clone Mac drive from Apple's inbuilt tool 'Disk Utility'.

Well, it is all about cloning your Mac hard drive; however, did you know that there is a Recovery HD partition in your Mac not visible to Disk Utility and default Mac application? When you install Mac OS X Lion, the installer partitions the boot drive to create Recovery HD partition of 650 MB. The partition is treated as a separate volume by the OS and cannot be accessed directly. There are situations when startup volume does not help to boot due to some serious issues. In such cases, Recovery HD can be used to boot from. In addition, when you format your drive, the partition remains at its place and helps you reinstall the OS, restore files, etc.

However, in some cases, you may need to clone Recovery HD partition, for which there is no built-in tool. Remember that Disk Utility does not work when you attempt to clone Recovery HD partition through it. So, is there any other option left or you will sit idle and see your data getting lost? This is an unacceptable case, not to worry! A better solution will clone your entire Mac system including Recovery HD. You can go with Stellar Drive Clone, which is a trusted, reputed, and popular software application in the entire data recovery industry.

Known for its advanced functionality and elegant interface, Stellar Drive Clone offers an unending list of features that makes it easy to carry out various Sisyphean tasks, such as cloning, imaging, and many others. As you keep exploring the software, it will amaze you with every next feature. So, let's see what it requires for you to clone Mac drive.

Step 1: When you open the application, you are directed to the main user interface that looks as follows:

Step 2: Since, you need to perform cloning, click on 'Clone' under the tab 'Clone & Imaging'; there are two options: 'Disk Clone' and 'Volume Clone'.

Disk Clone

We will cover cloning the disk in the first section, which is further divided into two following options as shown in the screenshot below:

• Clone without resizing
• Clone with resizing

We will cover both the options separately in the next sections.

Choosing 'Clone without resizing'

If the drive that you have chosen to keep the clone on (target drive) is equal to or larger than the drive to be cloned (source drive) and no extra space is required, you can choose to perform cloning without resizing the volumes on the target drive. Perform the following steps carefully:

Step 1: Select the radio box associated to 'Clone without resizing' option.

Step 2: You are provided with two lists, namely 'Select Source' and 'Select Destination', as shown in the screenshot above. Select one from each list, depending on your choice.

Step 3: Click 'Continue' button that is located in the bottom-right corner of the screen. The software will automatically clone the source drive to the destination drive without making any modifications to your original data.

Note that the destination drive is equal to or larger than the source drive prior to carrying out the process.

Choosing 'Clone with resizing'

It is important to know that when you choose a destination drive that is larger than the source drive, the extra space left after cloning cannot be used, and hence becomes useless. In order to make full use of the space, the software allows you to resize the destination drive. For resizing, perform the below given steps:

Step 1: Select the 'Clone with resizing' option.

Step 2: From the 'Select Source' and 'Select Destination' lists, choose the respective drives as you did above.

Step 3: Click on 'Continue' button in the bottom-left corner of the window. 

 

Step 4: You can select the drive that you want to resize, and then either enter a new size in the 'Enter New Size' text box or simply drag the size bar to specify a new size of the drive as software also supports user-defined values. 

 

Step 5: Each time you make changes in the size, click on 'Accept Size' button. It will save the changes.

Step 6: Click on 'Continue' button to allow the application to begin the cloning process. 

 

This is how software provides you with a bootable clone.

Volume Clone

The feature allows you to clone a volume to another volume on the same or another drive. You can use the clone of the volume either as backup or a bootable volume. To create a clone of a volume, perform the following steps:

From the main user interface, select 'Volume Clone' that is again divided into the following three different options:

• 'Clone to Volume'
• 'Clone to Network'
• 'Clone to Folder'
  
  

Choosing 'Clone to Volume'

 

Step 1: From the two lists: 'Select Source' and 'Select Destination', select the source and destination drives. The software will throw a warning that the existing data will be overwritten.

Step 2: Click on 'Continue' button that is visible in the bottom-right corner of the screen. The software will initiate the cloning process.

When you perform cloning, it completely erases the destination volume if there is any data stored. Therefore, make sure to move the data to back it up so that you do not lose it. Else if you choose a free space, the software will create a partition of the free space, and then start the cloning process.

For the other two options: 'Clone to Network' and 'Clone to Folder', you need to choose the respective option, and then carry out the similar steps as you just have done. 

 

Stellar Drive Clone is the best way that you can easily get your drive or volume cloned. Other than cloning, you can use 'Imaging' feature that will create an image of the drive or volume. The application also offers an option 'Restore' that allows you to restore data from the clone. Moreover, the software also clones the Recovery HD partition (that we discussed above) and that is how the all-in-one software works. Apart from features, the application provides a nice, simple and clean user interface that is easy to learn and use.

You can get Stellar Drive Clone through an easy online registration.

Bootable backup strategy and other methods for protecting Mac data

A good backup strategy for data protection includes backing up data at regular intervals of time. Clone is a bootable backup method that is recommended mostly during transferring data or migrating apps from one drive to another. In all the cases of drive failure or crash the only solution is to have cloned drive.

After a lot of researches I came to know that there are mainly four methods to protect your data, which can be used by you individually or in conjunction with each other. The first safety method is normal backup routine; we all are generally familiar with the process and its advantages. However, three other methods are: - 

1. File synchronization.
2. Mac drive image method.
3. Create bootable Mac drive clone

Each method serves a different purpose, but all approaches will assist in same direction of protecting your Mac data by taking essential measures.

Normal Backup Routine of Mac volume/folder

For implementing normal backup routines in Mac drive, one should schedule time machine to take incremental backup of some important data including some volume or folder. Backup locations can be on secondary hard drives, on external drives or on network drive etc. Backing up your data to several locations protects the data even more efficiently by decreasing risk of losing data.

File Synchronization between two Mac
The file and folder synchronization can also be used as a data protection method. In synchronization process files and folders of one computer (primary machine) are duplicated on another machine. For example, your office desktop computer can be synchronized with your laptop. So, when the sync app is running, the most recently edited and saved files are stored or get updated on each computer. The advantage of the process is observed when one computer crashes but one can continue his/her work on the other computer. When your damaged machine is repaired or replaced, the files and folders can again get synchronized.

Mac Image Backup

This function is inbuilt in Mac OS X 10.3 later versions of OS X. Many other third party utilities can also perform this function. Basically, a system image is a copy of all the contents lying on hard drive. You need to create system image less frequently than backup of drive. Imaging of drive should be done in following scenario:

• When you install new software make any other significant changes in your drive.

Image backup of your disk can be stored on an external drive. One can restore his image backup when needed.

There are many cloning and imaging applications to do the job effortlessly and efficiently. I clone and image my Mac using Stellar Drive Clone application. I find it reasonable, effective, fast and easy to operate. After comparing the features with its competitors I decide to spend money on it and I observe that it is worthy enough. So, I will recommend Stellar Drive Clone software for Mac users. This software does not create incremental backup, which is the only lacking feature. As we know, Time machine works on incremental backups however Stellar drive clone can perform imaging and bootable cloning on your drive, volume and folder to any external drive, USB, DVD, network drive in few simple clicks.

Create Bootable Clone Drive

A bootable clone of your entire drive copies all of your data, bit by bit, and places it on destination drive. This method is useful in case of migration apps from one drive to another or if your drive fails or corrupts. If your drive fails then it is not necessary to do fresh installation. You can replace the damaged drive by the clone drive and your system will be back in service. You can continue your work while cloning is in progress.

Why Stellar Drive Clone is most recommended software for cloning your Mac drive

In this article, I am going to explain how Stellar Drive clone software proved to be the most useful and worthy Mac cloning application. How it tackles with different Mac cloning and imaging cases that are usually faced by Mac users. So, here I will explain some common cloning scenarios one by one where this application use is required. 

 

When you want to clone your entire Mac drive to a new drive or machine:

There could be many reasons to create an exact clone of your Mac drive. Suppose your machine get damaged and you need to send it for repair. Now, you need to borrow another machine for the duration of repair and probably you also require some of your data and applications on it so that you can do your work easily in the meantime. If you don't have any backup clone copy of your data, apps saved in some external drive then it is must for you to backup your drive (if drive can be backed up) before sending it to repair. Because, there is a possibility to lose your all data and programs during its repair. But, in most of the cases data is lost during drive crash & failure that is why it is recommended to take clone of drive regularly.

So, the lack- of awareness of not keeping cloned copy of your drive in some external drive can do a big harm to your business. A failure or crash can happen anytime and it can corrupt your entire data forever. Apple also recommends to create a copy of your drive on weekly basis and also to take backup of your all important data because disaster can strike anytime. If your drive is running, you should take clone of it in before sending it to repair. Because, it is recommended by Apple to create clone as technician are not responsible for your data.

If you have clone of your Mac drive you need not to worry for your data, applications and OS. As cloneMac hard drive using this software gives bootable clone. You can boot clone of your original Mac drive onto borrowed machine . This cloned copy works exactly same as your primary drive which means the cloned applications work without the need of reinstallation.

 

Thus, clone of your Mac disk will give you exactly the same environment as you experienced on your actual machine.

To create a complete, simple clone of entire Mac drive using Stellar Drive Clone:

1. Launch Stellar Drive Clone
2. Window showing two icons one for cloning and other for imaging. After, selecting cloning, it gives another interface showing option 'disk clone' and 'volume clone'.
3. Here, you can select according to your need, if you want a bootable clone than select the drive or volume having OS.
4. Choose the drive/volume of which you want to create clone from the left hand Source menu.
5. Choose a destination drive/volume after formating it from disk utility.
6. Select "Continue" in the bottom right corner.
   
   

You can also perform testing of some applications on your clone drive before installing them on your primary drive to check whether these are required one or not. 

 

When you want to run clone of your old drive to new Mac machine

 

This scenario comes in action when you want to switch to some other model of Mac like from iMac to Mac mini or from Mac mini to Mac pro etc. So, in these circumstances you need to transfer your entire data to your new drive. Therefore, you have to create clone of entire drive in order to move everything from your old Mac machine to your new Mac. 

 

Same architecture is required for running clone of your old drive into new Mac machine. The reason is unique MAC Adresses of every machine. For example,windows os has three MAC addresses so that one can't run the same os on many computer. 

 

So, cloning your old Mac onto new Mac won't work on different Mac models. Due to this limitation, we recommend to use Migration Assistant application to migrate content from your old Mac to a new Mac machine. You can migrate data either directly from Mac drive installed in your old Mac. After performing transfer of user accounts, applications using Migration Assistant, you can create backup or clone copy of your Mac drive/volume using Stellar Drive Clone software.

But, keeping clone copy of your primary drive helps in case of drive failure or crash. In this case, you can migrate backup or clone copy of your data to another drive or Mac. 

 

"I bought a Mac that's newer than my old Mac machine, but not brand-new. Can I use Stellar Drive Clone to clone my older Mac to this Mac?"

 

If your old Mac architecture is same as the newer Mac (e.g. Intel or PowerPC), then you will be succeed in booting your new Mac using clone of old Mac drive. But, before migrating to newer Mac, make sure to update your older Mac to atleast one release that come with your newer Mac.

One should determine that whether clone of your older Mac is working on newer Mac easily or not.

1. If your both old and new Mac have Firewire ports, boot your older Mac drive into 'Target Disk Mode' by holding down the "T" key on startup.
2. Then with the help of Firewire cable, attach your old Mac disk to your new Mac. If not, attach a clone of your old Mac to your new Mac drive with a Firewire or USB cable.
3. On the newer Mac, open the preference pane from System Preferences and select the old Mac's as the startup disk, then click the Restart button. 
    

If your newer Mac booted from old Mac OS X installation , then launch Stellar Drive Clone and clone the older Mac's disk(selecting as source drive) to the newer Mac's internal hard drive as the destination.

By this way you can troubleshoot and perform various tasks using clone of your Mac drive keeping data secure and protected all the time. Stellar drive clone works as cloning, backup and imaging application for Mac. It can clone your Mountain lion+ Recovery HD also and supports ExFat, FAT32, MBR formats. This application not only creates bootable clone but image of your Mac disk and volume using which one can restore his Mac backup.