External Boot drive for Mx Macs

[MacInWin]

This is an excellent article on what can and cannot be done with external bootable drives on Mx Macs.

Should you make an emergency disk for an Apple silicon Mac?

Many of us keep an emergency external drive at the ready by our Mac, in case we need to use it to recover from problems. What’s the equivalent for Apple silicon?

eclecticlight.co

I know we've had lots of discussion here about bootable clones of Mx Macs, but Howard's summary says it better than I've seen expressed anywhere.

NOTE: In a business environment, where it might make sense to have a spare Mx Mac sitting around for emergency use, a clone could be useful to restore to that spare. But if the internal storage of an Mx Mac fails, that bootable clone probably won't boot on the failed Mac in any case, as Howard explains.

 

[Jimmysb]

Very useful article, I hope I never need it, but guaranteed I will never find it if needed.

 

[Rod]

I have a folder for articles like this so I can find them for myself and others. I started it back in 2018 and it has around 200 articles, screen shots and "how to's" in it.

Jake, that is a great, very concise and understandable summary of an otherwise very complicated topic. I think the first paragraph sums it up really well;
"Many of us have had the comfort of a bootable external drive beside us, knowing that, should anything go wrong with our Mac, we always had that insurance. So how do you do that for an Apple silicon Mac? The good news is that you don’t need to any more, but the bad news is that you can’t anyway."

Of course for those of us who are still nursing along an Intel Mac most of the old advice still holds true. Unless you need to transfer your data from an Intel to a new M series Mac. In that case your personal data and Migration Assistant is all you need.

I did exactly that with my old 2015 MBP to my Current M1 MBP. Both running the same macOS the process was a wireless breeze.

 

[MacInWin]

As a follow on, here is Howard's suggestions on how to restore from a Time Machine backup:

Time Machine in Sonoma: How to restore from a backup

How should you restore a whole volume, or an old version of a document to a different folder? Includes details of backup structure.

eclecticlight.co

 

[Slydude]

Speaking as a member and not a moderator, let's keep this a helpful discussion and not an argument. Members who might benefit from this thread are going to tune out if this becomes an argument/personality conflict.

Speaking as a moderator, I don't want to put that hat on this early in the morning but I will if necessary. Now, back to our discussion.

I changed from an Intel iMac to a M1 Mini a few months ago. Since then I have had a misstep or two in creating a bootable clone. I put that down to operator error and the fact the process of creating a bootable clone and booting from it can be a bit more "fiddly" than it was previously.

Although I keep a bootable clone around for many of the reasons Randy mentioned, I concede that some users may find creating a "bootable" clone more fiddly than they like. If that's the case, my advice is to keep a clone on hand without worrying about bootability. It's an excellent supplement to other methods such as a Time machine backup.

 

[MacInWin]

If that's the case, my advice is to keep a clone on hand without worrying about bootability. It's an excellent supplement to other methods such as a Time machine backup.

I use a cloner to do that, too, Sly. Cloning has a place in the hierarchy of backups, as does TM and syncing software like ChronoSync. I think the article I posted gave a pretty cogent rationale for the article title. Howard wrote another article on what can be done if an Apple Silicon Mac has an error in the storage area that prevents any kind of boot, which is to enter DFU mode with another Mac. However, as this article explains, DFU is so simple it doesn't support even Thunderbolt 4, so it requires a simpler USB-c cable between the dead Mac and another Mac to even get it going. I have this article archived, just in case I ever need it.

When to revive or restore in DFU mode

When should you put your Mac into DFU mode, hook it up to another Mac running Configurator, and revive or restore it?

eclecticlight.co

If the DFU fixes the issue and if the storage area issue isn't a hardware failure, then the normal Recovery/Reinstallation/Recovery from TM will get the Mac back to what it was.

 

[Slydude]

@Rod I have a small collection of articles saved for that very reason. They were usually saved while I was trying to solve some particularly vexing problem and I soon forgot where I had stashed them.

I need to start making a more organized archive of these things. Especially since I've closed tabs that I intended to keep active and did not realize it until long after the normal methods of recovering tabs stopped working.

 

[Rod]

I suppose I should mention again as I have several times over the years that I too have a clone of my MBP using CCC as I have for my Mac's for many years. If my MBP were to die, to the extent that I could not restore it then the only thing I might need would be a few documents not already available on my other devices.
With my clone I could easily transfer those to my wife's computer. Chances are I would not need to.
Once repaired or replaced I could then restore all my data from the clone, using a simple drag an drop method or with Migration Assistant.
I can see no reason why I should go to the additional lengths to make that clone bootable. After all if the M1 Mac is unable to restore the OS then it will not be able to boot from a bootable clone.
I'm not talking about a business where multiple devices are available, where recreating a dead device on another may be essential for productivity.
On these forums we are primary talking about individual personal devices. I do not have more than one computer. My wife's MBP is an Intel so what good is a bootable clone if I have nothing to boot?

 

[Slydude]

I started creating bootable clones in the days when you couldn't completely restore the system from a Time Machine backup. I kept doing this with my 2015 iMac because the process was about as easy as it can be. In an emergency, I can boot from a clone rather easily if need be barring complete system failure.

If my M1 Mini were to have a catastrophic failure the clone I have now wouldn't boot our Intel iMac, but I keep making clones because they remain useful for me. The internal storage on that Mini is getting a bit cramped so I'm using an external drive as my boot drive. That drive started life as a clone of the Mini and I have added additional things after making it my boot drive. I'll be cloning that as soon as the new SSD arrives.

 

[MacInWin]

Howard has addressed the recent changes in Macs and how we might want to rethink some things in this area. The first commentor after the article said "Inertia is hard to overcome." Truer words were never spoken!

It’s all about reliability and contingency

Apple silicon Macs are designed and built for reliability. Using old techniques to safeguard from disaster isn’t wise: they need to be reappraised, and contingencies planned accordingly.

eclecticlight.co