Clone HD to SSD Won't Work (Running Bless error)

[skeeknaek]

I have a 27in late 2012 iMac that I'm trying to clone it's 1TB HDD to a 1TB samsung QVO. When I had high sierra, I was able to do this without issue in the Disk Utility. I upgraded to Mojave (10.14.6), and am trying to set it up to clone again so I can dedicate the external SSD as the new boot drive. I cannot do it within Disk Utility, and two issues occur or keep occurring:

1) For some strange reason, the SSD's formatted size somehow got smaller than the HDD by like 100MB, and the clone operation wouldn't even begin. I had to create a 5GB partition to the main HDD to be secure it wouldn't do this again, and it at least would let me start the process.

2) When running the clone operation, it starts, but then after 2-3 hours and nearing the end will stop and provide an error: "You can't change the startup disk to the selected disk. Running bless to place boot files failed."

Is there an easy solution to this? I'm not super comfortable in terminal or complex workarounds, so I'd prefer simplicity if it exists and someone is familiar with this error. Would upgrading to catalina, big sur or monterey fix this? I'm open to all answers ultimately too, thx!

 

[Fishrrman]

Have you tried either:
- CarbonCopyCloner
or
- SuperDuper

?????

If not, try one (or both).
Then... get back to us.

(both are free to download and use for 30 days. Trying them will cost you nothing)

 

[skeeknaek]

Have you tried either:
- CarbonCopyCloner
or
- SuperDuper

?????

If not, try one (or both).
Then... get back to us.

(both are free to download and use for 30 days. Trying them will cost you nothing)

I’ve seen them pop up a lot over the years in here, and I’ll consider them for sure after hopefully finding or hearing feedback that there’s a way to still do this with disk utility without paying money. Especially since this is supposed to work and is a core feature of disk utility :’( …

I hate that paying money to a 3rd party app ($30-40) to fix a core system function is the preferred route instead of apple actually fixing this.

 

[bogdanw]

I’m very pleased now with sudo asr restore, it took some trial and error and this was helpful https://www.prosofteng.com/blog/how-to-create-a-bootable-external-hard-drive-clone-on-macos

 

[CoastalOR]

What is the format type and partition map of the 1TB Samsung QVO?

 

[MarkC426]

I’ve seen them pop up a lot over the years in here, and I’ll consider them for sure after hopefully finding or hearing feedback that there’s a way to still do this with disk utility. Especially since this is supposed to work and is a core feature of disk utility :’( …

I hate that paying money to a 3rd party app ($30-40) to fix a core system function is the preferred route instead of apple actually fixing this.

Personally have had Superduper for many years.
It works seamlessly (as does CCC), to 'clone' your drive.
As mentioned above you can use it for free initially, so nothing to lose, and they are both legitimate apps.

AFAIK disk utility doesn't offer this option unless you want to create a .dmg.

On a seperate note, I know QVO drives are problematic with Mac Pro, not sure with other Macs.

 

[skeeknaek]

What is the format type and partition map of the 1TB Samsung QVO?

It seems the format type of the SSD was still OS extended journaled and GUID map. My HDD has been APFS after being converted from OS Extended Journaled when upgrading to Mojave.

I've erased the SSD again and selected APFS. I now see an option to "convert to APFS" on the container under the SABRENT SSD option under the EXTERNAL selection within Disk Utility. I would assume matching the APFS HDD to a previously OS Extended Journaled SSD could have caused this?

I'm going to try running it again now that the external is APFS and update here. Thanks for the suggestion to check on my oversight!

 

[skeeknaek]

Personally have had Superduper for many years.
It works seamlessly (as does CCC), to 'clone' your drive.
As mentioned above you can use it for free initially, so nothing to lose, and they are both legitimate apps.

AFAIK disk utility doesn't offer this option unless you want to create a .dmg.

On a seperate note, I know QVO drives are problematic with Mac Pro, not sure with other Macs.

Thanks - I had 0 issues creating boot drives and clones in the past via Disk Utility (last 15 years and OS's prior to Mojave) and only now when having Mojave am I having problems. I'll try those as a back up option - sorry I missed the 30 day free parenthetical at the bottom!

 

[CoastalOR]

It seems the format type was still OS extended journaled and GUID map. My HDD is now APFS after being converted from OS Extended Journaled when upgrading to Mojave.

I've erased the SSD again and selected APFS. I now see an option to "convert to APFS" on the container under the SABRENT SSD option under the EXTERNAL selection within Disk Utility. I would assume matching the APFS HDD to a previously OS Extended Journaled could have caused this?

I'm going to try running it again now that the external is APFS and update here. Thanks for the suggestion to check on my oversight!

Mojave requires APFS format to operate properly. Mojave will run on HFS+ (MacOS Extended) but Apple updates will fail (it may not be a problem since Mojave is no longer getting Apple updates). I suspect Apple Disk Utility does not like performing boot blessing if not in a APFS format. I have used Carbon Copy Clone to clone Mojave on a HFS+ formatted disk and it is a bootable clone.

 

[MarkC426]

Mojave requires APFS format to operate properly. Mojave will run on HFS+ (MacOS Extended) but Apple updates will fail (it may not be a problem since Mojave is no longer getting Apple updates). I suspect Apple Disk Utility does not like performing boot blessing if not in a APFS format. I have used Carbon Copy Clone to clone Mojave on a HFS+ formatted disk and it is a bootable clone.

Likewise with SuperDuper, clones Mojave onto HFS+ spinny disk bootable.

 

[skeeknaek]

Mojave requires APFS format to operate properly. Mojave will run on HFS+ (MacOS Extended) but Apple updates will fail (it may not be a problem since Mojave is no longer getting Apple updates). I suspect Apple Disk Utility does not like performing boot blessing if not in a APFS format. I have used Carbon Copy Clone to clone Mojave on a HFS+ formatted disk and it is a bootable clone.

I left out a few words for context but edited my original comment. Thanks for the confirmation though - I upgraded to Mojave so I could use Adobe Cloud and Logic (lots of incompatibility happening with their upgrades and plugins I needed etc) and thought I had to switch to APFS. I didn't ensure the SSD was APFS too though, so going to try disk utility clone again now that both are APFS and see the result. If that doesn't work, I'll do the trials of CCC or Super Duper and give those a shot - as long as they're genuinely free without strings!

 

[skeeknaek]

I’m very pleased now with sudo asr restore, it took some trial and error and this was helpful https://www.prosofteng.com/blog/how-to-create-a-bootable-external-hard-drive-clone-on-macos

Interesting - I'll check this out after trying disk utility once more now that my SSD matches the HD with the SSD APFS reformat.