The steps were explained well and it worked! The following is differences between my mac and the video to answer anyone else’s questions: My Mac was formatted in APFS, so I erased the SSD to APFS. Also there was “Macintosh HD” and “Macintosh HD-Data” in my internal drive, so I restored “Macintosh HD” to the SSD and it automatically restored “Macintosh HD-Data” with it as well.

Well this is the first time EVER where I followed instructions on a KZfaq video to discover that it actually WORKS. Thank you sir.

Just updated my 2011 macbook pro to 16 gig ram and 1tb ssd. New battery as well. Thanks for the clear instructions and no suspect 3rd party cloning software. One of the best tutorials available.

Great tutorial here on how to configure your new SSD drive for your old MAC. I am in the process of changing out my old HDD in my 2009 iMAC and bought a kit from OWC with a 500GB drive. There are a lot of posts on how to physically change the drives out, but not much on how to clone your old drive before you change it out. This one was very complete and comprehensive and I am now booting and running on the new SSD (externally connected temporarily. The only thing not covered here is if you are replacing your old drive with a new one with less storage. My original HDD is 1TB, the new SSD is 500GB, so I did have to partition the old drive before cloning.

I've just completed a HDD to SSD upgrade on my mid 2010 iMac 21.5" following your instructions. OMG, so easy to follow and complete. However, it took over 5 hours to clone all my data from the old HDD. I've upgraded the RAM to 16GB too now and it's like a new machine. I think I need to get back inside though - there is some fan noise, that's annoying

Nice video, one comment for users on older versions of OS X. I'm running 10.11 El Capitan and didn't have the Restore button as an option in my Disk Utility. I had to click on the "Edit" menu at the top and found Restore there. Rest of the steps are the same.

Thanks a lot, you managed to explain everything in 7 minutes. I started to watch other videos with unnecessary BS and had to stop them. Your video is the best, good job Bro!

Thank you very much - especially for mentioning that the format types must be noted on the internal hard drive when formatting the SSD - I had a complete nightmare doing this missing that point trying to do after watching other videos but you mentioned that very clearly and that was very useful without which I couldn’t have done this 🙏🙏

I have watched several videos from KZfaq, but I did not understand clearly. With this video everything became clear to me. Excellent video, short, clear and very easy to understand. Thank you a thousand. The Beef

This is really easy to follow. So many will toss a word salad trying to sound more intelligent than they are, and being a retired auto mechanic who was also an instructor, I learned that if you talk over your student's heads, you taught them nothing other than how you stroke your massive ego. Thank for for this refreshing and useful information.

Thanks for the video. I used a Crucial 2TB drive & followed your instructions. I had almost 400GB of data on my old drive. It took most of the night to transfer the data across a USB line, but it worked flawlessly. My old iMac is faster now than when it was new!

Installed new Samsung SSD 1TB hard drive. I can’t put into words how satisfied and impressed I am! Feel like I’ve gone to light speed! Thanks for making life on my 2011 iMac better!

One of the best descriptive step by step explanations out there. Great job.

This video was a HUGE help. I followed it step-by-step and the drive worked perfectly. Thank you so much for your time putting it together. Thanks again for the great video.

OKAY SO THIS IS THE BEST VIDEO ON THIS SUBJECT....LEGEND YOU GET ALL CAPS

Your tutorial is better than many others out there. It teaches us that you do not need a "clone" software to migrate the data from your internal drive into the new one. I am going to use external SSD drives for both my iMac late 2011 and Mac Book Pro Retina late 2013. Not so much for speed, but for capacity. Both my internal drives are almost full, and I am using external HDDs for additional storage capacity. I attempted to replace the internal SSD of my Mac Book Pro Retina late 2013, with one sold by iFixit. Installing the new SSD (480 Gb) to replace the existing 256 Gb was very easy. I had also purchased the tools to do it. Penta and torx screw drivers. However, I incurred a lot of problems with the Apple reinstall option (Command + Option + R). I got several error messages, before I got to the 4 options menu as shown on your video. All the error messages happened along the reboot process: "apple.com/support-5101F" or -2005F, or 2100F. It took me several attempts to get to see the disk utility option. None of the above errors are documented. I found a Reddit thread that suggested to do a (Command + Option + P + R) that solved my problem. Conclusion; most of the videos shown on KZfaq, treating the same subject are always perfect cases. It would be great if you mentioned what can be done in situations when not everything goes as per your demonstration.

Man just a great all around video. Instructions were clear and very helpful you didn’t leave out any details. Keep doing your thing man

Brilliant tutorial on how to clone an Imac to a SSD drive, very nicely spoken with clear and concise instructions, thank you 😀

Great video and very clear steps shown in the video. I’m restoring a 2011 iMac with a failing harddrive. With help from a Mac OS usb I was able to startup and repair the old drive. Surprisingly it wroked! Now I’m cloning the old Hdd to the new ssd, hopefully it will work. Thanks for the help

Thanks for the very clear instructions. I now feel confident enough to upgrade my mid 2012 MacBook Pro. First I'll install the SSD drive then check the improvement. Next purchase will be the RAM then a new battery.

Your videos is easy to understand! Thank you so much! 2nd method: Clone HDD to SSD, it will clone whole HDD (OS and Data) or (OS only) to SSD?

Awesome It worked for the MacBook Pro 2012 Mid year version too.. Solid state device rocks at rocket speed than HdD👍🏼

wow, thanks, this time no one talking for ages about nothing. You got it right, excellent documentary on how to do without the fluff. .

This weekend I will be installing a 500GB SSD, 16 GB memory and new battery on a Macbook Pro 2011 15". This is by far one of the best videos and easiest ways to migrate/clone the data. Much thanks!!

I'm using the exact same Mac and I am about to do this operation. The only thing I'm debating on is whether I want to wait around for it to move around 50 gigs of data through USB2, which is slow, but I may just go with it considering how easy you showed this to be. Well done!

This is simply the best and straight-forward steps provided to non-nerd iMac users to upgrade the speed of old iMac. Bravo ! One question I have is that, if I use the 1st method, could I stick to copying just the older Mac Operating system already in use in the internal hard drive ? Or I will automatically prompt to push installation of the latest OS ? Thank you once again for the clear instructions.

Thank you so much for sharing this recovery method using Disk Utility! The Apple folks were ONLY offering the OS retore from the Apple Store and because the used iMac I had bought was NOT in my profile, the restore was not working! Serioulsy annyoing restriction they have set up on retores working unless you have that specific model and OS in your profile! And Apple Support would not add that OS to my profile when I asked. So, finding this by sheer accident today was a life saver! I am posting this message as the new SSD is being restored!! Thanks again for sharing this.

As always another great video, this covers all the basics of a semester in Tech school after you cut away all the fluff.

Excellent instructions good video. Left out the fact that if your hard drive is encrypted you will need to decrypt the hard drive before you can complete this process. Great video everything worked as expected

As someone who runs a 2010 MacBook Pro, thank you! This worked perfectly. Saved me $$$ on a new product. So cool

Want to say thanks. I was about to drop 5k on a Mac Studio. But was cheaper to get a ssd and speed up what I have. 2014 i7 32gb of ram and this sped it up. I still have to open it up and put the actual drive inside the Mac!

I just upgraded my iMac by closely following your instructions. Everything is working like a dream, thank you very much. Your videos are the best!

Yes , an excellent tutorial, but for a klutz like me there is a part missing after the old HDD has been copied to the new SSD. That is renaming the SSD. In the earlier part of the clip, the drive is renamed prior to erasing its contents-obviously one does not want to do that after you have just copied it. The very simple way is while you are in disk utility go to File, and on the drop down select Rename. This is not a criticism, just a note to help 70+ year old people like me. The tutorial is very much appreciated.

Awesome video. Simple step by step instructions with excellent production value. So refreshing an very informative! Thank you.

This video saved my upgrade and my mini has new life! Thank you for posting. Upgraded my 2012 Mini to a 1TB SSD. First method I tried failed miserably but the cloning method shown here worked like a charm. Only difference in the process is that I had the new SSD already mounted in the mini before I started, with the old drive connected externally via SATA cable. The copy took 5 hours. Thanks again!

Thank You! I followed your video and it worked flawlessly. I was just about to shell out $1500 for a new Mac.I am $1400 to the good right now!!!

5:24 “30-60 minutes” took my dying hdd 8 hours lmao 😂

You've convinced me I can do this. My first attempt was disappointing. I bought a 1TB SSD that was just 20mb smaller than the 1TB hard drive in the iMac. It refused to copy because of this. Second go coming up. This time with a 2TB SSD ... I'll report back if it was successful.

You saved me on this one! I was having trouble getting everything figured out. Your video definitely clarified everything for me. My 2012 Mac mini is super fast now. Thank you!

I've used Carbon Copy Cloner like forever Highly recommended

Thank you! I'm new to Mac file system (although my first owned computer was Apple IIe clone), and your video helped replacing HD to SSD on 2014 iMac.

Unbelievable! I have, or had, a super slow beachball spinning iMac(2017). Bought a scan disk ssd, followed your instructions, and wham! Fast Mac. Thanks a lot. I'll subscribe.

you are the man!!!! Nobody will tell me what tool i need it to clone the hard drive !!!thank you. thank you, and thank you!

After following your tutorial, everything worked great at first, however a bunch of issues started to arise. 1) Bluetooth no longer works. It will not turn on, nor recognize devices. 2) Restarting and holding Com+R no longer starts recovery mode, it will only go to Internet Recovery every single time. 3) While in internet recovery mode, it will not recognize the SSD, nor will it recognize ANY external drives plugged in. The only way to get out of recovery is just holding the power button and restarting normal. 4) Sometimes initial boot fails, and just shows a circle with line through it where the Apple logo should be, with words at the bottom saying contact apple support. My biggest gripe has been with the bluetooth because I can no longer use the magic keyboard/mouse, and I cannot airdrop, which I used daily. It is possible that the SSD that I chose for the swap just does not do well with Mac products (Amazon Fanxiana S101 SSD 1TB).

Make sure you're Disk Utility window is in the view "Show All Devices", otherwise you won't be able to select the partition scheme of GUID. Otherwise, it will error out when cloning and present a GTP partition map error.

Thaks for an excellent video tutorial. I followed the instructions and saved myself a couple of hundred pounds in chamging the drive myself. Keep up the good work!!

Thanks! Now I can clone my Hackintosh’s MacOS Ventura HDD to my SSD

After restarting and choosing disk utility and the new ssd there is not an option for “restore” any idea why? Do I have another option? Thanks

Thank you so much for your video. My iMac is working like new. Thank you man.

I tried this method on a Mac Mini 2,1 (A1176), but the cloned OS X 10.6.8 (when SSD is inserted back into the unit) does not boot. 🤔😕😞

Great video. It was easy peasy with these instructions. Thank you for a straight forward guide, I completed the cloning without any issues.

On OS Catalina I get 2 options Macintosh HD and Macintosh HD Data. Which one do I choose?

I just did this upgrade. Important to know, you cannot choose the "journaled" option when initializing the drive. Apple changed this to something called "APFS". Don't ask me what it means, but the drive works perfectly on my late 2015 iMac.

Thanks! Really helpfull! For those trying for the first time, it will take about 5h (500gb) to complete.

you saved my Imac bro, bless you🌺🙏🙏🙏

thank you, this worked , however my MBP late 2011 took a whooping 10hours to transfer 470GB to a 1TB SSD , i think i would have done a manual transfer with a fresh install if i knew this, or leave it over night , hope this info is useful for others

You are awesome. Thank you for sharing such a valuable and useful information. You are precise, clear and steady. Thank you very much!

I am also updating my mid 2010 from hdd to ssd and cloned first as external. My next step will be to do the internal swap. Am I correct in assuming the start up (ssd) will be found no matter where it is? Are there any extra steps or should I be able to just hit the power button like before? Ps ... thank you for making an otherwise daunting task, rather straight forward and easy, (for a 66 year young lady) 😅

GOT IT ! again...if your old HDD format is APFS you should select APFS for your new SSD...extended journaled to extended journaled

I had a go after watching watching your brilliant vid at least a 100 time but I managed to complete the task. My mac is like new now. Thank you.👍 I have one question, hopefully you will be able to help me with this. I have two identical SSD's, one as the cloned operating system on and the other I'm using as Time machine on the old internal drive. How do I make this work with the new SSD operating system? I've plugged it in while using the new SSD operating system and the time machine says backup failed.

After watching these videos, instead of spending over £1000 on a new iMac, I bought a used £380 iMac and a £60 SSD, my wife thought I was crazy but this setup has vindicated me.

Just cloned successfully thanks to this tutorial.

brilliant clear explanation thanks - very helpful, great clear style!

Hi there, I am using your video to proceed but when I try to install from my old hard drive I am informed that there is not enough available space on the ssd drive to proceed. I’m using a 500gb WD blue ssd drive and copying from a 1tb internal hard drive, but there is only 113gb used on that drive. Can you help? Please!…..why do I get that “not sufficient space on drive” message when I attempt to restore, I did try several times?

Excellent tutorial. Easy to understand for me since this is my first Mac.

Thanks for the instructions. worked well on my thinkpad x260 cloning monterey to another ssd.

Wow man thanks for this !!! Great video!!! Work perfect... I have a question now that I have the clone and my time machine backup on another Hard drive with 10T should I format my IMac ? Since everything is save on my SSD and my 10 T time machine? Or this is not recommended? Thanks 🙏🏻

Excellent video, nice pace and clearest video yet.

Works perfectly on my late 2015 iMac running Big Sur. Thanks!

Thanks a lot!! Trying to switch from HDD to SSD on my mid 2012 MacBook Pro

Just used this procedure to upgrade my mid-2012 MBP and it could not have been easier.

Hey I was doing the same procedure and in the middle of the restoring process my screen just turned black. I assume this means I also have another problem on hand but I was wondering if I should let it continue restoring. The blue light is blinking on the enclosure so something must be happening right? I might wait a good amount of hours and then shutdown and inspect the ssd’s content afterwards.

Thanks for great video. Worked great. Finally found a solution how easily create bootable USB OSX drive. Upgraded 2011 MBP SSD and needed to instal older version of OSX (high sierra). Instaling over internet did not work, because the OSX for 2011 MBP was too new.

Hi - I have a 2010 IMAC 21. I have upgraded the Memory to 12GB RAM and the IOS to Catalina. Since changing to Catalina the IMAC is very very slow. My storage is 935 GB out of 1 TB. Do I need to upgrade the storage to SSD? if so would that also be 1TB or would 500 GB suffice?

Thanks. I was getting errors because I highlighted to physical drive and not the volume.

Thank you. It took a while but it works. My old 1tb hdd is beginning to show errors, so hopefully just in time. Also I am using a windows Bluetooth keyboard, so not so easy to access the menus.

THANKS, THANKS, and THANKS again!!! Although I have done this many times, it’s been years since I last did and I just couldn’t remember how! 👍😁

Thank's guy, your video was very important for my work.

so helpful video brother..

Great video! However, it doesn’t work with Mojave. It gives the following error message: “failed to invert the volume”

Good information. As a backup, this makes sense. But to make the computer "newer", you'd want to use the solid state drive everyday, no?

Just Great!

Great Vid. I have a particular situation. I have both a mac OS and Windows system on the same NVMe on my macbook air which I desperately need to change out. So my question is, if I clone the mac os will the windows partition and its content also get copied? Will it boot normally? Thanks!

For a fresh OSX install on the SSD, what is the last step not shown in the video after OSX BASE SYSTEM??

great video, i was getting the error 19 validation message before i came here 👍👍

With an early 2009 iMac running El Capitan, I couldn't find the Restore button in Disk Utility. After a bit of reading, turns out that for El Capitan, Restore is tucked away in the Edit menu in the top menu bar.

My sad was previously in a pc and even when I format the hard drive to mac journal it starts up like a pc and wants to repair itself

Excellent BeefMaster, well spoken and good description - Thanks a lot 🆗

thanks a lot i understand every thing and i have the gadget adapter and everything but i can not open my mac by my self am afraid to do that i prefer to clone but give the remplacement to professionnel person

Excellent video. Very useful. I used on my late 2010 Mack book pro and worked perfectly

This would've been great if I saw this before I did my upgrade. I always stay away from anything that's 3rd-party if I can do things natively. I did mine using a third drive in the mix to make a Time Machine backup to restore from after swapping the SSD in. That only took like forever

Thanks for being super clear. Worked perfectly!

Thank you so much for this video! Super easy to follow and helped me out a lot! My Mac is so much faster it's unreal!

I have a newer 2020 iMac 27 inch.. just checking to see if it will work for me as well?

I'm a Windows guy but this is a great vid on how to clone for Macs!!! :-) Mike in LA, Calif

I wanted to ask if the disk utility or any other function in apple does give you the possibility to shrink the main drive that’s going to replace the older one (but not only in this occasion) into one ore more partitions and after that choose what you’re going to put into one partition and not the other, or install the macos into one choosen partition. Thanks

Nice!!, I have mac ios and windows running from the same drive do you know if it clones the drive with both OSs as it is?

Excellent! Worked like a charm.. Thanks.

great video, I do have a question my mac book pro 2011 the hard drive died and when I put a new drive SSD apple will not let me download lion the original Os, do you have a tutorial on have to solve such a problem? Thanks,

Can you confirm that I don't need any external software such as Supre Duper of Carbon Copy to Clone my Internal Drive? I am in the process of upgrading the internal 1TB HDD drive of my late 2013 27 inch IMac and replacing it with an OWC Electra 6G 2TB SSD. Initially I intend to move all of the information from my internal HDD to an external enclosure with the SSD. Once I'm happy with the external SSD I will consider moving the SSD into the computer, replacing the original HDD, thus maintaining all of the original information. Sorry about the dumb question, but I am a relative novice in the regard!