EFIClone - automatic backup of the EFI partition

[trs96]

Does that mean I still need to use a Windows thumb drive to run Acronis from? I only have one boot drive in the machine, with mojave 10.14.4 running

You can install ATI 2020 to your macOS system and then make the clone without needing the USB rescue drive. It's still good to make one and have it handy if needed. ATI 2020 for Mac can make your fully bootable clone even when you're booted into macOS.

 

[FlyLight]

So if I downloaded the Mac version it won't clone properly? Should I get the Windows version as a trial and transfer the registration over later? Does the Windows version install and run like a normal mac app? I haven't touched a windows computer for 20 years!

 

[trs96]

So if I downloaded the Mac version it won't clone properly? Should I get the Windows version as a trial and transfer the registration over later? Does the Windows version install and run like a normal mac app? I haven't touched a windows computer for 20 years!

OK, to clear this up for you and everyone wondering. You will have to download and install the Mac .DMG file and then move Acronis to applications if you don't want the PC version for use via a bootable USB.

The free Mac version though doesn't allow full disk cloning you can only make an image with that. An image is not bootable the same way a clone is. You would have to restore it to another drive. Then test it out to see if it boots. If you do this report back how it works for you. I have not tried this approach.

Get the Mac version of Acronis to install to your macOS system drive
​

Step 1. Click on Try now

Step 2. Click Download for Mac then click to open the .DMG

Step 3. Drag Acronis into your Applications folder and then open it up.

4. It will then ask you to register/create account or enter your valid serial if you have one.

5. Once that is done and the trial is started, make a backup. If you have a serial # activate,
then it's possible to make a full clone that will boot.

Hope that helps to clear up the confusion. For those that do use Windows and macOS it's best to get the PC version and make the bootable Acronis USB that will clone both Windows and macOS drives.

 

[FlyLight]

Perfect, thank you! Legend!!!!

I have paid for the Mac version and installed, but haven't launched it yet. Will try now and see how it goes!

 

[FlyLight]

have installed and running now, but getting errors like "cannot add a volume to the APFS container". Do I need to duplicate the partitions and volumes manually beforehand using disk utility?

 

[trs96]

have installed and running now, but getting errors like "cannot add a volume to the APFS container". Do I need to duplicate the partitions and volumes manually beforehand using disk utility?

Does the Mac version let you make a rescue USB ? For the errors you are getting it may be best to search for that issue in the Acronis forums. Other Mac users have probably had the same thing happen. I know there were issues in the earlier versions of Mojave similar to this.

 

[trs96]

Does the Mac version let you make a rescue USB ?

I just checked, looks like it will let you make a rescue USB to boot from if the USB is partitioned GUID and formatted macOS extended jrnld . Not sure if it will work for booting on a hack though since it is PC hardware. It should work flawlessly on an Apple made Mac. Edit: I tested out booting from the Acronis for Mac bootable media and it didn't work. Clover does not see the Acronis rescue USB at all. It's designed to work on a "real" Mac by pressing the Option key at boot up.

So what to do ? You can try making a Windows PE bootable USB and then boot up from that and make your clone.

 

[Shiitaki]

Worst case you should be able to use Unibeast or your existing EFI to boot the Acronis USB rescue disk since they can read HFS+. Depending on the DRM used you may be able to simply make the rescue USB and then manually format a second USB to fat and then copy the files over, because PC motherboards can read FAT but not HFS+.

If you end up with a GPT error, you can manually fix it:

manually repair GUID table - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

Get's pretty technical. When I transfer a system I typically just us Carbon Copy Cloner to move the macOS part. Then I just use "sudo dd if=/dev/diskxs1 of=/dev/diskys1 bs=1m", x=original disk and y=target disk. These numbers are found with ''diskutil list". Be very careful because this command is not recoverable if you get backward. Notice you want the physical disk numbers, not 'synthesized'. What's really slick is that you can save it to a file using 'sudo dd if=/dev/disk0s1 of=efi_backup.img bs=1m". I use this to store a back of my EFI to a NAS. This command works in the terminal window of the macOS installer as well.

If for some reason your disks happen to be identical, as in the exact same number of blocks on the source and target you can make a perfect copy with "sudo dd if=/dev/diskx of=/dev/disky bs=1m", but it's impressively slow and you can't have either drive mounted/booted. You could use the terminal in the macOS installer.

 

[trs96]

have installed and running now, but getting errors like "cannot add a volume to the APFS container". Do I need to duplicate the partitions and volumes manually beforehand using disk utility?

Did you find any resolution of this problem ? Did you get a clone or backup image made ?

I've found that it is possible to use the Mac version and make a backup with the free 1TB of cloud storage. What you would do after that is recover to a local hard drive from the cloud. I'm in the process of testing that to see if it works.
Since my upload speeds are about 87 Mbps it's much faster that writing 17 GB to a flash drive.

The last obstacle is to get the Acronis recovery USB to boot on a Hackintosh. I suppose you could boot it on a "real" Mac and then recover the backup to an SSD connected via USB 3.0. The resulting SSD should be exactly the same as having a bootable clone of your macOS system drive.

Unfortunately I don't own an Intel based Mac so cannot test this approach.

Restoring from Acronis Cloud
Restoring your system from a backup in Acronis Cloud:

1. Boot the machine with Acronis bootable media.
2. Click Recover now.
3. Under Location, click Browse, select Cloud storage and click Log in.
4. Specify your account credentials:

 

[fboulegue]

Mmh i cant backup my Catalina Installation with Acronis anyone ever had success?