Cloning an image using Thunderbolt and Disk Utility (post–El Capitan)


I have a longer post on this, including why you would want to clone using Thunderbolt and Disk Utility, but Apple decided to switch up Disk Utility’s interface completely in El Capitan (10.11). Even though the process is similar, the exact steps are different.

One procedural difference worth noting: In Yosemite (10.10), Mavericks (10.9), etc., you would select the source, and then select what you wanted to restore the source to. In El Capitan (10.11) and supposedly beyond, you start by selecting the destination, and then select what source you want to restore from.

diskutilityrestoreelcapitan01 Open up Disk Utility (from /Applications/Utilities). Select the disk you want to restore to. And then select Edit > Restore.

diskutilityrestoreelcapitan02 You have the option to restore from another disk (if you have a computer connected via Thunderbolt, it should show up in the drop-down list) or to restore from a disk image (click Image… to find the image you want to restore from), and then click Restore.

diskutilityrestoreelcapitan03 Wait for it to restore.

diskutilityrestoreelcapitan04 Click Done when it’s done restoring.


4 responses to “Cloning an image using Thunderbolt and Disk Utility (post–El Capitan)”

  1. fails almost immediately after starting.

    ” source volume is read-write and cannot be unmounted, so it cannot be block copied”

    a way around this? I am copying an image and trying it … I am desperate as the El Capitan Server app has issues Apple is working on and is totally unusable.

    Please reply if you can …. 300+ to image for a school … in a bad place

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