On your Mac, go to System Preferences and select Time Machine.If you haven’t done a manual backup on Time Machine before, here is the procedure. So, if you decide to use Time Machine only for the backups, make sure you manually backup with Time Machine before performing any of the following steps. It is not a complete clone, but it has all your applications, information, and other data safely stored in its backups. If you are using Time Machine on your Mac, then you already have a proper backup. And, for creating a true clone of your HD, you need an application and an external hard disk. So, you can boot your Mac from it if necessary. The clone is a completely identical copy of your startup drive, and is stored on an external disk. This is a bootable duplicate (clone) of your HDD.

And, we highly recommend you doing so.Īnother good practice before performing a factory reset on your Mac is maintaining a clone. When you create a backup, the best practice is to keep 2 local and 2 cloud backups. The process of making a full backup of your Hard Disk is called cloning your Hard Disk. So, if you want to keep your stuff, you need to create a backup. When you reset your MacBook or Mac, all the data, and information you have on your hard disk erased. Clone Your Hard Disk Before Resetting Your Mac

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