Replace my NVMe drive, CCC or Time Machine to clone the OS?

[panosru]

Good day fellow hackintoshers,

 

I want to replace my main NVMe with a new one but I don't want to set up everything from scratch.

 

The main reason I want to replace my current NVMe is mostly that I got a couple of kernel panics that indicated an issue with IONVMeFamily (screenshot attached). Also, yesterday all of the sudden my free space disappeared and my apps started to complain that there is not enough space available, I checked with Disk Utility and indeed I had about 25 - 30 MB of available space. I scanned as an administrator with Daisy Disk and ~580GB was occupied by Hidden Space, after a reboot, everything went back to normal. So I think it will be better to replace it now rather than regretting not replacing it earlier and losing my data. I will keep it as a secondary disk though just in case.

 

I do use Time Machine, so I know I can enter into setup mode and choose to restore from Time Machine, but I was wondering what are your thoughts are on that and if you would suggest me to use CCC instead.

 

My initial thought was to add my new NVMe as primary and keep the old one as secondary, then I would boot into restore mode, select restore from Time Machine backup, select the new disk, format it and done.

 

Another option that I'm thinking would be after I install my new NVMe as a primary, I would boot into my secondary NVMe where my current OS is, format my new NVMe, and then use CCC to transfer everything from the currently running OS to the new NVMe, then reboot to the new NVMe and in theory, I'm good to go.

 

What worries me most, and what I don't know actually, that's why I'm asking you, will indeed be everything cloned?

 

I have a few brew packages that I have configured to meet my requirements for my working environment, I also have added some launch daemons, also I have a lot of configurations for a variety of apps and etc, I'm really want to avoid redoing all that stuff and setting up from scratch proper permissions and etc.

 

Thanks a lot in advance for all your suggestions!

 

Cheers!

Edited September 21, 2020 by panosru

[nyu1985]

Hello,

 

You can clone your entire disk with CCC so everything will be transfered (user accounts, configurations etc.). The only things that is not copied is the EFI partition where Clover or OpenCore is located, so you'll have to copy it manually from the EFI partition of your original harddrive to the EFI partition of your target harddrive.

[panosru]

@nyu1985 thank you for the reply! I was just about to write (from the new drive) that I used CCC after watching a bunch of videos online to make sure, and it worked fine!

 

Little Snitch asked my license, so I provided it, Google Drive asked me to relocate the folder, and Dropbox asked me to login again, other than that, so far I see no differences.

 

My only concern is that my "old" drive has less available space in it, for example, the new drive Data volume has 410.2GB while the old Data volume has 439.3GB, but I cannot spot any difference, I'm currently checking the files to make sure that I haven't lost anything before I wipe the old NVMe drive

 

PS: I suspect that the size difference might be related to cached files in my old drive

 

Update:

I just read that and now I believe that I can safely wipe the old drive, worst case scenario I have backups from Time Machine.

 

Update2:

Just confirming that all the apps work fine, all custom configurations also work fine; that is mostly for those who also may bump on the same question as I had.

Also, avoid pirated CCC, I tried both pirated and legit, and I can tell, there is indeed a difference, also the app is worth it cost, but if you can't afford it then just use it in trial (as I did), I used it in trial and now that I'm sure it works GREAT, I bought it.

 

Cheers!

Edited September 22, 2020 by panosru