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My original question was closed because it's assumed this thread (What is the best way to clone a disk between two Macs?) answers my question, so I am rephrasing my question and title.

The author in the linked post makes no mention of whether he intends partitions to be copied (just "files") and neither do the responses. Will "dd" accept the disk's partitions, and its various volume formats? I have some 10 partitions, with some being HFS+, some APFS, one ExFAT. Will these formats also be copied with dd?

Would appreciate some help, thank you!

sekizuri
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  • Does this answer your question? What is the best way to clone a disk between two Macs? – Yuri Sucupira Dec 16 '20 at 07:14
  • One of the answers on the linked questions recommends dd already, why is this not enough for you? – nohillside Dec 16 '20 at 12:16
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    This doesn't really look like a duplicate to me? - He's asking whether it will clone partitions formatted in ExFAT, APFS, HFS+ - i.e. different formats. The answer to that question is yes. dd does not care what the format is. – jksoegaard Dec 16 '20 at 12:47
  • @nohillside Did u actually read my post? As I thought I made clear let me repeat myself (I’ll just copy-paste from original post): ”The author in the linked post makes no mention of whether he intends partitions to be copied (just "files") and neither do the responses. Will "dd" accept the disk's partitions, and its various volume formats? I have some 10 partitions, with some being HFS+, some APFS, one ExFAT. Will these formats also be copied with dd?” There! :) – sekizuri Dec 16 '20 at 14:49
  • Thank you jksoegaard! I’ll give it a shot then. :) – sekizuri Dec 16 '20 at 14:51
  • I actually did. The dd answer says "How about good ol' fashioned dd. It can make a bit-by-bit copy of your drive" which seems to be the answer to your question here. – nohillside Dec 16 '20 at 15:04
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    It could mean it copies all the data bit by bit, could also mean it disregards format types and attempts to copy data bit by bit, hence I felt there’s space for some clarification, and I thought it was worth asking, that’s all. But we’re all good! Thanks everyone. – sekizuri Dec 16 '20 at 16:41
  • @nohillside: I have a USB drive with a FAT32 and EXT4 partitions. At this point, after reading the answer you're discussing, I'm still not sure. While states a "bit for bit copy," it does not specify if that includes partitions macOS can't read. So now I THINK it does, but I don't know. The post addresses a specific issue which is not specifically addressed in that answer. It isn't even addressed in the comments. I see this being easily fixable in 3 ways: 1) Re-opening this question, 2) Adding a comment from someone who knows for sure, or 3) Editing the answer to address it. – Tango Jul 28 '21 at 19:19
  • @tango dd works on device level, so it doesn‘t care about filesystems and such. It just copies blocks of data. – nohillside Jul 28 '21 at 19:50
  • @nohillside Okay, with it spelled out, that's a big help because if you're not used to dd, you don't know that. But nowhere, until you said that, was it spelled out for someone who is less familiar with it. I've also left a comment asking the author of the other answer to clarify that in his answer and posted about it in Meta. I really don't think this answer should have been closed without that point having been made clear. – Tango Jul 28 '21 at 19:54
  • @Tango Well, this is exactly what "bit for bit" means, actually :-) – nohillside Jul 28 '21 at 20:03
  • @nohillside: But, again, for someone not familiar with DD, it's not clear if that applies to, say, the Macintosh HD referenced in that question or if it applies to ALL partitions. I know, in your eyes it does, but is there a reason to not help those who aren't sure understand this? I'm a retired programmer, but only used DD on a few occasions and it's clear the OP of this question wasn't clear about that, so it seems it would have been useful if someone had just clarified it from the start. – Tango Jul 28 '21 at 20:05
  • @Tango In that case, leaving a comment beneath the answer requiring clarifications is a good way to get that resolved. – nohillside Jul 28 '21 at 20:06
  • @hillside: Yes, and notice I mention that in my question on Meta. Reading these comments, I feel there was a back and forth. Without trying to get into who is right or wrong, it sounded more like the discussion was about procedure or what to do. Granded, sekizuri might have spelled out, "But THIS is the question more clearly," so it may have just been a communications gap. So when you spelled it out, that solved the issue. I'd still like it if that point were edited into Ian C.'s. (I don't think I have enough rep to do that.) (see next) – Tango Jul 28 '21 at 20:10
  • Before I was a programmer, I was a special ed teacher, so maybe I'm more aware of the clarity some people need in a statement than most are, but I do feel that one point was left out until you closed it - and it'd be nice if it were addressed in that answer, too. – Tango Jul 28 '21 at 20:12

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