With an HFS+ volume selected as the destination, click the Restore button in the toolbar, or select Restore from the Edit menu.
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As an example, when I select my startup volume it shows up as a standard HFS+ volume: Macintosh HD SATA Internal Physical Volume, Mac OS Extend (Journaled).ĪPFS volumes, on the other hand, will say Volume Name APFS Volume.
You can tell the format by looking at the description just below the device’s name in the main Disk Utility panel. Select a destination volume formatted with the HFS+ file system from the Disk Utility sidebar. Launch Disk Utility, located at /Applications/Utilities. Make sure you have valid backups before trying any of the restore instructions. Warning: The destination volume you select from the sidebar in all of the restore processes outlined below will have all of their contents erased. This means you can make copies of just about anything you wish, including creating archives of videos from your camera’s flash drives before you perform any type of edits, creating clones before upgrading an OS or important app, and just as important, being able to return to a known good state should something befall an upgrade. Restore can also make copies of disk images, as well as just about any device that can be mounted on the Mac’s Desktop. Once the copy is complete, the destination is mounted, and you’re ready to make use of the information. Once the copy (Restore) starts, the destination device is unmounted and erased, and the content from the source is copied to the new location. The basic concept remains the same you use Disk Utility to select a destination volume from the sidebar, and then choose a source to copy from. What Hasn’t Changed in the Disk Utility Restore Function In this example, the destination volume is formatted with APFS.) (When you select a destination volume from the Disk Utility sidebar, you can verify the file system in use on the selected volume by checking the information pane. In this guide, we’re going to look at how Disk Utility’s Restore feature has changed in macOS High Sierra specifically, the new support for APFS containers and volumes, and how they bring new capabilities as well as limitations to how you restore data from one storage device to another. We’ve already covered the basics of using the Restore feature for cloning in the Rocket Yard article: Tech Tip: How to Use the Restore Feature of Disk Utility to Clone a Drive.
The Restore feature can also be used to copy disk images to a target volume, restore an image of your startup volume, or simply copy the content of one volume to another. But if this is your primary reason for using the Restore function, I recommend the use of dedicated cloning apps, such as Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper, that have a great deal more features that are highly serviceable in the cloning process. In this respect, it’s similar to the process of cloning a volume, and indeed, the Restore function can be used to create bootable clones. Disk Utility’s Restore function can be used to copy the content from one volume to another.