Originally published at: Carbon Copy Cloner 5.1.22 - TidBITS
Addresses an issue that prevented the drive-cloning and backup utility from accessing a new Apple data store introduced in macOS 10.15.7 Catalina. ($39.99 new, free update, 14.7 MB, macOS 10.10+)
1 Like
I have used Carbon Copy Cloner for years from its early days. Best money ever spent on software. Piece of mind it provides vs. loss of data, programs etc. is worth every penny. Updates are free. Outstanding free support is provided as well. Any time I sent a question or reported and issue a response was prompt and from Mike Bombich himself. CCC is his creation! 
5 Likes
I second what isaac31 writes. Every sentence. Exactly so.
2 Likes
Couldn’t agree more, it’s truly outstanding. And something that might not be obvious is that it is a useful utility for managing certain disk-level items: whether there’s a valid recovery HD for HFS+ boot volumes, and viewing & managing snapshots on APFS volumes.
Plus, the knowledge base help articles are amazingly detailed and cover the technical intricacies of relevant filesystem behaviour in a readable and comprehensible way. I’ve read some of the knowledge base articles simply to understand how APFS and snapshots work, not because I was having an issue at the time. It has some of the best APFS filesystem ‘documentation’ that currently exists (along with eclecticlight.co).
2 Likes
Remember the little piggy? Can’t remember exactly what it was for except that it was to encourage contributions. Just shows how long I’ve been using CCC. I have other bootable backup utilities (TechTool Pro) that I haven’t even tried or looked at because how could they possibly be better than CCC, which is constantly updated - a steal at the current price.
@bombich has now posted a lengthy article explaining that CCC 5.1.22 is now officially qualified for macOS 11 Big Sur. That doesn’t mean it will make bootable duplicates on its own—Apple’s Apple System Restore tool isn’t functioning sufficiently for that to be true—but you can install macOS onto a CCC backup to make it bootable and end up in the same place. No one pretends that this is an ideal situation, but it’s a necessary step in the right direction.