There’s nothing to support here. Any 5-year old could fasten that stick to the case. And if there remain questions about formatting etc. there are more than enough helpful people right here who have all the answers there are to that (or the links to Howard Oakley’s excellent handholding guides).
There’s things worth paying people extra for. And detailed expertise is invaluable when truly required. But a simple stick of flash is not the hill that argument goes to die on.
I’m going to focus on the foundations of the OP’s needs. My interpretation of this thread is that:
*The OP wants a long lasting storage medium for backups.
*The OP is concerned about being unable to restore a machine from a backup.
*The OP’s ability to obtain professional help from a US-based source, such as OWC or Apple, is limited due to time zone differences or physical distance.
*The OP needs to be able to get their system back up and running as quickly and easily as possible in case of a failure, catastrophe, or disaster.
*The OP wants as close to 100% assurance as possible that their backup strategy is reliable, always available, and always functioning.
Now, assuming I understand things correctly, here’s what I would do if I faced a similar situation:
*Keep redundant data backups on HDs, using at least two different utilities (say, Carbon Copy Cloner and Time Machine or CCC and a cloud-based backup service).
*Put copies of files that don’t change frequently onto optical media annually and store the discs offsite.
*Use a cloud-based password manager, such as 1Password, to store critical logins, hardware and software purchase/registration details, and phone numbers.
*Have a second Mac available as a failsafe. It doesn’t have to be fully loaded or the newest model but it needs to be able to handle most of my daily workflow. In my household, my spouse keeps their next-to-newest MacBook for this purpose after buying a new one.
Obviously, following these steps will cost more than simply buying a SSD and an enclosure, But I’m OK with spending money up front to protect myself, as much as possible, from having to go into crisis mode and from making decisions in a panic as a result of mission critical equipment or data suddenly getting impaired or destroyed.
You are saying that to a forum full of people with lots of technical expertise and experience.
Let’s try going to some random 60-year-old person who doesn’t work with computers, doesn’t frequent computer forums and is uncomfortable even figuring out where the power switch is on his new computer.
For that person, a tech support person who can hold his hands and walk him through a procedure that “any 5-year old” can do is worth $60.
If you don’t know of any such people, consider yourself lucky, but there are more of them then there are of you.
“Have a second Mac available as a failsafe…”
I second (!) that advice. You can use a file syncing app to keep critical data on both Macs.
I have an “old” Intel iMac for this purpose whereas my main computer is an M2:Macbook Air. I realise that fancy apps like Music and Photos cannot be easily synced but iCloud data and numerous Word docs, PDFs etc seem fine on both machines.
The Intel Mac is mainly a media server for an Apple TV 4K but it serves as an instant backup if the Macbook Air is unavailable.
I adopted this strategy after bitter experience with Windows PCs many (many) years ago.
Simon, thanks for the link to the product on Amazon.
I am thankful for all the comments.
Here is my somewhat UNIQUE situation.
I have been suffering from the “Failed to Personalize” error that prevents installing updated Mac System Software since Jan 2024 using what everyone else uses.
The last time this happened, the M2 MBP FAILED to connect using Apple Configurator and the correct cable when paired to a 2020 MBA .
I am thousands of miles away from Apple USA and the local Apple store is able to to get the updated system software installed
BUT then, I have to manually restore my data because if I use Migration Assistant, Apple Pay is disabled.
I cannot tell you how many hours I have spent on the phone with Apple’s people from countries including USA, Ireland, Portugal, UK, and Spain.
What has not yet happened is Apple throwing in the towel and just replacing the machine.
What I have been told by some Apple engineers is if I can wipe the internal SSD completely starting up from an external drive, then I could install the system update and use migration assistant as long as (and this is where it gets very fuzzy) I do not select the box that would migrate system files. (I am also warned that I need to be selective in which ~ Library ƒ files I also restore but that is all they would say.)
But no one is sure.
I am purchasing another Samsung T7 drive and plan for the first time to use time machine to make a backup. I haver zero experience using TimeMachine
I currently use CCC but it no longer allows the option to act as an external startup drive (Samsung t5,t7 SSDs) and to restored backed up system files. (Does SuperDuper?)
I believe that a time machine backup would allow me to restore the system files but I am clueless how to update the time machine SSD to the latest version since as far as I know, it cannot be used as an external startup disk.
So, I have downloaded the ECLECTIC LIGHT COMPANY article but since it was written in 2022, I am unsure if Apple has implemented changes that make the article somewhat out-of date.
That is why I asked the question. Is there a person that has real world experience using an external drive as a startup disk and that drive is running OS Sonoma? I will look at the enclosure that the amazon link references.
Thank you for listening,
Lee
A couple of years ago I got an OWC Envoy Express (which is TB3) fitted with a 1 TB (they come pre-fitted up to 8 TB) Aura P12 Pro. It seems to be almost as fast as the SSD in my M2 MBAir. I can make bootable clones on it.In the meantime they have similar stuff which is even faster. I first had it running on a pre-Sonoma OS (what my Mac was using), and as the newer OSs came out I updated the clone, too.
I’ve bought a lot of stuff from OWC over the years. While they may be more expensive than other sources, their stuff has always been robust and reliable. The only support I’ve needed from them is an occasional request for advice, and they’ve always been forthcoming.
Lots of good points in @Halfsmoke’s post. This one especially I think people should take to heart.
Never just settle for one backup using just one tool (SD/CCC or TM) and one volume. Ideally, you want to use at least two entirely separate tools onto at least two different disks (separate partitions are better than nothing, but what you really want is separate media), and great is also if you can store those two different disks in entirely separate locations (say office vs. home vs. cabin).
If one day your main Mac is destroyed and you find yourself having to rely on such a backup as the only way to set up a brand new Mac without losing years of work (and cherished memories), and then you discover the tool you had used had a bug, made a mistake, or the disk it copied to has failed, that’s when the 2nd (and maybe even 3rd) safety net will become absolutely invaluable.
Don’t wait to learn that lesson the hard way. Get a 2nd disk and backup tool into your backup rotation today. TM is included, free, and super simple to set up. Basic SD is free and trivial to use. CCC is not expensive and comes with a great manual. Basic 2 TB storage can be had for ~$100. None of this costs much and when you one day truly need it, I can guarantee you will consider that price to have been a massive bargain. 
Absolutely second this – and would add one more thing.
Regularly verify and test your backups. Check that everything you think you’re backing up is actually being backed up. Practice recovery so that you know how to do it in the event you need to. Make sure that you can actually recover from your backup media.
You may wish to use a virtual machine to perform these tasks. You don’t have to worry about destroying your production Mac if you recover to a virtual machine.
FWIW, we don’t have OWC over here in Europe, but Crucial do have an EU operation. I’m using 2 4Tb External SSDs, their X10 Pros, one as my startup drive and one as my Dropbox drive, permanently downloaded, on my i9 maxed out Intel iMac. Purring along at 2000 read and write and much faster than the previous drive, a Samsung T7.
Ooo, looks like we have another International Verify Your Backups Day coming up this month!
Hi Tommy - OWC has resellers in Europe:
I’ve previously purchased a couple of hard drives from one of the UK resellers. Decent prices and prompt service.
Thanks. Good to know!
Tommy, I believe OWC does have an outlet in the EU. I’m in Austria, and I don’t think I’ve ever paid customs duty, and delivery was fast. But that may have changed, and I may be mistaken, so it would be best to ask them.
Slightly off-topic, but I’ll ask anyway. My Mac Studio M1 Max running the latest version of Sonoma gets multiple backups: Time Machine to a local hard disk and a network QNAP volume and two SuperDuper! full-disk backups to a local hard disk and a local SSD.
I can select the WD SSD as a startup disk but upon reboot to it, I get all sorts of permissions requests, sign-in requests, confirmations that I need to register some apps, etc. and etc.
Does Carbon Copy Cloner do a better full-disk clone than SuperDuper!? Or are the days of easily booting off of a cloned startup disk gone?
Any advice or tips offered will be most appreciated.
The short is answer is, basically, yes.
SD and CCC still make complete backups of your data and they are both very well equipped at doing that. However, booting Apple silicon Macs no longer works the way it used to, partly due to a more secure boot disk layout, partly due to how “firmware” is provided.
It’s important to understand that every macOS install now consists of a system snapshot and the user-specific rest. The former is identical on every single Mac running that version of macOS and that is ensured by checksum. If your Mac boots, that means there is nothing wrong with the checksum on that part and hence re-installing macOS will not magically solve any issue since it would just play back what had just been verified as being bit for bit already there. OTOH, if that system part suffers just a single bit change anywhere, your Mac will no longer boot from it. Ever. And the only way to fix that is re-install macOS. The good thing about this is that once that re-install is complete, you can restore all your user-specific stuff (apps, docs, settings, etc.) from any backup you have with basically a single click courtesy of MA. Another important corollary of all this is that it no longer makes sense to store a complete clone of your Mac’s internal drive as a backup. Since the system part is identical for every Mac and can (and will) be restored by any macOS installer, it makes little sense to back that part up. OTOH without that part (and the intricate under the hood linkage Apple performs between the system and user-specific parts) such a backup will never be a true bootable clone the way we used to have. And this in a nutshell is essentially why on modern Apple silicon Macs, bootable clones as we once knew (and loved, this was after all a very unique Mac feature) are pretty much dead.
You can absolutely continue to use SD and CCC for backups (ideally alongside TM, just like you do), but I suggest giving up the notion that these are bootable volumes that you could switch to at any time. Howard Oakley has hammered on this point repeatedly and he has plenty of useful advice over on his blog.
The very short version of the bottom line is that if you have a problem with your internal installation, you boot from recovery. There you can set up a brand new macOS and then use MA to restore all your apps/data/settings from a backup disk.
If you need to install a previous version of macOS (and thanks to the awesome Mr. Macintosh website you can download all kinds of historical versions of macOS installers and IPSW files required for DFU restore) that will not work out of Recovery Mode so instead you resort to a bootable installer (eg. USB flash drive). Once that has installed the macOS version you want, you again use MA to migrate all your user-specific data.
If the internal storage is hosed to the point that your Mac cannot even boot (on Apple silicon Macs “firmware” is now stored on the same SSD as the system), that external “bootable” backup wouldn’t be of any help either since the hosed internal SSD also holds the “firmware” that your Mac needs to boot, regardless of what it’s booting from. So what you really need in such a case is a 2nd Mac so you can restore the hosed Mac’s SSD to initial factory state. If you do not have access to such a 2nd Mac, the Apple store (or an authorized Apple dealer) will likely be able to help you. And lastly, if the SSD hardware (flash memory chips) is defective such that even that doesn’t work, you’ll most likely need Apple to replace the board (or at least the flash daughterboard, in the case of the Mac Studio).
I’m not sure about your specific situation, but I suspect it’s because Apple and many other software vendors these days use cryptographic protections around logins, downloads and installations. So even through a clone has identical files, the hashes and keys used for various features may have to be different when the files are coming from a different device.
That having been said…
Both SD and CCC make bootable backups the same way - using Apple’s internal (and undocumented) APFS Replicator (ASR) utility. This usually works, but it is unsupported and should not be considered reliable.
CCC recommends that you instead just make a backup of your Data volume. If you want the volume to be bootable, you can download a macOS installer and use it to install macOS over that backup. It won’t technically be a clone of the system, but in this day of the signed/sealed system volume, it should be just as good.
For subsequent backups, you should just clone your Data volume. To upgrade the system volume (for when it changes), boot the clone and run Software Updates from there.
See also: Creating legacy bootable copies of macOS (Big Sur and later) | Bombich Software
Thanks to both posters who explained in detail about booting from an external SSD.
I DO have other Macs, but all are Intel-based. Do I need a second M1, M2, etc. Mac to perform the restore or will a Intel Mac running a certain OS or later also work?
If you’re referring to “reviving” an Apple Silicon Mac by refreshing its firmware, it requires a second Mac (either Intel of Apple Silicon) running Monterey or later.
If the second Mac is running Monterey or Ventura, you have to download the Apple Configurator utility to perform the refresh. If it’s running Sonoma, you don’t have to install Apple Configurator.