What is currently the easiest way to make a bootable clone of my MBP to use when my MBP is being repaired?

I was going to make a clome, and then take one of my old MBPs that my kids use and just boot from the external clone.

TIA

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Carbon Copy Cloner.

...Unless you're going to use it on an M1 Mac.

They have problems booting to externals. (And cloning software does not work to copy the system volume from the boot drive yet.) Not your case, but moving forward if you borrow an M1 Mac to use while yours is being serviced, best to wipe the borrowed Mac's drive and migrate your data to it from the other Mac or from a Time Machine backup taken from the other Mac.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/04/2021 02:31PM by Sarcany.

This post is from last week, so appropriate timing for your situation:

[tidbits.com]

M1 is not the only issue, Big Sur causes problems too (see link)

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Quote
pinkoos
This post is from last week, so appropriate timing for your situation:

[tidbits.com]

M1 is not the only issue, Big Sur causes problems too (see link)

Yes, but they're pretty easily surmountable on an Intel Mac with a little work. Install the OS on an external drive and clone only the data vol with CCC.

With an M1 Mac... Well, see this (cited in the TidBITS story):
[eclecticlight.co]

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If both are Intel Macs, and the old Mac is new enough to run the OS on your machine which is being sent it to be fixed, I would just use CCC to clone the entire machine to an external USB-connected SSD (or HDD). All you need to do on the old machine is Option-boot to the external clone you just made.

I've been slowly moving to cloud backups for this scenario. If I have my backup computer handy, I sign into iCloud, Dropbox, chrome, M$ and Adobe and have those apps download, iCloud brings 99% of my documents.

Last time, took me about an hour to be 95% set.

Don't get me wrong, I would still make a clone copy before sending my computer in just in case they break it.

If you clone the drive and boot from it, you're 100% set in 1 minute.

Quote
sekker
I've been slowly moving to cloud backups for this scenario. If I have my backup computer handy, I sign into iCloud, Dropbox, chrome, M$ and Adobe and have those apps download, iCloud brings 99% of my documents.

Last time, took me about an hour to be 95% set.

Don't get me wrong, I would still make a clone copy before sending my computer in just in case they break it.

Quote
Bixby
If you clone the drive and boot from it, you're 100% set in 1 minute.

Quote
sekker
I've been slowly moving to cloud backups for this scenario. If I have my backup computer handy, I sign into iCloud, Dropbox, chrome, M$ and Adobe and have those apps download, iCloud brings 99% of my documents.

Last time, took me about an hour to be 95% set.

Don't get me wrong, I would still make a clone copy before sending my computer in just in case they break it.

Not quite. Many cloud services require you to log back in to activate on the clone (dropbox is the most obvious). And this will only get more common.

Don't get me wrong, I like bootable clones. But the world is changing, too.

Besides what is mentioned in the tidbits article, being 100% ready only applies if the backup machine has all the appropriate BIOS updates already applied to run whatever your 'current' version of the OS is.

I agree with the rule that data does not truly exist unless it is in two other physically separate locations. Not properly following that rule has bitten me twice in the last 20 years.

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