Disk Utility for Mac: Restore a disk

Restore a disk

You can restore a volume from another volume. When you restore from one volume to another volume, it makes an exact copy of the original. For example, you can restore from your startup volume to an external volume to use as a backup.

To restore a disk image, see Restore a disk image to a disk.

WARNING: When you restore one volume to another, all the files on the destination volume are erased. Before you restore a volume, copy any files on the destination volume that you want to save to a different volume.

  1. Select the volume in the sidebar you want to restore, then click the Restore button or choose Edit > Restore.

    This is the volume that is erased and becomes the exact copy.

  2. Click the Restore pop-up menu, then choose the volume you want to copy.

  3. Click Restore, then click Done.

You can also use Disk Utility in macOS Recovery to restore a volume. For information, see the Apple Support article About OS X Recovery.

Last Modified: Sep 22, 2016
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