Disk cloning fails due to wrong format I am attempting to clone a 120gb Mac disk to a new 500gb hard disk. The hard disk has previously been used as an external disk on a PC, but has been reinitialised for Mac. However, it seems that no matter what method I use to clone (tried SuperDuper, CCC and Disk Utility), it seems as if the system thinks the disk is in the wrong format.

To test the 500gb disk, I put a clean install of Snow Leopard on it, and successfully booted another MacBook from it. At this point, I figured I had successfully ensured it would then be seen as a Mac disk when I cloned to it - but it wasn't. The software either doesn't see it at all or thinks it's formatted in Microsoft FAT32 format.

How can I fix this?



This from Disk Utility's log:

2012-10-28 11:13:26 +0000: Preparing to partition disk: “WDC WD50 00BPKT-00PK4T0 Media”
2012-10-28 11:13:26 +0000:  Partition Scheme: GUID Partition Table
2012-10-28 11:13:26 +0000:  1 volume will be created
2012-10-28 11:13:26 +0000: 
2012-10-28 11:13:26 +0000:  Partition 1
2012-10-28 11:13:26 +0000:      Name       : “Macintosh HD - new”
2012-10-28 11:13:26 +0000:      Size       : 465.8 GB
2012-10-28 11:13:26 +0000:      Filesystem : Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
2012-10-28 11:13:26 +0000: 
2012-10-28 11:13:26 +0000: Creating partition map.
2012-10-28 11:13:29 +0000: Formatting disk1s2 as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) with name Macintosh HD - new.
2012-10-28 11:13:39 +0000: Partition complete.
2012-10-28 11:13:39 +0000: 
**********
2012-10-28 17:25:50 +0000: Disk Utility started.
2012-10-28 17:26:57 +0000: Verifying volume “disk1s1” Starting verification tool:  2012-10-28 17:26:57 +0000
2012-10-28 17:26:57 +0000: Verify volume failed: Unrecognized Filesystem.


And this is what Disk Utility now reports:

Disk Description :  WDC WD50 00BPKT-00PK4T0 Media   Total Capacity :    465.8 GB (500,107,862,016 Bytes)
Connection Bus :    USB Write Status :  Read/Write
Connection Type :   External    S.M.A.R.T. Status : Not Supported
USB Serial Number : 000001D91811    Partition Map Scheme :  Master Boot Record
Your question is not very clear, but the problem is most likely to do with Partition Map Scheme :  Master Boot Record - this should be Partition Scheme: GUID Partition Table for a bootable OS X disk for a Mac with an Intel processor (the ones that have been sold by Apple for the last 6+ years).

The Partition Map Scheme :  Master Boot Record scheme is popular on Microsoft operating systems and can be used for disks that are not bootable on OS X and are required to just store data.