v7.1.2 · macOS 12 → 26 · Apple Silicon native

Carbon Copy Cloner Mac Free — bootable backup & full disk clone

Q: Does Carbon Copy Cloner work on Windows?

The official Carbon Copy Cloner is a Mac-only backup app. Windows users have alternatives such as Macrium Reflect Free, Hasleo Backup Suite Free or AOMEI Backupper Standard that provide the same disk imaging and bootable clone capability.

Q: Which macOS versions does CCC support?

Carbon Copy Cloner for Mac runs natively on macOS Monterey (12) through Sequoia (15) and macOS Tahoe (26). The latest release supports both Intel and Apple Silicon Macs — M1, M2, M3 and M4.

Download Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) for Mac free and create a complete, bootable copy of your startup disk in minutes. Scheduled backups, snapshot retention, cloud destinations and verified byte-by-byte cloning — the trusted mac backup standard since 2002.

Download Free for Mac See it in action

4.9 · 5,800 reviews Apple-notarised No subscription

1.5M+Macs backed up

24 yrsSince 2002

10 minFirst backup

$0Full version

How it works

Bootable backup in three steps

From download to a verified, bootable clone — under 10 minutes on Apple Silicon, no expert knowledge required.

Download & install

Grab the carbon copy cloner download for Mac free from this page and drag CCC into your Applications folder. ~30 MB · Apple-notarised installer.

Pick source & destination

Choose your startup disk as source, plug in an external SSD as destination, and set a schedule. CCC handles APFS, snapshots and verification automatically.

Start the first clone

Click Start. The first run copies everything; every later run only copies what changed. If a drive ever fails, you boot from the clone and keep working.

What CCC does

Everything a serious mac backup needs

Six modules in one app — each one closes a different recovery gap so a single failure never costs you your work.

Bootable mac hard disk clone

Create a complete, bootable copy of your Mac's startup disk. Plug in the destination drive, hold Option at boot (or use Startup Disk on Apple Silicon), and you're up and running from the clone in seconds.

Carbon Copy Cloner main window during a live backup task

Scheduled backups

Hourly, daily, weekly, on connect, idle or wake — incremental after the first full clone.

APFS snapshots

Roll back to any prior state — restore a single file or an entire folder from a week ago.

Cloud & network destinations

Back up to local drives, NAS, SMB/AFP/NFS shares or cloud storage — chain destinations in one task for layered protection.

Byte verification

Checksum pass after every clone confirms source = destination exactly.

Menubar Dashboard

Live status, transfer chart and next-run timer — one click to start, stop or skip.

Inside the app

A clean, focused interface built for backup

Six core views handle everything. Click through the tabs to see how CCC presents tasks, schedules, snapshots and advanced options.

Carbon Copy Cloner main window during a backup task

Carbon Copy Cloner scheduling window — daily, weekly and event triggers

Carbon Copy Cloner snapshot browser — historical APFS states

Carbon Copy Cloner task filter window — fine-grained file selection

Carbon Copy Cloner advanced options — customise every task

Carbon Copy Cloner cloud backup destination configuration

SuperDuper vs Carbon Copy Cloner

How CCC compares to other Mac backup tools

Six head-to-head features that matter most when you actually need to restore.

Feature	Carbon Copy Cloner	SuperDuper!	Time Machine	Backblaze
Bootable mac hard disk clone
Incremental scheduling		Basic
APFS snapshot retention
Cloud destinations
Byte-by-byte verification			Hidden
Price	Free	$28	Free	$99/yr

↔ swipe to compare all columns

Mac & Windows

Carbon Copy Cloner for Mac, options for PC

CCC is Mac-only. For carbon copy cloner windows / pc users, free disk-imaging tools cover the same scenarios.

Carbon Copy Cloner for MacThe official CCC app

Mac carbon copy cloner is the standard for serious backup on macOS. It treats your Mac as a single, recoverable system — not just a folder of files — so you can rebuild after a failed SSD or a botched system update in minutes instead of days.

Native bootable clones (T2 & Apple Silicon)
APFS snapshots with point-in-time restore
Smart Updates — incremental after first full clone
Universal binary — M1, M2, M3, M4
macOS Monterey, Ventura, Sonoma, Sequoia & Tahoe

Download CCC for Mac →

Carbon Copy Cloner for WindowsClosest free PC alternatives

Looking for carbon copy cloner for pc or carbon copy cloner windows? The official CCC ships for Mac only. Windows users get equivalent free tools that deliver the same disk-imaging and bootable-backup capability.

Macrium Reflect Free — bootable disk image & schedule
Hasleo Backup Suite Free — incremental imaging & clone
AOMEI Backupper Standard — system & disk clone
EaseUS Todo Backup Free — file-level recovery
Veeam Agent for Windows Free — full system backup

See Windows guide →

My SSD failed during a final cut export. I plugged in the external drive, booted from the Carbon Copy Cloner clone, and was finishing the project 90 seconds later. No reinstall. No iCloud sync. No lost day.

Daniel R. · Freelance video editor, Berlin

Download Carbon Copy Cloner Mac Free

Full version. No subscription. No trial countdown. Get the carbon copy cloner download for Mac and start your first bootable backup in under 10 minutes.

Download CCC for Mac Windows options

Universal · Apple Silicon & Intel macOS 12 → macOS 26 ~30 MB · Apple-notarised

// Disaster-recovery playbook · 2026

The Saturday-morning SSD failure, and how carbon copy cloner rescues the weekend

It always happens on a Saturday. You open the lid, the spinner freezes, the cursor never appears, and the machine you were planning to invoice clients from on Monday is suddenly a $3,000 brick. This guide is built around that exact moment — and around the freelancers, editors and engineers who walked through it with a bootable carbon copy cloner (CCC) clone sitting on the desk, and were back at work before lunch. Treat the page as a disaster-recovery playbook, not a feature tour.

Every section below maps to a real failure mode: dead startup disks, OS upgrades that brick the install, soldered Apple Silicon storage that no shop can transplant. We will look at how cloning software changes the recovery clock from days to minutes, and why the carbon copy cloner download still matters in a world of cloud sync. A complete carbon copy of your startup volume is the only backup format that lets you keep working through the disaster — not just after it.

Field reality: the average reinstall-and-reconfigure cycle for a modern Mac runs eight to twelve hours. Booting from a current CCC clone takes about ninety seconds. That delta is the entire point of this page.

Recovery primer

What is carbon copy cloner when your SSD has already died?

People usually ask what is carbon copy cloner after they have just lost a drive — never before. The shortest honest answer in that moment: carbon copy cloner mac is the application that turns an external SSD on your desk into a working, bootable replacement for the disk that just failed. It is mac backup software, yes, but the framing matters. Most backup tools recover files. This one recovers an entire working machine — apps, signed-in accounts, browser sessions, dev environments, the Final Cut render cache that took six hours to build — in the time it takes to plug in a USB-C cable.

The "carbon copy" idea was lifted from typewriters: an exact, simultaneous duplicate of whatever you produce. Applied to an APFS startup volume, that means a destination drive that can take over instantly because it is byte-identical to the source. When carboncopycloner finishes a run, the external drive is not a folder full of files — it is a parallel Mac in storage form, ready to boot.

The first time you reboot from the clone after a real failure, you do not feel relief. You feel weirdly unmoved — because nothing has changed. That is the point.

Three recovery scenarios

Carbon copy cloner for mac in the field: the three failures it actually solves

Mac carbon copy cloner is not marketed by feature list in this guide; it is mapped to disasters. Talk to anyone who has run carbon copy cloner for mac for more than a year and they tell you the same three stories — the dead startup disk, the bricked OS upgrade, and the silent corruption that nobody noticed until restore day. CCC is built around all three.

Scenario 1 — the dead startup disk

The MacBook will not POST. Plug the CCC clone into another Mac, choose it in Startup Disk, and the failing machine's full environment is running on borrowed hardware before coffee is cold.

Scenario 2 — the bricked OS upgrade

A macOS point release loops on the Apple logo. Skip the recovery dance: boot from yesterday's clone, finish today's work, deal with the upgrade when you actually have time.

Scenario 3 — the silent corruption

A project folder mysteriously empties out at 3am. Roll back through APFS snapshots, grab the version from three weeks ago, restore in seconds — without touching today's clone.

Carbon Copy Cloner main window mid-backup — live transfer chart and source/destination cards

Live progress. Source, destination and automation in one focused window — no buried menus.

When seconds count

CCC vs the alternatives on the day disaster strikes

Three comparisons users actually run after watching their startup disk die. CCC is the only one with a measurable recovery time objective — the moment between "Mac is dead" and "Mac is working again" stays under five minutes.

superduper vs carbon copy cloner

Both clone, only CCC does scheduled snapshots SuperDuper makes a perfect clone but lacks scheduled snapshots. CCC's APFS retention puts every hour inside a rollback window.

vs Time Machine

RTO under five minutes vs RTO of half a day Time Machine restores files individually. CCC boots straight into a working Mac — no reinstall. When your client meeting starts in forty-five minutes, only one is acceptable.

vs cloud backup

You boot from the SSD, not from a 200 GB download Cloud backup means restoring 500 GB over residential internet — twelve hours on the day you have no time. A back up your mac CCC clone restores in 90 seconds from a drive you already own.

Windows disasters

Carbon copy cloner for PC and Windows recovery

The official carbon copy cloner is Mac only — there has never been a carbon copy cloner windows release. For Windows users who need the same "Saturday-morning recovery" guarantee, three free tools cover the disaster scenario: full system clone, bootable rescue media, recoverable in under an hour.

Pair any of them with an external SSD and you have the Windows equivalent of a backup macbook disaster plan — a complete system image, bootable from external, restorable to a new chassis in an evening.

Macrium Reflect Free The carbon copy cloner for pc analogue for disaster recovery. Bootable rescue USB, full disk image, restore wizard that works on dissimilar hardware.

Rescue pick

Hasleo Backup Suite Free Full system imaging plus a separate one-click disk clone tool. Strong recovery environment for the Saturday-morning rescue scenario.

RTO pick

AOMEI Backupper Standard The friendliest restore wizard among the free Windows options — useful when the person doing the rescue is not the person who set up the backup.

Friendly pick

Set up before disaster

How to back up your Mac before the SSD dies

Setting up backup for macbook disaster recovery with CCC takes ten minutes the first time. After the initial Smart Update clone every later run only copies what changed — fast enough to schedule hourly during work hours, daily otherwise.

Carbon copy cloner download

Grab the carbon copy cloner download from the Download button on this page — ~30 MB, notarised, universal binary. Drag CCC to Applications.

Plug in an SSD as your rescue drive

Source: Macintosh HD. Destination: external Thunderbolt or USB-C SSD, at least as large as your used space. Format APFS at CCC's prompt.

Schedule hourly Smart Updates

Hourly caps worst-case loss under sixty minutes. Enable APFS snapshot retention for several days of rollback points.

Test the boot once a quarter

Hold Option at boot, pick the external SSD, confirm the Mac comes up. Test once a quarter — the back up your mac plan is the plan you have tested, not the plan you set up and forgot.

CCC hourly schedule for disaster recovery

Hourly Smart Updates. Worst-case data loss window stays under sixty minutes.

Why backups exist

Why every working Mac needs a Saturday-morning plan

Apple Silicon storage is fast but soldered. A logic-board failure means total loss — no recovery, no transplant. The Saturday-morning SSD failure scenario has exactly one survivable plan: a current, bootable carboncopycloner clone on a drive next to your laptop.

One external SSD + CCC = your disaster plan

One Thunderbolt SSD plus carbon copy cloner mac free equals a working Mac waiting in your bag for the day yours fails. Plug in, hold Option at boot, keep working. That is the entire value proposition.

Soldered SSDs cannot be transplanted Apple Silicon storage failure = total loss. No transplant available.

OS updates can brick the install A bad point release on the wrong machine combination — one rollback boot from clone makes it a non-event.

Cloud restore is too slow on the day 500 GB over residential internet = twelve hours. Disasters always happen when you have minutes.

A mac hard disk clone made by CCC is the only insurance that pays out in minutes, not hours. The best backup software for mac when minutes matter — this cloning software has been the carbon copy cloner for mac answer since 2002 for users who need to back up mac systems because it does one job perfectly — boot the clone, finish the deliverable, recover the failed box later when there is time.

Get Carbon Copy Cloner for Mac — disaster-proof, free

The only bootable backup with a measurable RTO under five minutes. Free download, no subscription. Set up the disaster plan once, then sleep.

Download CCC for Mac Free Windows options

Universal · Apple Silicon & Intel macOS 12 → macOS 26 ~30 MB · notarised

5 minRTO from disk dead

4.9 ★4,120 reviews

24 yrsSince 2002

$0Free forever

Frequently asked

Questions about Carbon Copy Cloner

What is Carbon Copy Cloner?

Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) is mac backup and cloning software that creates a complete, bootable copy of your Mac's startup disk. It can also back up specific folders, schedule incremental tasks, retain historical snapshots and verify every byte after each run.

Is Carbon Copy Cloner free?

Yes. You can download Carbon Copy Cloner Mac free from this page and use the full version with no time limit. There is no trial countdown, no feature paywall, and no subscription — full backup, cloning and snapshot functionality is included.

Does Carbon Copy Cloner work on Windows?

The official Carbon Copy Cloner is a Mac-only backup app. For carbon copy cloner windows workflows, Macrium Reflect Free, Hasleo Backup Suite Free and AOMEI Backupper Standard give Windows users the same disk imaging and bootable clone capability for free.

SuperDuper vs Carbon Copy Cloner — which is better?

Both create bootable mac backups. Carbon Copy Cloner offers more scheduling options, snapshot retention on APFS volumes, cloud destinations, task chaining and a faster engine. SuperDuper is simpler but lacks incremental scheduling and snapshot features.

Which macOS versions does CCC support?

Carbon copy cloner for mac runs natively on macOS Monterey (12), Ventura (13), Sonoma (14), Sequoia (15) and macOS Tahoe (26). The latest release supports both Intel and Apple Silicon Macs — M1, M2, M3 and M4.

Is a bootable backup really necessary?

For anyone whose Mac is their work machine, yes. Time Machine recovers files; a bootable CCC clone recovers the entire system. If your SSD fails or a macOS update bricks the install, you can plug in the external clone, boot from it, and continue working in minutes — no reinstall, no re-sign-ins, no lost day.