Using Disk Utility to restore external drive

Scott Kopp wrote:

Can someone first explain, in simple term, what the different hierarchies are? (StoreJet, Container disk, etc.) I think I have a fair idea of the bottom level.

Just to answer your question about the hierarchy in the left panel of Disk Utility ...

• "Store Jet ... media" and "Micron CT... media" are identifiers for the physical drives. Those names come from the drives themselves.
• "Container disk3" identifies the APFS Container that was created on the physical drive. It is analogous to (but not identical to) a Partition on a non-APFS formatted disk. The disk number is assigned at boot time.
• "Transcend volumes" is a Volume Group inside the APFS Container.
• "Transcend" and "Transcend - Data" are Volumes inside the Volume Group. Assuming this is a bootable drive, in this case "Transcend" is the Volume that contains the macOS System; "Transcend - Data" is the user data Volume.

Similarly for your Micron drive.

FWIW, as @HWTech has already advised, if the backup was made using SuperDuper you should use the same utility to do the restore. Where did you see instructions saying you should use Disk Utility?

I would avoid Disk Utility for this purpose. The Disk Utility Restore feature doesn't do well with large amounts of data. And certainly not for restoring a boot drive with system files. I used this feature for small images decades ago, but avoided the process when large images were involved since they always had issues. A few years ago I tried to restore a small image and it did not give me the desired results (don't recall the details now). I just know I do not trust it.

I've never used SuperDuper! so I don't know how that utility works....I know it is well respected & been around for decades. I would be extremely disappointed if it did not have its own "restore" feature built-in.

FYI, the Disk Utility "Restore" feature can sometimes be complicated. It has been years since I even tried it for a small image file. You must first select the mounted source image on the left pane of Disk Utility. Then click the "Edit" menu and select "Restore....". Many times an image may need to first use the "Images --> Scan Image for Restore..." option before Disk Utility will use actually allow the restoration process. I don't know if that scanning process will change the contents of the image/volume or not.

Here is an Apple article with details:

Restore a disk using Disk Utility on Mac - Apple Support

Thank you for that explanation. That helps.

SuperDuper's included user manual says to use Disk Utility's Restore. Although in hindsight I think I misunderstood which circumstances require that.