Changing out HD on Macbook

M

monkstah

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 26, 2006
Messages
252
Hi all, I bought the Scorpio Blue 500g HD for my new Macbook Aluminum, and I know its easy to switch out the HDs, but I'm wondering what is a good software to basically copy the 160g HD I have in the system, with OS / boot etc, to the new drive, this way I don't have to reinstall everything.

Thanks
 
I usually use Carbon Copy Cloner. Do you have a USB to SATA adapter?
 
Did you modify any system files? If not you can just use Time Machine to do a backup then reinstall and migrate from the backup. I usually do the backup, reinstall and then redo the system file changes.

Or you can try Carbon Copy Cloner.
 
Use the Disk Utility app and simply "Restore" the current HD to the new HD. It will duplicate the contents onto the new drive. Took about 45 minutes when I did it.
 
Well sounds like those will work.

What I plan on doing is moving the entire 160gb HD OS and all to an external USB drive to hold it for a second

then once I have the 500g inside the system I will move it off the USB drive to the internal 500g.

Is that possible or like others said should I just use time machine somehow?

Edit ::: So with Carbon Copy Cloner it basically clones the drive to the new one, meaning I plug in the new one once cloned and bam just loads up and works perfectly fine just with more space basically right?
 
yes.

those are all pretty good ideas on how to proceed imo.

if was me i would run the "time machine," a clean install is always is a good idea. at least, on pc's it is!
 
Mr. Wolf said:
Use the Disk Utility app and simply "Restore" the current HD to the new HD. It will duplicate the contents onto the new drive. Took about 45 minutes when I did it.
Click to expand...

Agreed. I have used this method before with good success.
 
Mr. Wolf said:
Use the Disk Utility app and simply "Restore" the current HD to the new HD. It will duplicate the contents onto the new drive. Took about 45 minutes when I did it.
Click to expand...

+1

Make sure the new drive is formatted too. Also, I used my boot CD which has Disk Utility. Make sure to click erase on the destination drive too.
 
Throwing fuel into the fire - I like Super Duper myself. CCC works well too but Super Duper lets you clone from drive to drive, drive to image or image to drive.
 
The_Mage18 said:
Throwing fuel into the fire - I like Super Duper myself. CCC works well too but Super Duper lets you clone from drive to drive, drive to image or image to drive.
Click to expand...

CCC does from/to and to/from image/disk as well..
 
Relativist said:
+1

Make sure the new drive is formatted too. Also, I used my boot CD which has Disk Utility. Make sure to click erase on the destination drive too.
Click to expand...

so if i do this, i would have to usb to sata the current drive, put the new one inside the mac and format right?

where as CCC allows me to copy directly to a usb drive, then copy from the usb drive back to the 500g once i install default mac os on it and overwrite whats there?

just a bit confused about it all sorry... for so many questions...
 
monkstah said:
so if i do this, i would have to usb to sata the current drive, put the new one inside the mac and format right?

where as CCC allows me to copy directly to a usb drive, then copy from the usb drive back to the 500g once i install default mac os on it and overwrite whats there?

just a bit confused about it all sorry... for so many questions...
Click to expand...

No, I left my original drive in the MBP and used my USB/SATA enclosure to house the new drive as it formatted and received the original's data. I swapped drives after the procedure.

The key thing to do when using the Restore app is to click/drag the original drive's icon to the Source field, and then click/drag the new drive's icon to the Destination field. These instructions are listed, but they're kinda buried in all the text.
 
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