Getting a new hard drive for my 2007 laptop with Lion. How to restore the system?

Carbon Copy. Google it.

msharp said:

Hey guys, I'm getting a hard drive upgrade from my late-2007 macbook pro. I've searched tons of articles online about restoring the system using Time Machine backups, but none of them addresses the scenario for restoring Lion to a brand-new drive on a pre-lion mac. So no internet recovery, no recovery hidden partition. Just a brand new drive with a huge Time Machine backup.

So, how should I proceed? Has anyone done this before? I would hate it if I had to fresh install snow leopard, upgrade to lion, and then reinstall all my apps and restore the preferences.

Thank you all!

- msharp

Click to expand...

If you don't mind redownloading the whole OS, you could alternatively download the firmware update Apple released a little while ago that lets you install Lion over the web, and then restore onto your new HDD. You would need to backup first though of course.

msharp said:

Okay, here's me answering my own question. Hopefully it'll be helpful to others.

To migrate all my stuff to the new hard drive, here's my plan:

1) Use CCC to clone all my data to an external drive;
2) Install the new hard drive to my late-2007 MBP;
3) Startup the computer and install Snow Leopard;
4) Update the Snow Leopard, and install Lion through the App Store;
5) Once get back into Lion, use CCC (or Time Machine) to restore the system.

This way we can restore my data and have the Lion recovery partition after the HD upgrade. It's a big hassle, but I just hope it'll work out without any issues. If you have any better ideas, please do let me know.

Thanks!

Click to expand...

This seems needlessly complex and would take a lot of time. Here are two faster options:

1) Use CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper! to clone your current system to your new hard drive. This will require a SATA to USB adapter (like this one, which I own and which works wonderfully) or an external drive enclosure - something that will allow you to have access to your current drive and the new drive. Once you've cloned the system, you just install your new hard drive and you're good to go - you can boot directly from it, and all of your data is there. It's a "clone" of your present hard drive.

2) Install your new hard drive, install Snow Leopard (or Lion, if you made an install disc), and then use the Migration Assistant to pull the data off of your Time Machine backups. Migration Assistant can be found in your Utilities folder. I did this back on 10.5 when changing computers, and it was flawless. When it was finished, it was as if I had cloned my previous system.

If Lion is already installed: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1433
This will create a backup of the hidden Recovery partition (on a USB ThumbDrive) letting you reinstall via Internet Recovery.

If you still have the Lion Installer App: http://lifehacker.com/5823096
This tutorial will show you how to make yourself a full Lion Installer DVD / USB stick.


(If for some reason you need to restore the Recovery Partition to a CD instead of a USB drive, post back and I'll walk you through it.)