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How to install OS on newly installed SSD

rpg51

rpg51

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 4, 2012
268
2
I am going to drop ship a new iMac to OWC and they will install an SSD. How difficult will it be for me to move the operating system to the SSD and set the computuer up to boot off the SSD when I get it back.

Trying to decide if I can do it myself or if that will be another expense for professional help.
 
Weaselboy

Weaselboy

Moderator
Staff member
Jan 23, 2005
34,136
15,599
California
Have OWC send you back your old drive with the OS and all as it was, then put your old drive in an external USB enclosure and attach it to the iMac. Now option key boot to the external drive and use Carbon Copy Cloner (free trial version will do this) to clone from old drive to new.

Go into System Prefs / Startup Disk and select the SSD as the boot drive.

Reboot. Done.
 
Fishrrman

Fishrrman

macrumors Penryn
Feb 20, 2009
28,343
12,461
"I am going to drop ship a new iMac to OWC and they will install an SSD."

Just wondering -
Have you talked to Small Dog Computing, down in Waitsfield?
(no financial interest)
 
rpg51

rpg51

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 4, 2012
268
2
No I have not checked with small dog but I wil.

Are you in Vermont also?
 
rpg51

rpg51

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 4, 2012
268
2
Weaselboy said:
Have OWC send you back your old drive with the OS and all as it was, then put your old drive in an external USB enclosure and attach it to the iMac. Now option key boot to the external drive and use Carbon Copy Cloner (free trial version will do this) to clone from old drive to new.

Go into System Prefs / Startup Disk and select the SSD as the boot drive.

Reboot. Done.
Click to expand...

My plan was to have the SSD installed as a second drive. Can I do the same thing you suggest to put the OS on the SSD if the original drive is in the machine?
 
C

CASLondon

macrumors 6502a
Apr 18, 2011
536
0
London
rpg51 said:
I am going to drop ship a new iMac to OWC and they will install an SSD. How difficult will it be for me to move the operating system to the SSD and set the computuer up to boot off the SSD when I get it back.

Trying to decide if I can do it myself or if that will be another expense for professional help.
Click to expand...

Dead easy. In fact you should do this, as the system will run fastest off the ssd. Do a clean install as commented above, change boot disk in Sys Pref>Startup Disk to the SSD, and boom you're in
 
rpg51

rpg51

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 4, 2012
268
2
Weaselboy said:
... Now option key boot to the external drive and use Carbon Copy Cloner (free trial version will do this) to clone from old drive to new.

Go into System Prefs / Startup Disk and select the SSD as the boot drive.

Reboot. Done.
Click to expand...

How do I "option key boot" to the newly installed internal SSD?
 
rpg51

rpg51

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 4, 2012
268
2
Will the CCC clone process put the new drive in the exact same state in all respects as the original drive bringing over the OS and all applications. Am I correct the OS is in a separate partition on the original drive? If so, will the new drive have the same structure (paritions) as the old drive after the clone?
 
hfg

hfg

macrumors 68040
Dec 1, 2006
3,621
312
Cedar Rapids, IA. USA
rpg51 said:
Will the CCC clone process put the new drive in the exact same state in all respects as the original drive bringing over the OS and all applications. Am I correct the OS is in a separate partition on the original drive? If so, will the new drive have the same structure (paritions) as the old drive after the clone?
Click to expand...

The CCC clone will be exactly like the original ... OS, apps, data, user preferences, etc. It will also offer to create the OS X restore partition if the new drive doesn't have it already. If you have a Windows partition, it will NOT copy that ... you have to do that yourself by reinstalling Windows or using something like WinClone.





-howard
 
rpg51

rpg51

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 4, 2012
268
2
I have it all set up. What I did was this - I got the basic operating system set up on the original drive and updated the software etc. I set up the email accounts and I downloaded and configured the browser I use and prefer. Then I downloaded Carbon Copy Cloner and used that to clone to original drive to the added SSD. The whole process went very well and it is running great now. I did not use the option key boot process described by folks above. When I had the clone process complete I went to system preferences and changed the start up disc to the SSD and restarted.

All is running well. Fast. Very fast. Runs faster than my Air - which is really fast.
 
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