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15" MBP Hard Drive Upgrade Procedure

goinskiing

goinskiing

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 25, 2008
914
11
Meridian, ID
So, hardware/mechanically I'm okay and shouldn't be too bad as I'm just following the iFixit guide:

http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Repair/...-A1226-and-A1260-Hard-Drive-Replacement/670/1

It's an early 2008 MBP.

My question is concerning data.

I currently have a 250GB 5400 RPM installed. I have a 400 GB WD hard drive that I have 350 GB set aside for time machine currently and 50 in FAT-32 for inter-computer storage and transfer. My new HD is a Hitachi 320GB 7200 RPM.

I have Matlab 2007a installed as well as Adobe CS4.

Is it worth it to install fresh OSX. If not, how would I mirror over the data, would I use Time Machine.

If I do install fresh, can I get my data (music, movies, pictures) through time machine, or do I need to find another way to transfer the data?

Also, if you have any hints or tips that would be helpful, let me know.

Thanks everyone, just wanted some input as I had a hard time finding it in search (I must be retarded).
 
Don't use Time Machine. Get a cheap USB enclosure for your new drive. Use Carbon Copy Cloner (or SuperDuper) to clone your existing drive out to your new one. You can then boot from that external drive, allowing you to see that everything's working perfectly and seems exactly the same before you ever pick your screwdriver up to swap drives out.

Then you format your existing drive, stick it in your cheap enclosure, and now you have a extra 250GB external drive for stashing files on.
 
They are both free.

I had issues using both Carbon Copy and SuperDuper, and ended up using Disk Utility (it too is free, and installed by default ;) ). It's quite easy and there are threads about it here. I used Google and just followed along.

Cheers.
 
edblor said:
They are both free.

I had issues using both Carbon Copy and SuperDuper, and ended up using Disk Utility (it too is free, and installed by default ;) ). It's quite easy and there are threads about it here. I used Google and just followed along.

Cheers.
Click to expand...

If you could post a link on how to use Disk Utility that would be awesome.

Thanks for the info.
 
goinskiing said:
I currently have a 250GB 5400 RPM installed. I have a 400 GB WD hard drive that I have 350 GB set aside for time machine currently and 50 in FAT-32 for inter-computer storage and transfer. My new HD is a Hitachi 320GB 7200 RPM.
Click to expand...

To the OP, why are you installing the 320GB HD and not the 400GB drive?
 
Got it figured out, thanks for the help everyone.

I used the 320GB because it's 7200RPM. The 400GB Western Digital is just a USB 2.0 external and uses a 5400RPM. I used disk utility from the boot disc and it was amazingly simple. I took apart the computer (fixed my dents a little better from last week's drop) and installed it, and it booted right up. Again, I was surprised at how simple it really was in the end.

Again, thanks for your help.
 
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