Buying a new HD - Can I image?

[Greenhoe]

Hi,
I'm going to be upgrading my hard drive in my MBP to a 500gb, although before I do I wanted to know if there is any way I can take an image of my HD now which is currently a 250GB and i'm using around 50GB of it.

I just don't want to have to reinstall all my programs and copy all my info to another drive as a back up while installing the new HD. Let me know what would be my best solution. Thanks

 

[Norco]

If you want easiest -- get a Time Capsule.

 

[sickmacdoc]

Hi,
I'm going to be upgrading my hard drive in my MBP to a 500gb, although before I do I wanted to know if there is any way I can take an image of my HD now which is currently a 250GB and i'm using around 50GB of it.

I just don't want to have to reinstall all my programs and copy all my info to another drive as a back up while installing the new HD. Let me know what would be my best solution. Thanks

IMO the simplest would be to get an external enclosure which would serve two purposes in the end. First, you can install your new drive in the external and use Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper to make an identical clone of your existing information onto your new drive (after formatting the new drive that is). You can then boot from the external to make sure the clone went ok (I have never had one fail, but always like to check while the drive is still outside).

Then just swap the drives- you now have a new 500Gb with identical data in your Mac and a nice 250 Gb drive in an external enclosure to use as a backup drive as well as storage space for additional files if desired.