Best way to do this?

[Epic Xbox Revie]

Items I have:
500GB HDD (with all of my data, on Lion, in my computer)
256GB SSD (Crucial- BLANK, still in the box)
SATA to USB 2.0 Adapter
External enclosure for the HDD with USB to mini USB (empty right now)
Carbon Copy Cloner
Bootable DVD of OS X Lion
DVD with Firmware 2 for my Crucial SSD

What would be the BEST way to transfer my HDD to my SSD, while maintaining all of my files,settings, and the Lion Recovery Partition (I don't think CCC can copy this).

Would it be safe to swap my HDD out for the SSD without having a backup, pop the HDD into the enclosure, clean install Lion from my DVD, download CCC again, connect my computer with the enclosure and transfer the HDD back over? Would my HDD keep all of my data intact while I am installing Lion? At what point in this process do I install Firmware 2 on my SSD, before installing Lion?

Thoughts?Thanks.

 

[bozz2006]

What makes you think CCC can't copy the recovery partition? Just curious.

 

[Epic Xbox Revie]

What makes you think CCC can't copy the recovery partition? Just curious.

When I open it up, it says Macintosh HD 499.25GB when it should be 500.1GB.. It's missing about 750MB, and the Recovery partition is 650MB. It might copy it over, but judging by that, I don't think it will.

 

[Epic Xbox Revie]

See attached pics.

 

[riptideMBP]

I don't have experience with lion, but from what I've heard, the recovery partition is supposed to be invisible. If I were doing this my self, I would have followed the exact procedure you described:
1)switch internal disks
2)upgrade SSDs firmware
3)install lion on SSD
4)boot from external hard drive by holding c
5)use CCC to do an incremental backup from the external to the SSD

since you don't have a backup I'd just make sure the enclosure works first with the ssd (maybe you can upgrade the firmware while the ssd is external) so you don't loose data if its bad.

 

[Epic Xbox Revie]

Can I do the firmware while it's external? I would hook it up via USB, the boot from the DVD, would it work properly?? Seems like I would have to tell it somehow that it's the external one and not the internal..?