Best way to install a new drive and restore? ...

[cmeisenzahl]

Loving my new Mac Mini. Lots of data on the included 500GB internal drive now, and Carbonite is backing-up things for the next couple of days.

I just got an SSD and later this week would like to install it in the Mini. I'll take the internal 500GB drive and place it in a USB enclosure,

What I'm wondering about is how to do the swap? I do have a 1TB USB drive sitting here. Do you I first make a clone of the drive using Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper, saved to the 1TB drive? If so, how do I then get that image onto the newly installed SSD once it's in the Mini?

I've never done this before, I apologize if it's simply in practice. ;-)

And what is the preferred tool for this? Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper?

Thanks very much in advance,
Chris

 

[GGJstudios]

Here's a simple approach:

1. Buy an external enclosure and put your old drive in it.
2. Install your new drive in your Mac.
3. Boot from your old (external) drive by holding the Option key on startup.
4. Use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the old (external) drive to the new (internal) drive.
5. Boot from the new internal drive.
6. Your now running on your new internal drive and your old drive is now an external drive, useful for backups or additional storage.

 

[cmeisenzahl]

Here's a simple approach:

1. Buy an external enclosure and put your old drive in it.
2. Install your new drive in your Mac.
3. Boot from your old (external) drive by holding the Option key on startup.
4. Use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the old (external) drive to the new (internal) drive.
5. Boot from the new internal drive.
6. Your now running on your new internal drive and your old drive is now an external drive, useful for backups or additional storage.

Ahh, that makes sense, thanks! And I already have an enclosure on the way for that drive. ;-)