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Best way to swap a hard drive in MBP

I

iamvexed

macrumors member
Original poster
May 27, 2008
76
0
Hi all,

So I'm finally replacing my PowerBook with a new base model 13" MBP. I've ordered a 640gb Samsung Spinpoint hd to replace the 250 gb stock hd. I've also purchased a Rosewill external to put the stock hd into (all this for less than Apple would have charged to upgrade to a 500gb hd!).

Here's the issue: what's the best way to swap hard drives?

1) Put the new one in, and use the recovery discs to install the OS; or

2) Put the new one in the enclosure, clone the hard drive in the mpb, then swap them; or

3) Something else.

Any advice you have would be greatly appreciated!
 
Awesome! Thanks for the input, guys!

So when going with option 2, what's the best way to do that? Format the new hd, and then use migration assistant? Or format it and then use a program like Carbon Copy Cloner?

Thanks again!
 
iamvexed said:
Awesome! Thanks for the input, guys!

So when going with option 2, what's the best way to do that? Format the new hd, and then use migration assistant? Or format it and then use a program like Carbon Copy Cloner?

Thanks again!
Click to expand...

You can't clone with Migration Assistant. Just use CCC
 
Definitely #2 if your existing drive has any thing installed on it besides the system.

I've used Carbon Copy Cloner with perfect results doing this a number of times.
 
Actually dhart, I'll be unboxing it all at the same time. Would you do it differently in this case?
 
iamvexed said:
Actually dhart, I'll be unboxing it all at the same time. Would you do it differently in this case?
Click to expand...

Cloning the disk would probably be a fair bit quicker than a new install from the discs, but either gets the job done just fine.
 
DHart said:
Cloning the disk would probably be a fair bit quicker than a new install from the discs, but either gets the job done just fine.
Click to expand...

Yeah but doing a fresh install gives him the option of leaving out all those extra language and printer files and he can even choose to install X11, Rosetta and QT7 at the same time.
 
Ampidire said:
Yeah but doing a fresh install gives him the option of leaving out all those extra language and printer files and he can even choose to install X11, Rosetta and QT7 at the same time.
Click to expand...

Good point. I've never bothered to by-pass the extra language and printer stuff as I haven't felt the need. But it's not a bad idea to skip that.
 
Hey all,

Got my new mbp today, swapped out the hd, used the restore disks to customize the OS X install on the new hd, and everything is up and running swimmingly!

Thanks again for the input!

(I freaking love this site!)
 
tflournoy95 said:
so what about all the stuff on the pb?
Click to expand...

Oh man. The PowerBook has been on its last leg for awhile, so whatever is on it is also on my iMac. Seriously, I'm amazed this thing is still alive. The battery completely puked about six months ago. I think the power management system is dead or needs a battery or something, because whenever the computer goes to sleep, I need to press shift-control-option-power and wait five seconds to press the power button again before it'll boot.

I'm having a hard time letting this beast go, but I need a laptop that I can actually use like a laptop. Sigh.

But new MBP! WOOT!
 
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