best way to swap in a new HDD ?

[touchUpInside]

I just purchased a new larger external 5T HDD for an iMac to replace an external 4T HDD. (The primary drive is SSD and also have a seperate 4T Time Machine HDD.)

I would like to duplicate (clone ?) the external 4T HDD and rename the 5T drive so that all programs will now refer to the 5T drive as if were the older drive. (After this is successfully accomplished, the older 4T drive will be "wiped" and used as a second Time Machine drive.)

So, I would like to learn the best way to duplicate the old 4T HDD to the 5T HDD so that the new drive appears to the rest of the computer and programs as if were the old drive.

What problems might arise ?

(Both the 4T HDD were fast raid 0 portable drives (2 drives in each). The 5T drive is a desktop drive. At this point, I'll give up speed for a larger desktop drive. Not sure if the portable drive are meant for desktop use, but felt some security using Time Machine.)

(Still acclimating from a Windows background.)

Thanks for any input. Cheers !

 

[rkaufmann87]

You need to get an enclosure of some type, personally I recommend an OWC Mercury Elite Pro and put the new drive in that. Then use either SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the old drive to the new one. Test it by restarting from the newly created clone. After you have verified it works then swap drives and you are done. You can use the old drive as a backup HD using your cloning app or you can use it as Time Machine backup drive. Of course you will need to erase it first.

 

[touchUpInside]

Thank you !