Clone Boot Drive to Smaller Drive?

[ohla313]

I recently sold my MBP and kept my HDD which has Lion 10.7.4 running on it. That drive has 500GB of space and I would like to clone it and put it on a 160GB drive.

I have only 80GB used on the 500GB drive so would I be able to clone the 500GB Lion drive onto the blank 160GB drive?

How would I do this?

 

[Mal]

Carbon Copy Cloner. Should be fine, since the space used is smaller than the available space on the drive you're moving to.

jW

 

[ohla313]

Carbon Copy Cloner. Should be fine, since the space used is smaller than the available space on the drive you're moving to.

jW

It doesn't seem like it is free though. Is it ML compatible? I plan to do this from my ML machine and would just like to clone the drive.

 

[Mal]

It doesn't seem like it is free though. Is it ML compatible? I plan to do this from my ML machine and would just like to clone the drive.

I always forget that they made it paid. It is ML compatible, though. Free options include Disk Utility (I think it will also work, see the "Restore" tab).

jW

 

[ohla313]

I always forget that they made it paid. It is ML compatible, though. Free options include Disk Utility (I think it will also work, see the "Restore" tab).

jW

So I can't clone it under the free version of CCC? Is using DU a safe and good way? I just read it takes longer but is it secure?

 

[Weaselboy]

It doesn't seem like it is free though. Is it ML compatible? I plan to do this from my ML machine and would just like to clone the drive.

You can use CCC 30 days without paying, so for your purposes it looks like a one time thing you require and it would work.

 

[ohla313]

You can use CCC 30 days without paying, so for your purposes it looks like a one time thing you require and it would work.

Oh great! But that free trial won't let it work on Lion right? Also how do I uninstall the program after using it?

 

[Mal]

Oh great! But that free trial won't let it work on Lion right? Also how do I uninstall the program after using it?

The free trial doesn't have anything to do with the OS. It will work on anything from Leopard onward, IIRC. After you've used it, just drag the program to the Trash, and you're done.

jW

 

[Weaselboy]

Oh great! But that free trial won't let it work on Lion right? Also how do I uninstall the program after using it?

You are thinking of the old version of CCC that is still free and does not have Lion support. I am talking about the new 3.5.x version with Mountain Lion support. You can get it here and use it for 30 days without registering.

 

[ohla313]

So I just cloned the drive to the smaller drive with CCC and it worked fine. I am able to load up everything that was on my 500GB drive onto the 160GB drive......But the recovery partition didn't copy over. How do I copy/add the recovery partition from the 500GB drive to the 160GB drive??

 

[Mal]

So I just cloned the drive to the smaller drive with CCC and it worked fine. I am able to load up everything that was on my 500GB drive onto the 160GB drive......But the recovery partition didn't copy over. How do I copy/add the recovery partition from the 500GB drive to the 160GB drive??

Carbon Copy Cloner should have prompted you, but if you bring up it's Disk Center (under the Window menu), you can clone the recovery partition to the new drive.

jW

 

[Weaselboy]

So I just cloned the drive to the smaller drive with CCC and it worked fine. I am able to load up everything that was on my 500GB drive onto the 160GB drive......But the recovery partition didn't copy over. How do I copy/add the recovery partition from the 500GB drive to the 160GB drive??

Unless you changed something, a default clone using CCC will copy the Recovery HD. It is probably there and you are not seeing it because it is hidden.

In Terminal type "cd /Volumes/External_Disk_Name" (without the quotes and with your external disk name)... then "diskutil list" (no quotes) and you will see it listed. I bet it is there.

 

[ohla313]

Unless you changed something, a default clone using CCC will copy the Recovery HD. It is probably there and you are not seeing it because it is hidden.

In Terminal type "cd /Volumes/External_Disk_Name" (without the quotes and with your external disk name)... then "diskutil list" (no quotes) and you will see it listed. I bet it is there.

When I press Option as I load my computer, for the 500GB drive I see the main disc and the recovery partition but for th 160GB cloned drive, it only shows the main disc.

 

[Weaselboy]

When I press Option as I load my computer, for the 500GB drive I see the main disc and the recovery partition but for th 160GB cloned drive, it only shows the main disc.

Try the Terminal commands I suggested to verify. If it is not there you can use Disk Center in CCC like Mal suggested to copy it over.

 

[ohla313]

Carbon Copy Cloner should have prompted you, but if you bring up it's Disk Center (under the Window menu), you can clone the recovery partition to the new drive.

jW

Great! that did the trick. Thanks!