Cloning "Old" SSD onto New MBP Flash Storage Drive

[Kestrel452]

Hey guys,

After having sold off my mid-2010 MBP, I just ordered a mid-2015 MBP refurb to replace it.

I kept the Samsung 850 Evo SSD and still have it in hand. What is the best way to clone that drive onto my new MBP? I'd rather not go in and transfer all my files manually, and have to set up my computer all over again.

I have an Anker hard drive enclosure and USB 3.0 cable which I used to clone my original HDD onto the Samsung SSD with Carbon Copy Cloner when I upgraded the old 2010 MBP to SSD storage, and then just swapped drives. Of course, it won't be that easy since Apple switched from 2.5" drives to the M.2 flash storage format....

 

[maflynn]

Use an external enclose and get a copy or Carbon Copy Cloner.

 

[Kestrel452]

Use an external enclose and get a copy or Carbon Copy Cloner.

Can Carbon Copy Cloner take what's on an externally connected SSD and replace everything on the internal flash storage (reverse clone)? Like I pointed out in my OP, I used CCC in the other direction to swap drives on the old MBP.

 

[maflynn]

Yep, because to CCC you're selecting the source and destination. It doesn't care what's internal or external. You may need to boot off the external drive if you're going to replace the system files.

 

[Kestrel452]

Yep, because to CCC you're selecting the source and destination. It doesn't care what's internal or external. You may need to boot off the external drive if you're going to replace the system files.

Thanks for the clarification. I would just wipe the internal drive and replace it with everything on the SSD (can CCC perform *both* these tasks?). I have some slight reservations about booting from a USB 3.0 connected drive, but you have to do what you have to do...

 

[Weaselboy]

Thanks for the clarification. I would just wipe the internal drive and replace it with everything on the SSD (can CCC perform *both* these tasks?). I have some slight reservations about booting from a USB 3.0 connected drive, but you have to do what you have to do...

Just pop the SSD in the enclosure then option key boot to it. Then use Disk Util to erase the internal drive and afterwards use CCC to clone from external to internal.

Then shutdown and remove the external. Now boot and once in the OS on the internal drive, go to System Prefs and in the startup disk pane select the internal as the boot drive. That would do it.

The only snag will be if the OS is on an old OS X version that the 2015 won't run. But if you are on the latest El Capitan you will be fine.

Another option (my preference) would be to boot the new Mac and during setup it will ask if you want to migrate in any data from an old Mac. Say yes and point the migration assistant to the SSD in the enclosure. That will import your account and apps with data. This would be faster since you are not copying over the entire OS.

 

[Mike in Kansas]

Just pop the SSD in the enclosure then option key boot to it. Then use Disk Util to erase the internal drive and afterwards use CCC to clone from external to internal.

Then shutdown and remove the external. Now boot and once in the OS on the internal drive, go to System Prefs and in the startup disk pane select the internal as the boot drive. That would do it.

The only snag will be if the OS is on an old OS X version that the 2015 won't run. But if you are on the latest El Capitan you will be fine.

Another option (my preference) would be to boot the new Mac and during setup it will ask if you want to migrate in any data from an old Mac. Say yes and point the migration assistant to the SSD in the enclosure. That will import your account and apps with data. This would be faster since you are not copying over the entire OS.

I'd second using Migration Assistant. The nice thing about starting with a nice fresh version of OS X is that there isn't all the cruft that has built up over time that your clone contains. You may need to update the OS of your new MBP to the version that you had on your old MBP, as the refurb may still be on Yosemite.

I just went through this exact scenario, quite unexpectedly. My 2008 iMac unexpectedly died (MOBO finally gave out) so I decided to take the plunge into the MBP. I have Time Machine always running, and do clones at least weekly (I was doing them every day once the iMac started getting flaky) so I had a clone of my iMac hard drive, which was just updated to 10.11.1. The new MBP came with 10.10, so I had to update it before migrating my old drive over.

Quick bit of advice - if you DO decide to do it this way, you can not migrate an account over with the same name as an account on the new machine. So just create a bogus "Admin" account, log into the App Store and download El Cap, and then once installed use Migration Assistant to move over your account, apps and settings from your old drive. After you are done you can delete the Admin account. However, just as a precaution I always keep an Admin account on any machine in case my primary account gets messed up. I can then boot into the Admin account and attempt to fix my primary account. It has saved me multiple times.

 

[Kestrel452]

I actually did try using Migration Assistant first to see how it worked before wiping the internal drive to clone. It worked perfectly. No need to clone.