Copying a hard drive to new Mac

[MitchellMck]

Hey guys,

I've saw many posts about this but just need a specific answer.

I'm upgrading to a MacBook Pro soon from my current late 2007 Macbook. I just want to know what is the exact procedure on copying the hard drive on my current MacBook to the MacBook Pro I'm getting soon? I want it so it is exactly the way my Mac looks right now. I've got everything backed up on to an external hard drive ready to use.

Thanks 😀

 

[tjb1]

You can just use Carbon Copy Cloner to copy the complete drive over to your new drive, I believe you can just use a firewire and put your new laptop in Target Disk Mode by holding T during startup and clone it that way but I might be wrong.

 

[spencers]

Or, have your current computer backed up via Time Machine to an external drive.

Upon setting up your new computer, the Migration Assistant will ask if you want to set the machine up via a Time Machine backup.

 

[jtus]

just purchase a firewire 400 to 800 cable and when you turn on the new MBP it will ask if you want to transfer info from another computer just check yes and follow the instructions and make sure you transfer programs and data. when it is done the new computer will look just like the old one and even all of the network settings will be there.

 

[mofunk]

You can also connect via ethernet and have stuff transferred. I did that when I moved from my Powerbook to my MBP.

iTunes I used home sharing.


I didn't copy the whole hard drive cause I read it would mess this up. When you start your new Mac, it will ask you if you want to transfer from another Mac. Then it will give you options on how to do it. I did most of the essentials. MobileMe was a little messy, but being since I had been using it for a long while I knew how to fix it. If you have MobileMe Acct, you can backup your stuff that way, including your desktop. Then migrate there.

I don't think there is one way. You can pick and choose from all these answers to fit your needs.

 

[MitchellMck]

Thanks guys that helped 😀

And one more thing. I don't currently have iLife '11, so when I restore my stuff to my new MBP does that mean my current iLife '09 will replace the '11?

 

[Ncharlie99]

Does the above also work on a bootcamp partition? My 2007 macbookpro died (logic board) and I pulled the 500 gig hard drive from the machine. I have it in a USB enclosure and can see my apple and bootcamp partitions. I have a time machine backup 1 week old and a windows 7 backup ( maybe current one) in separate drives. I am waiting for a new 2010 macbookpro to arrive in 2 days. From what I can gather I could probably run time machine and then copy any newer files (which will be on my desktop). If bootcamp does not copy over, I'll try win clone. I just want all my files identical to what I have now.

Does my plan sound good?

Thanks from my iPad

 

[Eddyisgreat]

Windows is a little less robust than OS X when it comes to swapping hardware. Infact, I wouldn't even think about doing it. I'd rather save all my user space data, deactivate high ticket apps and just reinstall windows on the new machine. You will get activation issues IF you can even get it to boot. More than likely you'll just get BSODs as windows looks for the old hardware and freaks out.

 

[Thiol]

You can just use Carbon Copy Cloner to copy the complete drive over to your new drive, I believe you can just use a firewire and put your new laptop in Target Disk Mode by holding T during startup and clone it that way but I might be wrong.

I don't think a direct clone is a good idea. The Macbook and MBP are not identical computers. This has been discussed a few times here and might be searchable. In general, only clone when changing hard drives in the same computer. If you try to clone an old system into a different computer type, you might have funny hardware issues.

Someone else suggested a Time Machine restore. That is a good idea and has worked for others. When this is done, I think the new system installation gives you the proper files for the new computer. Using migration assistant is another possibility.