I have a laptop harddrive that I need replaced, and I have the new one waiting to be installed, but I want to make sure that I can still have the Mac OS on my system. I have the Snow Leopard UPGRADE DVD that came with my MBP. Does it make a difference if it says UPGRADE? Or is this all I need to boot it up? If so, I just insert the disc while it boots up and then hold the "C" key right?
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Few questions on what I need to transfer harddrives..
- Thread starter SephirothXR
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
You can use that DVD for any installation types you want to do, no need for a prior version of Mac OS X on the same HDD.
You could also use CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper to clone the contents of the old HDD to the new HDD, if you use an enclosure for 2.5" HDDs with the new HDD inside.
![]()
You could also use CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper to clone the contents of the old HDD to the new HDD, if you use an enclosure for 2.5" HDDs with the new HDD inside.
You can do that with the cloning software, but when I did, it about doubled my boot time, and I was going to a faster HDD. Could have been that I just got a bad enclosure though. I ended up just restoring from a time machine backup and that fixed it.
ok I'm hijacking - forgive me,
BUT
what is the difference in using carbon cloning (or whatever it's called) over time machine???
seems to me time machine would be easier - is it not? I've seen many people talk about cloning software, or what have you - just curious
Time Machine does not make a clone of the backed up HDD, thus the backup is not bootable. CCC & SuperDuper create bootable backups.
Personally, I like time machine better, but cloning software makes an exact copy of your drive, and it is bootable as well. Otherwise, I'm really not sure what advantages there are. There seem to be a few more settings with the cloning software, but time machine works well for me.
Time Machine does not make a clone of the backed up HDD, thus the backup is not bootable. CCC & SuperDuper create bootable backups.
![]()
OK - got it. So CCC and SuperDuper would be very beneficial if you were to lose, or not have you OS install disk. that way you could clone to an external, boot from it - then wipe the internal and move it over? could that be a possible scenario?
otherwise, if you have the install disk - just boot from it - and format, install and migrate, or whatever it is you need to do.
Thanks - just trying to learn
no need to pick. The two functions komplement (ikea slang) each other .
Full, Bootable backup - As you said, good for exact copies that are relatively portable.
Time Machine keeps shadow copies...and copies...and copies...of files and their changes (until it runs out of space, then it starts to sacrafice the oldest ones).
So the SuperDuper full backup that you made last night won't save the paper that you wrote this morning, on the hard drive that died this afternoon. Get it? (not saying you don't just a general question lol)
Of course, with the current time between Time Machine backups being one hour, if you manage to create and destroy a document within that time frame, then of course the changes won't have been saved unless you beefed up the interval.
So neither is bullet proof, but they work with each other. Full backups = quick easy no fuss way to recover from a crashed hard drive on any recent mac. Time machine, more flexibility in terms of what you can recover (just not the last backup) but much more rigid in how it'll operate (must restore to a leopard install etc).
And, if you have a bootcamp partition to run that "other OS" for some strange reason (say GIS) then you can use Winclone to create an image of just the bootcamp partition that you can then load onto your new harddrive that has been restored from TimeMachine. Having never used CCC, I wonder if it would save you the Winclone step? Does it transfer over the bootcamp partition as well with the bootable image? Anybody know?