I am looking to do a hard drive and memory upgrade on my macbook, but I am still confused about a few things. I have already backed up all my files on an external hard drive, but once I install the new hard drive I am confused on what to do. I just need all my factory setting back to normal with the regular operating system. Please be specific and any information is helpful. Thank You!
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.
Hard Drive and Memory Upgrade Help
- Thread starter JRYAN34
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Here's a good way to gain space and still have everything exactly how it works right now:
Buy a larger hard drive and an enclosure for it. I like FireWire enclosures but a USB will work as long as it's for a SATA drive. There are combo ones available that do both.
Put the new drive into the enclosure and hook it up to your MacBook and format it for Mac OS Extended (Journaled) with a GUID Partition Table using Disk Utility. You can name it Macintosh HD or you can give it a new name if you like.
Clone your existing internal drive to the new drive using SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner and the check to make sure that you can boot to that external drive by restarting your system and pressing the alt (option) key when you boot. For this part of the operation, the free/trial version of SuperDuper! will work just fine.
Turn your MacBook off and let it cool down. Switch the drives. Start your MacBook and it will be just as it was and you'll have your old drive as an external to use for backups or storage.
Make sense? Anything that you're unclear about?
Buy a larger hard drive and an enclosure for it. I like FireWire enclosures but a USB will work as long as it's for a SATA drive. There are combo ones available that do both.
Put the new drive into the enclosure and hook it up to your MacBook and format it for Mac OS Extended (Journaled) with a GUID Partition Table using Disk Utility. You can name it Macintosh HD or you can give it a new name if you like.
Clone your existing internal drive to the new drive using SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner and the check to make sure that you can boot to that external drive by restarting your system and pressing the alt (option) key when you boot. For this part of the operation, the free/trial version of SuperDuper! will work just fine.
Turn your MacBook off and let it cool down. Switch the drives. Start your MacBook and it will be just as it was and you'll have your old drive as an external to use for backups or storage.
Make sense? Anything that you're unclear about?