How to switch HDs for 2011 MBP (Lion)

[jesterscourt]

I have a 2011 MBP running Lion, and I ordered a Seagate Momentus XT 750 GB Hybrid drive from Amazon, which should be here later this week. I'm excited to add quite a bit of space in comparison to my 320 GB, and also the speed boost.

My question is, what is the easiest method to do this? I have an unused 2 TB external hard drive, which I am assuming I can use with Time Machine. I'd like to ideally copy everything from this hard drive so that I can essentially have a carbon copy of this drive, plus all the excess space, if that's possible. I have WiFi available as well, if that helps with the whole Lion recovery, but I wanted to come to the experts first.

Edit: Thanks everyone, ten minutes after getting home from work today I am now running with the new hard drive installed, cheers!

 

[sparkomatic]

You can use SuperDuper! to backup your current drive to your new one. Swap out the drives and then you'll have a cloned backup of your hard drive.

There are other programs like CarbonCopy but SuperDuper! has always worked great for me.

 

[jesterscourt]

Does it matter they are different sizes and speeds?

 

[ISKOTB]

Put the new drive in external enclosure and use carboncopy and clone from your current one

 

[jekyoo]

Does it matter they are different sizes and speeds?

no.

 

[jesterscourt]

Thanks for the help everybody. I am currently cloning the hard drive via SuperDuper! as we speak, and it should be done in about two more hours.