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how to transfer data from old HD to new one?

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davidnssbm

macrumors regular
Original poster
So I just bought a new HD for my mac pro. I installed it in a blank slot and rebooted from the disk and am in the disk utility and don't what to do.

I want to take everything from my old HD and put it on my new HD. How do I do this?

Also, after I do this and remove my old HD, do I need to move my new HD into slot #1?
 
davidnssbm said:
So I just bought a new HD for my mac pro. I installed it in a blank slot and rebooted from the disk and am in the disk utility and don't what to do.

I want to take everything from my old HD and put it on my new HD. How do I do this?

Also, after I do this and remove my old HD, do I need to move my new HD into slot #1?
Click to expand...

You could use something called SuperDuper! to transfer everything over, and you wouldn't need to boot from the disk for that. Carbon Copy Cloner will do the same thing as well.

As for disk utility, you can use the restore function. Click the new drive, click on restore at the top, drag the new drive to the destination field and the old drive to the source field.

And you dont need to move it over, but some people prefer to have the drive with the OS in the first slot.

Pretent the LaCie 1TB is the old and the My Book Studio 2TB is the new one:
 

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davidnssbm said:
So I just bought a new HD for my mac pro. I installed it in a blank slot and rebooted from the disk and am in the disk utility and don't what to do.

I want to take everything from my old HD and put it on my new HD. How do I do this?
Click to expand...

Install the OS on the new HDD and let the data get transferred at the end of the install.
 
thanks for the help! a few more questions:

Do I need to format the drive or partition it? I read some guides that said this but you guys make no mention?

Also, if I were to do the second posters suggestion of installing the OSX on the new drive and transferring the data t the end, wouldn't I have 2 drives with OSX on them simultaneously? That can't be good is it?

EDIT: I tried to drag the new drive as the destination but it will not allow a green plus sign. Also, under the source HD, there's a second HD called XP that my dad named. He uses boot camp and parallels and I guess created an XP drive out of a single drive? So it looks like this

*OLD HD
-Main HD
-sub XP HD

and I can't drag the OLD HD, but I can drag the MAIN HD, but this mean I wont transfer the XP drive's data?!
 
And if you havent already, make sure you reformat it as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). You can do this in the Erase part of disk utility.
 

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davidnssbm said:
thanks for the help! a few more questions:

Do I need to format the drive or partition it? I read some guides that said this but you guys make no mention?

Also, if I were to do the second posters suggestion of installing the OSX on the new drive and transferring the data t the end, wouldn't I have 2 drives with OSX on them simultaneously? That can't be good is it?
Click to expand...

Yes, sorry I was a little late on the reformatting part.

With any way you choose you will have two drives with the OS on it. It's not bad, but if you keep the old drive in one of the slots, it will automatically boot to that drive. To change the boot drive, go to System Preferences > Startup Disk and select the new drive as the startup disk. After you do this it might make you restart. After that, you should be good!
 
thanks, but I still have yet to get answers from my previous post:

hanks for the help! a few more questions:

Do I need to format the drive or partition it? I read some guides that said this but you guys make no mention?

Also, if I were to do the second posters suggestion of installing the OSX on the new drive and transferring the data t the end, wouldn't I have 2 drives with OSX on them simultaneously? That can't be good is it?

EDIT: I tried to drag the new drive as the destination but it will not allow a green plus sign. Also, under the source HD, there's a second HD called XP that my dad named. He uses boot camp and parallels and I guess created an XP drive out of a single drive? So it looks like this

*OLD HD
-Main HD
-sub XP HD

and I can't drag the OLD HD, but I can drag the MAIN HD, but this mean I wont transfer the XP drive's data?!
 
davidnssbm said:
thanks, but I still have yet to get answers from my previous post:

hanks for the help! a few more questions:

Do I need to format the drive or partition it? I read some guides that said this but you guys make no mention?

Also, if I were to do the second posters suggestion of installing the OSX on the new drive and transferring the data t the end, wouldn't I have 2 drives with OSX on them simultaneously? That can't be good is it?

EDIT: I tried to drag the new drive as the destination but it will not allow a green plus sign. Also, under the source HD, there's a second HD called XP that my dad named. He uses boot camp and parallels and I guess created an XP drive out of a single drive? So it looks like this

*OLD HD
-Main HD
-sub XP HD

and I can't drag the OLD HD, but I can drag the MAIN HD, but this mean I wont transfer the XP drive's data?!
Click to expand...

You do need to format it as that other picture shows (post #5)

With any way you choose you will have two drives with the OS on it. It's not bad, but if you keep the old drive in one of the slots, it will automatically boot to that drive. To change the boot drive, go to System Preferences > Startup Disk and select the new drive as the startup disk. After you do this it might make you restart.

In disk utility you do not drag the icon all the way to the left, you drag the icon that is right under it, a little to the right. I put one of the pictures up (post #2). Look at the names in the source and destination fields and you will see what I am talking about.

It sounds like you have boot camp on there. In that case, after formatting the drive, partition it making the second partition how ever big you want to (this will be for XP). Then in disk utility, click on your new hard drive, click restore, and put the new partition you just made (for XP) as the destination and the old partition for XP as the source.
 
I have found it easier just to boot to a non effected drive with OSX SL installed, or either the new DVD that comes with the new MP and go into Disk Utility" and copy one drive to the other. Should be an exact clone as long as both drives are not mounted.
 
davidnssbm said:
You rock! Thanks so much! One more thing: how do I tell time capsule about my new drive?
Click to expand...

Go into time machine preferences and make sure the new drive is not in the exclude list. Then click backup now and it should backup like normal as long as the time capsule is still the backup volume.
 
How would one go about adding a fresh new SSD to a fresh new 2010 MP work in terms of the OSX?

Could you install the new SSD in slot 1 first before booting up the MP for the first time and then install OSX AND wipe OSX from slot 2 via disk utility all at the same time on startup?
 
Icaras said:
How would one go about adding a fresh new SSD to a fresh new 2010 MP work in terms of the OSX?

Could you install the new SSD in slot 1 first before booting up the MP for the first time and then install OSX AND wipe OSX from slot 2 via disk utility all at the same time on startup?
Click to expand...

Yes, you can do anything via the dvd and disk utility before booting into OSX.
 
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