Hey, so, as they do, earlier last month, my hard drive started to fail on my mid 2012 macbook pro. I bought an ssd (samsung evo 850) and tried to clone my hard drive to the ssd using Carbon Copy Cloner. No matter how many times I tried, every time I tried to clone it would stay copying for 12-20 hours then freeze and I'd have to restart, which surprisingly the failing drive handled fine. I decided to clone my sister's hard drive to make the ssd bootable then see if I could transfer my files over via a sata to usb cable when my original hard drive wasn't under the strain of being the primary drive in my macbook. I did this and it booted fine but I have no idea how to transfer my original drive over now with all my presets, preferences, user accounts and such. The original drive seems to transfer information fine now, but I don't know where to put it, or how to delete and replace admins and such.
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.
How to transfer my hard drive's files to an ssd
- Thread starter jkoh09
- Start date
-
- Tags
- hard drive ssd
- Sort by reaction score
Boot from the USB drive then clone it to the SSD after formatting the SSD. Now CCC will/should just make the SSD identical to the USB if you choose that option but I would do a format of the SSD just to be cetrain it gets only your old data.
I have a 2009 MBP. I installed a Samsung 850 EVO last year and Thursday night, the SSD failed. Would not start up, couldn't use disk utility not even single user mode to fix/repair it. It would not even show up in disk utility anymore.
So I bought an SSD from Mac Sales. OWC Mercury Electra. I had it over nighted. In doing so, I made a bootable usb thumb drive with the latest El Capitan. I installed the new SSD and booted the computer holding option and put a fresh clean install of El Capitan onto my new OWC SSD. So far so good.
MacBook is running smooth and fast I might add. I'm not sure if there is something wrong with Samsung's 850 EVO, but I find it funny that I can google them with MacBook or Apple in general, and read pretty much the same story as mine. Not all but enough to make me weary of Samsung's SSD's.
Firmware maybe? Not sure. Either way. Hope you're able to make it work. My Samsung 850 EVO was sketchy from the start and finally gave out after 6 months? of normal use.
So I bought an SSD from Mac Sales. OWC Mercury Electra. I had it over nighted. In doing so, I made a bootable usb thumb drive with the latest El Capitan. I installed the new SSD and booted the computer holding option and put a fresh clean install of El Capitan onto my new OWC SSD. So far so good.
MacBook is running smooth and fast I might add. I'm not sure if there is something wrong with Samsung's 850 EVO, but I find it funny that I can google them with MacBook or Apple in general, and read pretty much the same story as mine. Not all but enough to make me weary of Samsung's SSD's.
Firmware maybe? Not sure. Either way. Hope you're able to make it work. My Samsung 850 EVO was sketchy from the start and finally gave out after 6 months? of normal use.
Wha
Since I used it already since years but purchased CCC some weeks ago I know well that there are 2 different types of CCC: V. 3.5.7 for older OSX (I am using it because I still work with OSX 10.8.5) and the 4.0 generation for newer OSX like ElCrap.
But If your HDD is already failing it is not astonishing that cloning a HDD with already existing dead and/or corrupted files will no longer be acceptable for cloning. It is not a problem of the Samsung SSD, nor of CCC, it is your HDD.
Try to mount a OSX of your choice (perhaps the one your MBP came with or the still sold ML or SL or just the new ElCrap) on your SSD. install the right version of CCC for your OSX on the SSD either. By doing so, you can now install the SSD in your MBP which will work. Than you can try to copy and save the rest of your data (at least the part not being already dead) by using CCC.
It might be also possible or (in this special case with already failing HDD)even better to transfer the last time-machine backup completely onto your SSD and try to save the not-yet-backuped data from your failing HDD at the end.
Recovering the not yet backuped data could go with recovering-Software or by a specialized enterprise. The latter is expensive.
Good luck.
What OSX are you using?
Since I used it already since years but purchased CCC some weeks ago I know well that there are 2 different types of CCC: V. 3.5.7 for older OSX (I am using it because I still work with OSX 10.8.5) and the 4.0 generation for newer OSX like ElCrap.
But If your HDD is already failing it is not astonishing that cloning a HDD with already existing dead and/or corrupted files will no longer be acceptable for cloning. It is not a problem of the Samsung SSD, nor of CCC, it is your HDD.
Try to mount a OSX of your choice (perhaps the one your MBP came with or the still sold ML or SL or just the new ElCrap) on your SSD. install the right version of CCC for your OSX on the SSD either. By doing so, you can now install the SSD in your MBP which will work. Than you can try to copy and save the rest of your data (at least the part not being already dead) by using CCC.
It might be also possible or (in this special case with already failing HDD)even better to transfer the last time-machine backup completely onto your SSD and try to save the not-yet-backuped data from your failing HDD at the end.
Recovering the not yet backuped data could go with recovering-Software or by a specialized enterprise. The latter is expensive.
Good luck.
OP:
Is the SSD you have now bootable?
Have you tried installing into the MacBook and taking the original HDD out?
If you do this, will the MacBook boot?
Even if "your stuff" from the old drive isn't yet on it?
Why I asked these questions:
You want the SSD in the MB so that it's bootable "on its own" without problems.
Then you can connect the USB/SATA adapter to the old HDD, and see what you can get "off of it".
If the old drive is corrupted, you may not be able to get everything.
But if the drive is "mountable", and you are careful and keep handwritten notes, you may be able to get quite a lot from it.
You may have to "copy files manually", a little at a time, to accomplish this.
Get the SSD into the MacBook so that it boots.
Get the HDD "outside" with your data on it.
Do these things, and then we can proceed from there.
Go to this page to see how to make the drive swap:
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook+Pro+13-Inch+Unibody+Mid+2012+Hard+Drive+Replacement/10378
And... be sure to use THE RIGHT TOOLS for the job.
Is the SSD you have now bootable?
Have you tried installing into the MacBook and taking the original HDD out?
If you do this, will the MacBook boot?
Even if "your stuff" from the old drive isn't yet on it?
Why I asked these questions:
You want the SSD in the MB so that it's bootable "on its own" without problems.
Then you can connect the USB/SATA adapter to the old HDD, and see what you can get "off of it".
If the old drive is corrupted, you may not be able to get everything.
But if the drive is "mountable", and you are careful and keep handwritten notes, you may be able to get quite a lot from it.
You may have to "copy files manually", a little at a time, to accomplish this.
Get the SSD into the MacBook so that it boots.
Get the HDD "outside" with your data on it.
Do these things, and then we can proceed from there.
Go to this page to see how to make the drive swap:
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook+Pro+13-Inch+Unibody+Mid+2012+Hard+Drive+Replacement/10378
And... be sure to use THE RIGHT TOOLS for the job.