Installing Lion onto new SSD

[AcesHigh87]

I know this must have been covered a few times but I can’t seem to find any. If it’s best to just give me a link, please do so.

Anyway, to the task at hand. I plan to Purchase a Crucial M4 64GB SSD for my 2008 Macbook White (4,1) and want to understand the best way to get my data onto it from my original HDD.

I had read that the easiest tactic is to use CCC to clone my HDD onto the SSD via an external enclosure and then just pop the SSD in and go. However a lot of people have been telling me that doing a clean install would be the better option.

If this is the case, how could I go about doing it? I have a DVD with the Lion installer on it that I made when I downloaded the upgrade so I have that covered and I think, from what I understand, that I just hold option when booting up the first time and select that DVD to boot from. My question is, what then? Regular logic dictates to me that I just put the old HDD into an enclosure and migrate my data over from that but, if that’s the case, wouldn’t it be pretty much the same as using the much easier CCC method?

I’ve never done an upgrade to my macs aside from RAM in my iMac so a step by step guide on what to do, as well as opinions on the matter, would be great.

As a note, I’ve decided on the SSD already, barring any complications, so I’m not looking for opinions on that. I’m looking for opinions on the actual transfer process.

 

[MacSawdust]

Even better

I did a clean install using network recover (hold command-r when booting) and fresh apps from the app store. I put my old drive in a cheap external case and copied my documents folder from that. You could use migration assistant too. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4889

Works great and the computer (2011 Mini) is much more fun to use.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718

 

[AcesHigh87]

I did a clean install using network recover (hold command-r when booting) and fresh apps from the app store. I put my old drive in a cheap external case and copied my documents folder from that. You could use migration assistant too. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4889

Works great and the computer (2011 Mini) is much more fun to use.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718

So what you’re saying is to:

1) Using an external Enclosure, format the SSD to be bootable (not mentioned but I knew this.)
2) Install the SSD into the macbook.
3) Boot Holding Command + R to install Lion.
4) Put old HDD into enclosure and plug into macbook.
5) Use Migration assistant or other means to copy what I want over.

Is that correct?

 

[MacSawdust]

So what you’re saying is to:

1) Using an external Enclosure, format the SSD to be bootable (not mentioned but I knew this.)
2) Install the SSD into the macbook.
3) Boot Holding Command + R to install Lion.
4) Put old HDD into enclosure and plug into macbook.
5) Use Migration assistant or other means to copy what I want over.

Is that correct?

That would work. You could also format the SSD at Step 3 as Disk Utility is available in the network recovery menu.

 

[AcesHigh87]

That would work. You could also format the SSD at Step 3 as Disk Utility is available in the network recovery menu.

Makes sense. I’ll be getting an enclosure anyway to use my old HDD as an external drive so I can really do it either way.

 

[iGinsburg]

Size of SSD

I'm thinking of doing something along these lines, but got inspired by a post on Lifehacker, and now I want to just add an SSD to my Late 2008 Unibody MacBook. So I have a couple of questions:

1. How big of an SSD would one need to transfer Lion onto it? Would 64GB be sufficient, or would 120GB be better?

2. According to the Lifehacker post, he used The MCE OptiBay to install the SSD into the spot of the optical drive. Do you know how a drive like this one found on Amazon is any different than the MCE OptiBay (other than not including an external enclosure for the optical drive)?

Thanks for the help!