MBP 13 How to swap Hard Drives without loosing system?

[sup3r1or]

Just got my MBP from repair after almost 2 weeks. If you remember i had problem I could not install OSX. Guess what was the problem? They changed DVD drive and HDD and the problem was exactly what I told them, DVD was scratched and was unreadable.

Anyway, here is the issue I need help with. I just bought WD 500GB Scorpio Black HDD (7200rpm). I need to swap my drive, but I do not have Snow Leopard OSX DVD, I have to wait around 5 days to get my replacement DVD by post. But the temptation is just so bad. Is there any way I can do this using only lets say External HDD?

Since I have no OSX DVD there will be no way for me to boot to disk utility. What should i do?

P.S Is it necessary to reinstall system when you change hardware like HDD?

 

[CW Jones]

Why not just make a disk image using Disk Utility or Time Machine? You said or made it sound like you have an external. That would be the easiest way to swap information over.

 

[sup3r1or]

Look now inside of my laptop I have HDD 250 gb on it I have my OSX system. Now external is empty and my new 500 GB HDD is empty.

So say Im making disk image right, and put it on my external, however when I place my new HDD inside my MBP it is also empty so how can I boot into disk utility to make a restore?

 

[LoneRider]

If I am understanding this right, you have three drives? The original, the WD 500GB you want to replace it with AND an external drive of some sort?

You are adding an unnecessary step if you are thinking abuot backing up to the external and then doing a restore after swapping the drives.

Do it this way:

Put the 500 WD into an external enclosure of some sort or a bare interface to the USB or FW port. If you can open your external, you should be able to remove the drive in it and use the interface to your new WD 500GB drive. If i is one you can't open your ext drive, there are external enclosures or interface cables that can be ad for about $20 (in the US, don't know about Bangkok)

Use Carbon Copy Cloner (free download) to clone your current internal drive to the WD 500GB via the external interface.

Once CCC is done, pull the drive out of the enclosure, and put it into your MBP, replacing the 250GB drive.

Turn the MBP on and it will be right where it was before, but with a bigger better HD.

The WD 500GB Black Scorpio is what I used recently to upgrade my MBP, this is the exact process I used. Pretty simple and straight forward.



I used a Seagate GoFlex FW800 adapter cable to the bare drive to plug it into the FW port on the MBP. Fast and easy

 

[sup3r1or]

I see your point mate. However I just stumbled on one problem. My wife has USB external Seagate Freeagent Go 2.5", the problem is I cant open that case. as I saw on youtube once you open it, its gone I wont be able to return it back to normal so she wont notice.

Guess I wait for my OSX DVD to comeback.

Btw can I use for example the DVD that I got from internet? (talking about OSX 10.6.3)

 

[jtopp]

Why don't you just go buy Snow Leopard for $30? Or were you not trying to spend any money?

 

[TopHatPlus]

make a time machine backup on an external disk and then migrate it back to the new hard drive, you will retain EVERYTHING including browser history and widgets =D haha