MBP/MacMini (Swap Hard Drives)

[Esoin]

I have two Macs:
1. MBP i7 - Hitachi HTS545050B9SA02 500gb (5400rpm)
2. MacMini 2.0 C2D - WDC WD3200BEKT 320gb (7200rpm)

Software I use: Logic Pro, Adobe, Bootcamp, and Gaming..

According to the below benchmarks, the WDC scores 494, while the Hitachi scores 346.
---Are PassMark benchmarks realistic?

Sources:
http://www.harddrivebenchmark.net/hdd_lookup.php?cpu=Hitachi+HTS545050B9SA02
http://www.harddrivebenchmark.net/hdd_lookup.php?cpu=WDC+WD3200BEKT

Questions:
1. UPDATE: I decided I'll just buy a new Hard Drive.
Anyone know the model number of this hard drive so that I can compare benchmarks?
http://www.frys-electronics-ads.com...rial-ATA-300-Retail-Boxed-Notebook-Hard-Drive

UPDATE 2: it's a Hitachi 5k500 EVEN THOUGH the ad-picture is a retail box of a 7200rpm HD. I hate it when they do that

2. Solutions for image cloning? Both Hard Drives are running Snow + bootcamp/win7. My initial instincts are telling me to remove the HD from the MBP, connect Hard Drive(s) to windows-PC, then use Acronis Image Cloning software. Will this suffice for cloning OSX/Bootcamp?

big thanks, esoin

 

[spinnerlys]

2. You can use CarbonCopyCloner and SuperDuper for cloning Mac OS X and WinClone for making an image of the Boot Camp partition.

Both run on Mac OS X.

 

[Esoin]

thanks, spinnerlys, for the software recommendations. I will have to check those out.

I assume if I perform cloning tasks on my MBP, I will have to hook up an external HD (via USB) to store the OSX image, then swap internal HDs, then restore OSX image from external HD?

I just realized that I will just buy another hard drive from Fry's instead of swapping with the MacMini.

Does anyone know the model number of this Hitachi Drive, so that I can compare benchmarks?

http://www.frys-electronics-ads.com...rial-ATA-300-Retail-Boxed-Notebook-Hard-Drive

have a nice day, esoin

 

[spinnerlys]

CarbonCopyCloner and SuperDuper will make a bootable backup, so after the cloning process has finished, your just swap the HDDs and boot them.

Ah, I understand.

As the cloning process does not create one big file, you have to have two partitions on the external HDD to make clones of the internal ones and then swap.

Or you could just swap the HDDs, run Software Update and be done with it, without any cloning, as the update process will get you all the appropriate drivers.

But the Mac Mini HDD should have had Mac OS X 10.6.3, as that is the OS that came with the new MBP, and it is not recommended or even possible to run an OS version prior to the one that came with the Mac (so no Mac OS X 10.6.2 on a Mac that came with Mac OS X 10.6.3).

 

[Esoin]

Nice! thanks for the rundown. Much appreciated.

I just ran the sku number on frys.com website and it turns out that the frys-ad which I linked is for the 5k500, EVEN THOUGH the ad-picture is a retail box of a 7200rpm HD. I hate it when they do that

Guess I'll have to wait for another sale.