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Move from 1TB HHD to 240GB SSD

N

nutcaseguy

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 17, 2011
27
2
I think I know how to install the SSD in my 2009 iMac.

However, I don't know the procedure to move (restore ) the operating system (Lion), applications etc. to a much smaller ssd drive. I do have a Time Machine backup. How do I accomplish this ?

I currently am using a 2TB external firewire drive for my iTunes library and am thinking I could use it for all my data.

Any help would be appreciated
 
You could use Migration or Setup Assistant.

And if the contents of the entire Mac OS X partition takes less than 240GB, you could even clone the HDD to the SSD via CarbonCopyCloner either with the SSD in an enclosure for 2.5" HDDs or the HDD in an enclosure for 3.5" HDDs and Mac OS X booted from the HDD.
 
hi simsaladimbamba

either with the SSD in an enclosure for 2.5" HDDs or the HDD in an enclosure for 3.5" HDDs and Mac OS X booted from the HDD.
Click to expand...

I am not sure what you are saying here. I am currently using carboncopycloner for backing up. I have not actually used the cloning feature. I am using less than 240GB on the internal hard drive so cloning a HDD to SSD is the way to go. Do I clone the internal HDD to an external drive or do I clone the internal drive directly to the SSD ( in an enclosure ) ? Also I thought that when cloning, the two drives had to be the same size.
 
You can use CCC to clone the internal HDD to the SSD in an external enclosure for 2.5" S-ATA HDDs, USB should suffice, as those can be had for 10€ and more. Firewire will start at 50€.
And the HDD and SSD do not need to be of the same size, I clone my 60GB SSD to 1TB HDD (128GB partition on it) all the time, and it also works the other way around, as only the actual data is cloned, not all the empty bits and bytes on the HDD, thus 100GB on a 1TB HDD can be cloned to a 120GB SSD for example.
 
You need a 3rd HDD for this if I understand you correctly. One to hold the Home folder and massive data while you pare down the system boot/apps for the SSD. Move home/storage data to interim HDD. Then delete the Home contents from main 2TB drive, Image with CCC and restore to SSD which should now be significantly smaller. Move Home data to it's desired location and use system prefs to select as "Home Location".
Use Time Machine if you must but it will not be able to do a full recover with a 2 disk system. I use superduper and image both Home data and then boot data. Easy. And no extra waiting while Time Machine does it's super slow thing.
 
I will definitely be moving the Home Folder over to the 2TB external drive since the internal drive will only be a 240GB SSD.

That raises another ques. Do I really need a 240GB Internal SSD or can I save $$$ by going with 115GB OWC SSD. I am currently using about 220GB of the 1TB internal HDD. Of that 107GB is music.

The external 2TB firewire HDD is where my other iTunes Libraries & movies reside. There is still a lot of room for the Home Folder.

How much room does Lion & system files & apps need anyway ??:cool:
 
nutcaseguy said:
How much room does Lion & system files & apps need anyway ??:cool:
Click to expand...

I am looking at doing this as well. I looked into some of the folders that I can't/shouldn't move in order to move to an SSD. Here is what my folders consist of:

System - 5GB
Developer - 7GB
Library - 15GB (yours may be less; I use a gfx program that stores movie files in the library)
Apps - 19GB (3 years of accumulation; probably use only half of these frequently)
Total - 46GB

So a 115GB SSD would not even be half full; you'd have some room to grow.

Here's another thought. Do you use your optical drive a lot? So much that you need to have it installed? You could remove your optical drive, put it into an external enclosure, and in its spot put a 2.5" hard drive attached to the SATA bus. This would be lots faster than putting everything on your FW drive. For instance, I use Aperture for photo editing, and I'd probably put my Library on the other internal hard drive, and my referenced masters on the external FW drive.

I have a 2008 iMac and am looking to do that very upgrade. The 2008 iMac has the optical drive on a PATA bus, but I believe in 2009 the iMac went to an SATA bus for the optical drive, making it even faster.
 
Hi Mike in Kansas ....

In a perfect world.... I would replace the 1TB internal HHD with a 3TB HHD ....
then remove the optical drive and install the SSD.... To much work.

I currently run iTunes from the external FW drive without any issues. It also has the advantage of portability. I can take all my iTunes libraries with me and play it from any Mac.
If you are going ahead with removing the opt drive you might want to checkout http://bit.ly/iDniCL

:apple:
 
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