My Momentus XT is enroute, should I bother setting up my MBP?

[Adamantoise]

Basically, the stock drive is currently in my machine. I haven't bothered installing programs or tinkering with settings because I know I am replacing the hard drive once my Momentus XT arrives.

Is it possible to clone the stock drive onto the Momentus XT prior to replacing it? I am not sure what else comes in the box with the Momentus XT but I know I am not interested in buying anything to be able to clone the drive.

 

[duffer6]

Basically, the stock drive is currently in my machine. I haven't bothered installing programs or tinkering with settings because I know I am replacing the hard drive once my Momentus XT arrives.

Is it possible to clone the stock drive onto the Momentus XT prior to replacing it? I am not sure what else comes in the box with the Momentus XT but I know I am not interested in buying anything to be able to clone the drive.

Yes. Throw the XT into a enclosure then use carbon copy cloner to clone the internal drive to the new Xt. Swap the drive after you are done cloning. Repair disk permissions then you are done.

 

[tekkietekkie]

or use clonezilla to do a backup to a usb disk, or do a time machine backup / restore

all of the options work

 

[duffer6]

or use clonezilla to do a backup to a usb disk, or do a time machine backup / restore

all of the options work

He is correct, common theme you need an external enclosure to clone one to another.

 

[Adamantoise]

Thanks guys.

I don't have an external enclosure. Is it possible for me to just perform a time machine backup, move it to an external drive, and then use that drive to restore once my XT arrives.

Will that work? I'm trying to avoid buying an enclosure because I don't think I'll use it much.

 

[BAC5.2]

Time machine backup your current drive on an external hdd.

Create Lion bootable USB or DVD

Install new hdd

Insert DVD or USB drive an boot into recovery.

Restore from time machine.

Easy, free, and no mess.

 

[duffer6]

Time machine backup your current drive on an external hdd.

Create Lion bootable USB or DVD

Install new hdd

Insert DVD or USB drive an boot into recovery.

Restore from time machine.

Easy, free, and no mess.

Ding ding. We have a winner. He is spot on. Good luck.

 

[yetanotherdave]

If you do buy an enclosure, after you install the XT, you have an enclosure and a spare stock drive. Suddenly you have a handy portable HDD

To clone it without an enclosure, you could remove the optical drive, stick the XT in there, clone, then replace the optical drive...

Finally, make sure you get the latest firmware off seagate's website, I had some issues with mine, the firmware sorted it right out.

 

[-tWv-]

Time machine backup your current drive on an external hdd.

Create Lion bootable USB or DVD

Install new hdd

Insert DVD or USB drive an boot into recovery.

Restore from time machine.

Easy, free, and no mess.

Yep, just clean install lion and restore from the backup. I wouldn't be able to stop myself from using my new mac

 

[Adamantoise]

Oh thanks guys.

One last question. Will there be any difference in performance between performing a clean Lion install and performing a time machine restoration?

Intuition tells me no, but I just wanted to be sure.