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Need Help Changing HDD

S

Synergie

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 15, 2011
771
210
Halifax, Canada
I just picked up the Momentus XT and an external enclosure... the NexStar hard drive dock... plugged it in USB and turned it on. I'd like to use Carbon Copy Cloner to copy over my current HDD contents so I can just swap out the hard drives and have everything working as per normal without needing to reinstall or restore backups from Time Machine.

Problem is... my system does not see the Momentus XT as an external HDD. The only place it sows up is in the disk utility. It says it's unformatted... Do I need to format it before I can use Carbon Copy Cloner? (I thought it came formatted?)

Also how do I check which firmware it has, so I can see if I need to update or not (I can't see it in System Information at all) Once I format, will it then show in System Info?

And one more question... I can find the firmware update for Windows .exe but not for Mac?? Can anyone point me to the right direction?? Thanks...
 
Synergie said:
Problem is... my system does not see the Momentus XT as an external HDD. The only place it sows up is in the disk utility. It says it's unformatted... Do I need to format it before I can use Carbon Copy Cloner? (I thought it came formatted?)
Click to expand...

You need to format it. Make sure you have it set to a GUID partition.
 
Ok got that part done!

Next step... Carbon Copy Cloner.... which settings? "Maintain a backup with no archiving"?

It says if I am copying OS X it will automatically keep it as bootable... so that's what I want right? After it's done I should just be able to swap out the drives, boot it up and everything will be like normal (except I will have a faster and bigger drive obviously)??

I suppose if anything goes wrong, I can just shove the old one back in till I figure it out.

I'm gonna do a SMC reset right after I change the HDDs out too... just to be sure.

But I am still at a loss for how to see what firmware this drive was shipped with. It's not listed under SATA devices on System Info (because it's in an external enclosure?) and Get Info doesn't have that info either.
 
getz76 said:
I would reset PRAM as well. Then repair permissions after you boot up. Then reboot.

Good luck.
Click to expand...

How do I do that? (both) I know how to reset the SMC (ctrl-option-shift+power) but not the PRAM. And how do I repair permissions? This is the first hd change i have done on a Mac... sorry for the questions lol

edit: found pram reset: command option P R as its booting before the grey screen...
 
Note that you shouldn't have to do any of these things. However, they will not cause damage and may head off any issues before they crop up.

Synergie said:
And how do I repair permissions? This is the first hd change i have done on a Mac... sorry for the questions lol
Click to expand...

Repairing permissions.

Synergie said:
edit: found pram reset: command option P R as its booting before the grey screen...
Click to expand...

Yup. Wait for the second chime and then release.
 
Changed out! Working good so far! The only hiccups I had were that it took me a minute to figure out the little plastic bracket holding the drive in securely actually lifts out - and that the Momentus XT did not come with the 4 little screws that stick out the sides to mount it to the plastic brackets! I had to take them off the old HDD! Not a problem.... except that I did not have a torx screwdriver! I ended up using my Leatherman multitool to loosen them enough on the old one to unscrew them by hand :( LOL

Anyway it's changed out.... I did everything but fix permissions so far. SMC reset and PRAM reset went without a hitch. System information is now finding the drive no issues and it did ship with SD26 which is the newest firmware so I think I am good!

Not bad for a girl with little technical training I think :)

Oh one little thing I did notice is that Little Snitch came up with a warning that the preferences file was a newer version. Good thing I caught it and updated it, before I launched a couple of my programs... if you know what I mean <g>
 
Synergie said:
Changed out! Working good so far! The only hiccups I had were that it took me a minute to figure out the little plastic bracket holding the drive in securely actually lifts out - and that the Momentus XT did not come with the 4 little screws that stick out the sides to mount it to the plastic brackets! I had to take them off the old HDD! Not a problem.... except that I did not have a torx screwdriver! I ended up using my Leatherman multitool to loosen them enough on the old one to unscrew them by hand :( LOL

Anyway it's changed out.... I did everything but fix permissions so far. SMC reset and PRAM reset went without a hitch. System information is now finding the drive no issues and it did ship with SD26 which is the newest firmware so I think I am good!

Not bad for a girl with little technical training I think :)

Oh one little thing I did notice is that Little Snitch came up with a warning that the preferences file was a newer version. Good thing I caught it and updated it, before I launched a couple of my programs... if you know what I mean <g>
Click to expand...

For future reference, ifixit.com has a lot of how to's for such hardware changed, you could've looked over the instructions beforehand and have known you'd need a torx T6 driver and all that jazz.
 
snaky69 said:
For future reference, ifixit.com has a lot of how to's for such hardware changed, you could've looked over the instructions beforehand and have known you'd need a torx T6 driver and all that jazz.
Click to expand...

I don't understand why they don't just include the little mounting screws with the new HDD anyway?? They must cost just pennies to make!!

Crisis averted anyway... I didn't need a torx... I have the almighty Leatherman multi-tool! :p And this particular one even has a precision screwdriver in it that is the right size for the screws on the back of the MBP! (Leatherman Blast)
 
Synergie said:
I don't understand why they don't just include the little mounting screws with the new HDD anyway?? They must cost just pennies to make!!

Crisis averted anyway... I didn't need a torx... I have the almighty Leatherman multi-tool! :p And this particular one even has a precision screwdriver in it that is the right size for the screws on the back of the MBP! (Leatherman Blast)
Click to expand...

Because they are a proprietary Apple part, not a part for a hard drive. Not all laptops use those stubs.
 
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