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Bullshark

macrumors member
Original poster
Apr 25, 2009
79
0
NY
I'm picking up a 500GB HDD internal (replacement) today. I want to copy this hard drive, as it stands to the new one. The HDD I'm currently using is 250GB. With ~100GB free. What program on Mac is the best way to go about it? Some said Carbon Copy Cloner, some said Time Machine, some said neither. TIA
 
Carbon Copy Cloner will do the job nicely, if you don't mind the ads while it's cloning. Time Machine I do not recommend at all - it's not meant for disk-to-disk copies, which is what you're trying to do.
 
Time machine will work, but it is slow. Carbon copy cloner requires that you put the new drive into an external enclosure. If you have time machine set up, then all you need to do is install the new drive and restore.
 
Carbon Copy Cloner will do the job nicely, if you don't mind the ads while it's cloning. Time Machine I do not recommend at all - it's not meant for disk-to-disk copies, which is what you're trying to do.

I figured it would work best.. Thanks! I don't care about ads, I wont be looking at them while the clone is going on. lol..

So this would be procedure.. I have an external USB SATA reader/writer.

Install new HDD to external HDD reader, clone current disk with cloner to new HDD and install in Mac.. I'll be able to clone my hard drive w/OpSys running from primary/only partition?

I know I used a similar program on my PC and I had to restart from a diff partition..
 
Time machine will work, but it is slow. Carbon copy cloner requires that you put the new drive into an external enclosure. If you have time machine set up, then all you need to do is install the new drive and restore.
Didn't know you could do that... however, for some odd reason, Time Machine does not back up Xcode, if you had it installed. This is one reason I don't like using it for disk-to-disk copies.
 
I have used CarbonCopyCloner before with great success. Bricked an old MacBook (liquid spill :()...took HDD out of old MB and put it into an external USB enclosure...connected enclosure to new MB and ran CCC. It copied the old drive's data bit for bit and booted up and ran perfectly afterwards. I now use the old MB HDD in the external enclosure for my Time Machine backups. :)
 
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