Ordered a new HDD for my Macbook. Best way to transfer data? Anything I might forget?

[mattcube64]

Hi guys.

I just ordered a 160GB HDD to replace my old 60gig drive in my Macbook. Obviously, I want all my old stuff on the new HDD. What are the steps?

Should I just burn my "Home" folder to a DVD? Or each individual "Movies/Music/Photos" folder. Is there anyway to keep all my passwords and usernames? Do I need to deactivate my iTunes account? Basically what I'm asking is: What's the best way to make my new HDD feel as if it's just my old one with more free space?

Also, I ordered an enclosure for my 60gig drive. Can I just use Bonjour (Or whatever it's called ) to import everything via USB?

How about installing the OS? Do I just pop in the new HDD. And the first time I boot it up, stick in the OSXTiger disc?

Thanks.

 

[lamina]

Random idiocy...

Edit: Come to think of it, if you're going to do the external drive enclosure thing, you might as well just use that to copy files directly from your old drive to your new one...

 

[CanadaRAM]

Back up your files of course before doing any surgery.

Buy a USB, (or better if you can find one, Firewire) 2.5" SATA external enclosure. Put your old drive in it.
Boot from the OSX CD Use Disk Utility to format the new drive, Do a OSX install on the new drive and use the migration assistant to bring in your identity from the external drive.

 

[siurpeeman]

you could put the new drive in the enclosure, clone your old drive onto the new one using superduper, then swap drives using your new drive just like your old.

 

[patrick0brien]

-mattcube64

I agree with siurpeeman. Swap-and-Clone is the best solution. And you get a nice, new external HDD as a result.

 

[mattcube64]

you could put the new drive in the enclosure, clone your old drive onto the new one using superduper, then swap drives using your new drive just like your old.

Well that sounds great. Does it also carbon copy the whole OS and everything, to make the new drive 100% bootable? Will I run into any problems with Boot Camp? Thanks.

 

[patrick0brien]

Well that sounds great. Does it also carbon copy the whole OS and everything, to make the new drive 100% bootable? Will I run into any problems with Boot Camp? Thanks.

-mattcube64

Yes, a bit-for-bit-sector-for-sector clone.

But for bootability, the enclosure needs to be Firewire.

 

[mattcube64]

-mattcube64

Yes, a bit-for-bit-sector-for-sector clone.

But for bootability, the enclosure needs to be Firewire.

Sorry, yeah, I meant bootable once back in the Macbook. Well, this looks like my best option. I'll be sure to burn the most important stuff to disc first, though, just to be safe.

Thanks for the help.

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

But for bootability, the enclosure needs to be Firewire.

Nope, the Intels boots from USB disks just fine... it's slow but works just fine...

And SuperDuper makes nice bootable clones. Actually, this is exactly what I did when I just installed the new 200 GB in my MacBook:
- make additional backup, if possible (pooh happens)
- take out old disk, place in enclosure (usb or firewire)
- install new disk
- boot from old disk
- clone from old disk to new disk (or if you want to clean up at the same time, make a fresh OS X install on the new disk and use migration tool to get over your stuff, that's quicker)

 

[nateDEEZY]

My choice of app would be Carbon Copy Cloner... The steps I would take is to put the new hard drive in the macbook, put your old hard drive in the external enclosure, then boot from your external hard drive (your original) then I believe you'll have to format that new hard drive (the one in ur macbook) to HFS+ then run Carbon Copy Cloner, to clone your old external hard drive to your new internal hard drive. Hope some of that made sense.

 

[patrick0brien]

Nope, the Intels boots from USB disks just fine... it's slow but works just fine...

-Mitthrawnuruodo

I heard rumors to this effect, good to hear it again. But I've not done this yet so I'm a bit cautious with my wordings

I think I'll test this...

 

[QCassidy352]

Back up your files of course before doing any surgery.

Buy a USB, (or better if you can find one, Firewire) 2.5" SATA external enclosure. Put your old drive in it.
Boot from the OSX CD Use Disk Utility to format the new drive, Do a OSX install on the new drive and use the migration assistant to bring in your identity from the external drive.

I agree with this. Do a clean install of OS X on the new drive and then migrate the data over.

I upgraded the HD on my macbook, and after being unsatisfied with the results of "cloning" with superduper, I went back and did what CanadaRAM suggests here.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

I carbon copy cloner'd my drive into an external, and then sawpped. So I guess I've been using the same OS X insillation for 2 years over 2 hard drives now... it worked well for me.

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

-Mitthrawnuruodo

I heard rumors to this effect, good to hear it again. But I've not done this yet so I'm a bit cautious with my wordings

No problem, I remember just when the Intels was new, there was rumours that the EFI allowed for USB booting (ironically something I could do with my old PowerBook G3 'Pismo', too, but that had USB1 only, which made it unbearably slow, but doable), but it was very hard to get any reliable confirmation (and apparantly still is)...

But I've tried, and - at least with the bootable clones made with SuperDuper! - it works! Trust me, but still good luck with your additional tests...

 

[sonictonic]

I agree with this. Do a clean install of OS X on the new drive and then migrate the data over.

I upgraded the HD on my macbook, and after being unsatisfied with the results of "cloning" with superduper, I went back and did what CanadaRAM suggests here.

How perfect this thread was posted! I'm thinking about upgrading my 120GB MacBook HDD to a 160 or 200GB... so this info is helpful. I want a painless and seamless transition of I decide to do it.

Cassidy - What exactly were you "unsatisfied" with, using SuperDuper to do the clone? Woudln't it be a "black or white" kind of thing where it either worked or didn't work? Could you explain what went wrong or what any problems were?

Thanks!