I'll offer a method by which your success ought to be 98%:
You'll need an EXTERNAL drive, 500gb or larger.
You'll need CarbonCopyCloner. CCC is FREE to download and use for 30 days:
http://www.bombich.com/download.html
When you have this stuff, do this:
1. Connect the external drive and ERASE IT to Mac OS extended with journaling enabled, GUID partition format
2. Open CCC and clone your Mac partition to the external drive. Accept CCC's defaults. When CCC asks if you wish to clone the recovery partition, YES, you want to do this to.
3. Let CCC do its thing. It could take a while.
4. When the clone is done, power down, all the way off.
5. Press the power on button and IMMEDIATELY hold down the option key and KEEP HOLDING IT DOWN until the startup manager appears.
6. Select the external drive with the pointer and hit return.
7. You should now boot up from the external drive.
8. When you get to the finder, everything will look EXACTLY as it looked from the internal drive (after all, it's a "clone").
9. Open Disk Utility. "Aim it" at the internal drive. Now, ERASE the ENTIRE internal drive. Set it up as Mac OS extended with journaling enabled, GUID partition format.
10. Once the drive is erased, re-open CCC.
11. Now, RE-clone the external drive BACK TO the internal drive. Again accept CCC's defaults and again re-clone the recovery partition, too.
12. When done, power down and disconnect the external drive.
13, Press the power on button and AGAIN hold down the option key to invoke the startup manager. Select the INTERNAL drive (should be only choice) and hit return.
14. Do you get a good boot? Does everything look "as it should"? Fine, only one more thing to do:
15. Open system preferences, go to startup disk, and RE-DESIGNATE the internal drive as the boot volume.
That should do it. It will take a little time due to the copying back-and-forth.
PRINT OUT this post.
If you follow these instructions step-by-step, I guarantee success.
