Possible to use USB MyBook HD to Clone HD for replacement hd?

[sLpFhaWK]

I'm sorry to make yet another disk cloning thread because I haven't seen my type of question asked. My current situation is this.

I recently purchased a new late 08 mbp w/ 250gb hd. I just received my replacement 500gb hd, and of course I want to clone my data. I don't have access to/nor do I want to go way out of my way to go buy a caddy or sata case for the new drive, but I have 3 500gb WD Mybook HD's just sitting around. My question to you mac professionals is can I use one of those MyBook's to clone my drive with either Carbon Copy or Time Capsule? then Swap out the internal drives, boot to the MyBook holding Control and choosing the USB HD, then use the Utility to Format the new 500gb drive to GUID partition, then use time capsule to move all my data to the new drive?

This is my 1st mac, so this is all new to me. I've been a PC user mostly my whole computing time *roughly 20 years* so excuse me if I seem a bit new/lost with all the mac terminology,

Thank you for the assistance.

 

[madog]

I would recommend (essentially what you said, but using the Migration Assistant/Fresh Install):

clone current drive to external drive,
install and format new internal drive,
install fresh OS,
use Migration Assistant to transfer over data from cloned external. (It will xfer all User data, apps, some settings, and all other files on drive)

You were pretty close. You can format a drive through Apple's Disk Utility, which is on the system install disk's that came with your machine (in the Utilities menus when booted to it). So you can format/install the OS in one swoop. Would be better IMO than cloning a system a couple times and hoping it works properly. Also, when using a USB drive with the Migration Assistant, I believe it is with the "from another Drive/Volume on this Mac", as opposed to, "From another Mac", which is used when using FireWire, so don't freak out if you hit that part and chose the wrong option, you can always go back and check again if none of your data appears in the transfer window.

 

[sLpFhaWK]

I would recommend (essentially what you said, but using the Migration Assistant/Fresh Install):

clone current drive to external drive,
install and format new internal drive,
install fresh OS,
use Migration Assistant to transfer over data from cloned external. (It will xfer all User data, apps, some settings, and all other files on drive)

You were pretty close. You can format a drive through Apple's Disk Utility, which is on the system install disk's that came with your machine (in the Utilities menus when booted to it). So you can format/install the OS in one swoop. Would be better IMO than cloning a system a couple times and hoping it works properly. Also, when using a USB drive with the Migration Assistant, I believe it is with the "from another Drive/Volume on this Mac", as opposed to, "From another Mac", which is used when using FireWire, so don't freak out if you hit that part and chose the wrong option, you can always go back and check again if none of your data appears in the transfer window.

Thank you Madog, I will attempt this later tonight when I go into work. I have lots of down time there and a work computer I can use if I was to have any problems. By the sound of it, sounds pretty easy. So hopefully all goes well! I will keep you posted on my results. Thanks again.

 

[sLpFhaWK]

When you say Clone current drive, can I use time Machine? thats what I'm doing now to backup the data it says its an exact 1 for 1 copy of the drive. I just want to clarify that up before I switch drives. Thanks

 

[sickmacdoc]

When you say Clone current drive, can I use time Machine? thats what I'm doing now to backup the data it says its an exact 1 for 1 copy of the drive. I just want to clarify that up before I switch drives. Thanks

If I may add one thing, keep in mind that if you clone the drive to an external, using either Carbon Copy Cloner or Superduper, you have the ability to boot to the clone to test it for validity before you bother removing the drive and replacing it. Time Machine does not offer this bootability, so you just have to hope the backup is complete and has no corrupted files- something you will not have the ability to find out about until you try to restore the new drive from it. If it should not be a valid backup, you would be faced with reinstalling the original drive and trying again which although not difficult is indeed more time consuming that being able to just boot the cloned drive first to check it out, as running from the cloned drive should be identical to running from your internal drive.

On more of a personal choice level, when I do this to client laptops I prefer to just:

-clone the internal to an external
-boot to the clone and test it
-shutdown and install the new drive
-boot from the external again again and use Disk Utility on it to format the new drive
-clone again from the booted external to the new internal

which is similar to how you originally described it. That way there are no concerns about permissions getting done incorrectly by Migration Assistant (as I have experienced- seldom I grant, but it has happened which caused my procedure change) and the laptop will be guaranteed to have the same files it originally had on it and to run exactly the same as it did with the original drive.

Either way that has been described will work though- I just feel more comfortable being able to check the backup and not having to be concerned about permissions/preferences or missing files issues personally so wanted to share another take on the process.

 

[n8236]

1. Install SuperDuper on your current laptop
2. Plug in one of ur WD Mybooks to ur laptop
3. DiskUtility: partition and format the WD Mybooks using HFS+ journal
4. Use SuperDuper and clone ur hd onto MyBooks
5. Put in ur new hd into ur laptop
6. Boot off Mybooks hd
7. Run DiskUtility to partition/format ur new laptop hd
8. Run SuperDuper to clone ur MyBooks to your laptop

YAY!