Put external hd inside

[Danneman101]

I'm thinking about installing Lion on an external drive to see if it's working properly (should be by now, right?), but was wondering if I can just pop it into the mac as an internal drive once I've realized it works fine?

 

[GGJstudios]

I'm thinking about installing Lion on an external drive to see if it's working properly (should be by now, right?), but was wondering if I can just pop it into the mac as an internal drive once I've realized it works fine?

Sure, as long as it fits. In fact, that's a simple way to switch drives. Clone your internal drive to an external, using Carbon Copy Cloner. Then swap the drives, so your internal drive now becomes an external drive, for backups or additional storage.

 

[Danneman101]

Sure, as long as it fits. In fact, that's a simple way to switch drives. Clone your internal drive to an external, using Carbon Copy Cloner. Then swap the drives, so your internal drive now becomes an external drive, for backups or additional storage.

That's an excellent idea - thanks a bunch for the answer and the link

 

[Fishrrman]

"I'm thinking about installing Lion on an external drive to see if it's working properly (should be by now, right?), but was wondering if I can just pop it into the mac as an internal drive once I've realized it works fine?"

If you don't already have the external drive you're going to be using, consider getting one of these gadgets instead:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=usb+sata+dock&x=0&y=0

Then, just get a "bare" drive, initialize and test it in the dock, and then "do the swap".

You can boot from the USB/SATA dock, too. Very handy device to have around.

All are USB2, but you might consider spending just a bit more for one that is USB3 (backward-compatible with USB2).