Questions about cloning

[Ambrosia7177]

I have a MBP 9.2 with Mountain Lion and a 750GB HDD. I just bought two 1TB HDDs, and would like to install one and use the other for backups. I currently have CCC on my 750GB HDD in my MBP.

Some questions...

1.) Can I clone my current 750GB HDD and install it on the new 1TB HDD?

2.) What steps would I need to take to go from my current 750GB HDD to having my MBP have one 1TB drive in it with a cloned copy of what I currently have, plus having a clone of the first 1TB HDD on the second 1TB HDD?

Hope that makes sense!

Sincerely,


Larry

 

[BrianBaughn]

Larry,

If I follow correctly you just need to clone the 750GB twice, once each to the new 1TB drives. Then swap out the 750GB drive in your MBP with one or the other of the 1TB drives.

If you have Microsoft Office 2011 on there be prepared to have to re-authorize it as the app detects the new hard drive and considers it the equivalent of a different computer. That's the only major app I know of that puts us through that.

Gotta say here, though, that you should seriously consider an SSD. If space and cost is an issue, and you don't really use the optical CD/DVD drive anymore, think about putting the 1TB in its place.

 

[Ambrosia7177]

Larry,

If I follow correctly you just need to clone the 750GB twice, once each to the new 1TB drives. Then swap out the 750GB drive in your MBP with one or the other of the 1TB drives.

If you have Microsoft Office 2011 on there be prepared to have to re-authorize it as the app detects the new hard drive and considers it the equivalent of a different computer. That's the only major app I know of that puts us through that.

Gotta say here, though, that you should seriously consider an SSD. If space and cost is an issue, and you don't really use the optical CD/DVD drive anymore, think about putting the 1TB in its place.

Um, you didn't answer my question...

 

[BrianBaughn]

Um, you didn't answer my question...

Then it would seem I didn't understand the question.

 

[tjwilliams25]

From what I can tell, all you would have to do is clone your current drive onto the 1TB and then install it into the MBP. If you want to use the other TB drive for backups, you have a couple options. You can choose to do another clone, which would basically be a snapshot in time of your current system, without any new info added to it unless you clone it again. You could also set up a Time Machine backup with the spare drive, if you have an external enclosure for it that is, which would keep the most up-to-date backup. The only caveat with Time Machine is you can't just install the drive if the current one fails, you need to get a new drive to restore the backup information to. Another option, which is kind of what it sounds like you're asking, is a RAID setup. Again, provided you have an external enclosure for the drive, the RAID option would keep an up-to-date, exact copy of your drive that, were your current drive to fail, you could install it as if nothing had happened.

I'm not sure if I'm in the ballpark of what you're asking either, but hopefully this helps.

 

[Ambrosia7177]

From what I can tell, all you would have to do is clone your current drive onto the 1TB and then install it into the MBP. If you want to use the other TB drive for backups, you have a couple options. You can choose to do another clone, which would basically be a snapshot in time of your current system, without any new info added to it unless you clone it again. You could also set up a Time Machine backup with the spare drive, if you have an external enclosure for it that is, which would keep the most up-to-date backup. The only caveat with Time Machine is you can't just install the drive if the current one fails, you need to get a new drive to restore the backup information to. Another option, which is kind of what it sounds like you're asking, is a RAID setup. Again, provided you have an external enclosure for the drive, the RAID option would keep an up-to-date, exact copy of your drive that, were your current drive to fail, you could install it as if nothing had happened.

I'm not sure if I'm in the ballpark of what you're asking either, but hopefully this helps.

My main concern is how to you clone a 750GB HDD and install that clone on a 1TB HDD. The clone is supposed to be a bit-by-bit snapshot of your entire HDD, so I am afraid it won't install onto a larger HDD...

 

[tjwilliams25]

My main concern is how to you clone a 750GB HDD and install that clone on a 1TB HDD. The clone is supposed to be a bit-by-bit snapshot of your entire HDD, so I am afraid it won't install onto a larger HDD...

You are correct, it does clone every bit of information. However, it will put it on any size drive that is greater than or equal to the amount of information that is being cloned. So, if you're using a 750 GB drive and it only has 320 GB of information on it, it will only clone the 320 GB of data. It won't take up all 750 GB as most of it is blank space.

 

[CoastalOR]

OP:
Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) is my favorite cloning software. It will also ask/clone the Recovery Partition for you (Super Duper does not). It has a fully functional 30 day trial.
Here is link to CCCs Manual in pdf format:
http://ae06f32475c7e9beef85-9203f41...ault/files/bulk_pdf/ccc4-documentation-en.pdf

 

[Weaselboy]

My main concern is how to you clone a 750GB HDD and install that clone on a 1TB HDD. The clone is supposed to be a bit-by-bit snapshot of your entire HDD, so I am afraid it won't install onto a larger HDD...

If you use CCC, it will work just fine. CCC actually is not a block level clone in the sense you are describing. CCC just copies all the files from one drive to another.

What you may have read that caused you this concern is Disk Utility actually is a clone in the sense you described and it cannot be used to restore a 1TB drive to a 750GB drive for example, even if the 1TB drive only contains say 350GB of data. But CCC does not have this restriction.

 

[DeltaMac]

But, OP is doing the opposite - cloning a 750GB boot volume to 1GTB drive. That will work fine, and you will end up having the extra space on the 1TB (not a 750GB partition) on the clone.

 

[Weaselboy]

But, OP is doing the opposite - cloning a 750GB boot volume to 1GTB drive. That will work fine, and you will end up having the extra space on the 1TB (not a 750GB partition) on the clone.

I understand that, I was just explaining the difference between a true block by block clone and a file copy, and what OP may have read elsewhere that caused the confusion.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP wrote above:
"My main concern is how to you clone a 750GB HDD and install that clone on a 1TB HDD. The clone is supposed to be a bit-by-bit snapshot of your entire HDD, so I am afraid it won't install onto a larger HDD..."

This has no basis in what will happen.

Just use a cloning app like CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper to clone the drive.
The apps are smart enough to know what to do.

What you're trying to do is so simple, I can't understand why you haven't tried it yet.

 

[Ambrosia7177]

OP:
Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) is my favorite cloning software. It will also ask/clone the Recovery Partition for you (Super Duper does not). It has a fully functional 30 day trial.
Here is link to CCCs Manual in pdf format:
http://ae06f32475c7e9beef85-9203f41...ault/files/bulk_pdf/ccc4-documentation-en.pdf

Yes, I have CCC, but when I used it in the past I had the same size HDDs and I guess I never pid attention to if it would work in a situation like I have now.
[doublepost=1455383765][/doublepost]

I understand that, I was just explaining the difference between a true block by block clone and a file copy, and what OP may have read elsewhere that caused the confusion.

So CCC uses the file copy approach, right? Is that as good as a true block by block clone? (The former certainly seems more flexible.)

 

[Weaselboy]

So CCC uses the file copy approach, right? Is that as good as a true block by block clone? (The former certainly seems more flexible.)

Correct... for your purposes there is no benefit to a block by block clone. Just fire up CCC with the default settings and pick the source and destination and have at it.

 

[Ambrosia7177]

Correct... for your purposes there is no benefit to a block by block clone. Just fire up CCC with the default settings and pick the source and destination and have at it.

I haven't used CCC in about 3-4 years so anything I knew is ancient history.

Won't I have to format my new 1TB HDD first?

If so, how do I format it?

Do I make one large 1TB partition on it?

I think that was part of my confusion in my OP... Do I format the 1TB HDD with a 750GB partition or do I do something else?

 

[Weaselboy]

I haven't used CCC in about 3-4 years so anything I knew is ancient history.

Won't I have to format my new 1TB HDD first?

If so, how do I format it?

Do I make one large 1TB partition on it?

I think that was part of my confusion in my OP... Do I format the 1TB HDD with a 750GB partition or do I do something else?

Yes, you will need to format the new drive. Just attach it then open Disk Utility and go to the Erase tab. Then select the new drive in the left column. Now select Mac OS Extended (Journaled) in the dropdown then apply that format. That will format the to one partition filling the entire disk.

 

[Ambrosia7177]

Yes, you will need to format the new drive. Just attach it then open Disk Utility and go to the Erase tab. Then select the new drive in the left column. Now select Mac OS Extended (Journaled) in the dropdown then apply that format. That will format the to one partition filling the entire disk.

If I make one large 1TB partition, then use CC to clone my 750GB partition onto the 1TB partition, then my new HDD will behave just like I am on my current computer, but I will have access to that extra 250GB, right?

I guess I don't understand how CCC works. I thought it did a bit-by-bit copy almost like painting a picture, and that is why I wasn't sure if it would work on a different sized HDD. Almost like when you take a picture of one dimension and then publish it (incorrectly) on a webpage of a different dimension - you get a picture that is stretched and distorted.

Someone above mention file copying, so maybe CCC is more like a fancy copy and paste application? And that is why it will allow me to clone a smaller drive onto a larger drive and have everything be the same (e.g. OS settings, App settings, Programs, OS patches, documents, pictures, etc) while still not breaking on the larger HDD size?

Sincerely,


Larry

 

[CoastalOR]

If I make one large 1TB partition, then use CC to clone my 750GB partition onto the 1TB partition, then my new HDD will behave just like I am on my current computer, but I will have access to that extra 250GB, right?

Yes, you will have access to the additional 250 Gb.

I guess I don't understand how CCC works. I thought it did a bit-by-bit copy almost like painting a picture, and that is why I wasn't sure if it would work on a different sized HDD.
Someone above mention file copying, so maybe CCC is more like a fancy copy and paste application? And that is why it will allow me to clone a smaller drive onto a larger drive and have everything be the same (e.g. OS settings, App settings, Programs, OS patches, documents, pictures, etc) while still not breaking on the larger HDD size?
Sincerely,
Larry

See my Post #8 for the link to the CCC manual pdf. Use the link and spend a little time reading about CCC to refresh your memory. BTW, the manual is for CCC v4 which is the current version.

 

[Weaselboy]

If I make one large 1TB partition, then use CC to clone my 750GB partition onto the 1TB partition, then my new HDD will behave just like I am on my current computer, but I will have access to that extra 250GB, right?

Exactly... like CoastalOR said. It will just copy all the files over and you will have no issues.

The difference between just doing a copy and paste is that would not copy over all hidden and system files, where CCC will. So once you copy everything over to the new drive with CCC then boot to the new drive, everything will look and operate exactly the same.

The only issue you may have is some apps, notable MS Office and Adobe apps, will require you to reenter your registration information because the apps detect you are on new hardware.