Reinstalling the OS

[chuxdaddy]

I am thinking about buy a used MacPro from mac of all trades, Apple Mac Pro Intel Xeon/2x 2.66GHz Dual-Core (4 cores) 4.0/320GB SuperDrive-DL (7300 GT 256MB) .
Leopard comes installed, and the OS disk are not included. I want to upgrade the HD to 1Tb. But since there are not disk included, here is what i think are my options.

1. back up the computer using time machine, change hard drive, then migrate from time machine drive.

2. buy new hard drive and then install snow leopard (i would buy the $129 Sl, iworks, ilife dvd).

Am I correct that both options will work?

 

[DewGuy1999]

I am thinking about buy a used MacPro from mac of all trades, Apple Mac Pro Intel Xeon/2x 2.66GHz Dual-Core (4 cores) 4.0/320GB SuperDrive-DL (7300 GT 256MB) .
Leopard comes installed, and the OS disk are not included. I want to upgrade the HD to 1Tb. But since there are not disk included, here is what i think are my options.

1. back up the computer using time machine, change hard drive, then migrate from time machine drive.

2. buy new hard drive and then install snow leopard (i would buy the $129 Sl, iworks, ilife dvd).

Am I correct that both options will work?

Option 1: I believe that a Time Machine migration requires that the OS first be installed on the hard drive.

Option 2: Should work.

Option 3: Put the new hard drive into an enclosure or dock and use Carbon Copy Cloner to make a bootable clone of the internal hard drive. Then remove the new hard drive from the enclosure/dock and install it in the Mac Pro. Put old hard drive into the enclosure/dock and you've got an external hard drive for use as a back up drive.

 

[Gramp]

I recently did Option 2 with the $29 Snow Leopard, so can confirm the box set should definitely work and be your easiest option.

Even if Time Machine was a viable option, compared to Carbon Copy Cloner, it would take longer because of unneeded overhead (i.e. somewhat overkill).

There should be no user data remaining on the reconditioned machine (hopefully), and an image of the OS and standard apps. is all you want to move over.
CCC would do that in less than 15 minutes, about the same as your box set SL install option.

I'm not a TM user, but I suspect it would take more setup work or user involvement as well as running longer to accomplish this sort of task.

 

[maflynn]

Option 1: I believe that a Time Machine migration requires that the OS first be installed on the hard drive.

No, you boot up with the system disks and select Time Machine from the tools menu. OSX will install/restore for you at that point

 

[DewGuy1999]

No, you boot up with the system disks and select Time Machine from the tools menu. OSX will install/restore for you at that point

Thanks for clarifying that. I wasn't quite sure of what Time Machine needed to restore, but I knew it was more than just the Time Machine backup. Since the OP won't be getting restore discs or OS discs then Time Machine isn't an option.

 

[maflynn]

Its great that you can, but it a TM restore is SLOOOOOWWWW. I perfer Time Machine for versioning, that is restore a document. For a system restore I use Carbon Copy Cloner. I can restore my system in about 2 hours with that.

I've used TM to restore my system from Time Capsule once and it took over 8 hours. Crazy slow 😎

 

[DewGuy1999]

Its great that you can, but it a TM restore is SLOOOOOWWWW. I perfer Time Machine for versioning, that is restore a document. For a system restore I use Carbon Copy Cloner. I can restore my system in about 2 hours with that.

I've used TM to restore my system from Time Capsule once and it took over 8 hours. Crazy slow 😎

Time Machine along with Carbon Copy Cloner sounds like a good strategy to me. I've got a 1TB LaCie D2 Quadra external hard drive on the way and when it gets here, I plan on partitioning it with 2 partitions, a 320 GB one to use for CCC and the balance to use for TM, I figure that way I've covered all my bases.