I have a mid 2010 17" macbook pro i am replacing the HD with an SSD. Can I use my WD external HD that I back up with to transfer or do I need the get the cabling for my old HD ?
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Replacing Hard Drive?
- Thread starter Lightnin Rick
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You can yes as long as you use a suitable app (time machine or Carbon copy cloner) to get a complete copy with recovery partitions etc.
I would advise that you buy either:
- an external 2.5" USB3 enclosure, or
- a USB3/SATA "docking station", or
- a USB3/SATA "dongle" adapater
Once you have one of these, along with the SSD, do this:
1. Put the new SSD into the external enclosure/dock/dongle
2. Connect it to the MacBook
3. Initialize the SSD using Disk Utility
4. Download CarbonCopyCloner if you don't already have it
(CCC is FREE to download and FREE to use for 30 days)
5. Use CCC to "clone" the contents of your internal drive to the SSD (CCC will also clone the recovery partition)
6. Once the clone is complete, power all the way down (leave external SSD connected)
7. Reboot and hold down the option key until the Startup Manager appears.
8. Select the SSD with the pointer and hit return
You should now boot from the external SSD.
Do you get "a good boot"?
If so, power down and "do the drive swap".
Do it this way, and you "prep and test" the SSD while you still have a bootable MacBook.
Things can get painful if you've already swapped the drive, and then can't get a good boot.
You can use the enclosure for the original internal HDD when done.
- an external 2.5" USB3 enclosure, or
- a USB3/SATA "docking station", or
- a USB3/SATA "dongle" adapater
Once you have one of these, along with the SSD, do this:
1. Put the new SSD into the external enclosure/dock/dongle
2. Connect it to the MacBook
3. Initialize the SSD using Disk Utility
4. Download CarbonCopyCloner if you don't already have it
(CCC is FREE to download and FREE to use for 30 days)
5. Use CCC to "clone" the contents of your internal drive to the SSD (CCC will also clone the recovery partition)
6. Once the clone is complete, power all the way down (leave external SSD connected)
7. Reboot and hold down the option key until the Startup Manager appears.
8. Select the SSD with the pointer and hit return
You should now boot from the external SSD.
Do you get "a good boot"?
If so, power down and "do the drive swap".
Do it this way, and you "prep and test" the SSD while you still have a bootable MacBook.
Things can get painful if you've already swapped the drive, and then can't get a good boot.
You can use the enclosure for the original internal HDD when done.
That will work fine. Install the SSD then option key boot to the TM disk. You will see a recovery screen where you can sue Disk Utility to erase the new drive to Mac OS Extended (Journaled)... then quit Disk Util and click restore and wait for the restore.
Once the restore is done shutdown and disconnect the TM disk then startup. Once it starts to to System Preferences and in the Startup Disk pane select the new drive as the boot disk.
"You will see a recovery screen where you can sue Disk Utility to erase the new drive to Mac OS Extended (Journaled)... then quit Disk Util and click restore and wait for the restore."
Hmmm... dunno. Since Lion 10.7.2 if you make a Time Machine backup it will put a copy of the recovery partition on the backup drive. Do you know if the recovery partition was present on the old drive?