Replacing HDD, what is needed

[InvalidUserID]

Hi all.

I'm looking to replace the HDD in my sister's late 2006 Macbook. Her existing 80GB is almost full with less than 1GB free space remaining. I'm looking at replacing it with a Seagate 7200.3.

Physically replacing the drive is fine but what do I need in order to copy everything over to the new HDD? I know I could just use the boot disk that came with her Macbook (which was Tiger, if I'm not mistaken) but I have a lot of programs that she's installed that she apparently lost the install discs for, such as Leopard.

If it makes any difference, she does have Time Machine back-ups along with a 1TB external to use, if needed.

Thanks!

 

[Buskape]

Just back up everything with Time Machine on your external drive, and when you get the new hard drive, restore, and... magic! Everything works like before.

 

[InvalidUserID]

Just back up everything with Time Machine on your external drive, and when you get the new hard drive, restore, and... magic! Everything works like before.

Really? That easy?

Just install the new hard drive, use the Tiger boot-disc, and then use time machine and thats it?

I didn't think Time Machine would be able to copy everything EVERYTHING (such as switch the OS from Tiger to Leopard) but I guess I'm pleasantly surprised.

 

[GfulDedFan]

Really? That easy?

Just install the new hard drive, use the Tiger boot-disc, and then use time machine and thats it?

I think I feel a snag so someone correct me if I'm wrong. I think that it needs to be a Leopard install disk to perform this restore and not a Tiger one.

If indeed I'm correct, all is not lost because there is another method:

You can clone the old drive to the external drive or to the new drive* in an enclosure using SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner. Once done, check to make sure that the cloned external is bootable by restarting your MacBook with the external attached and hold the option key as it boots to select the external as the boot-up drive. Once booted, make sure that everything works just as your internal does. Next, if you used the new drive in an enclosure, just switch the drives. If you used your external drive (the 1TB) for the clone, put the new drive in, again boot from the external as above, format the drive for Mac OS Extended (Journaled) with a GUID partition table, and the clone the external to the newly installed formated drive.

I personally like to skip the double cloning step by using the new drive in an enclosure.

* Once the new drive is in the enclosure, you will have to format the drive as described above before you clone to it.

Hope this makes and it helps -GDF

 

[InvalidUserID]

Thanks GDF!

Bought a $10 enclosure on the way home and will swap them out later today.

 

[TheSpecialist08]

Be sure to have a #00 phillips and T6 torx screwdriver handy as well! Here is an awesome video from OWC that'll guide you through every step:

How to install new HD

 

[Chase R]

I bet if someone were to search "replace HDD" or "replace hard drive"... it would come up with 300+ results telling one what is needed to do so.

Anyone wanna put five on it?

 

[Cave Man]

Bought a $10 enclosure on the way home and will swap them out later today.

Here's what I recommend:
1. Put the new drive in the enclosure (SATA interface) and mount it on your GF's Mac.
2. Open Disk Utility and select the drive (not any partition that would be indented and below the drive) and click on the Partition tab. Set a one partition from the pull-down, choose Options and set to GUID (necessary for booting Intel Macs) and initialize the drive.
3. Use the free Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the internal drive to the newly initialized external drive (will take an hour or two).
4. After cloning is complete, reboot while holding the Option key until presented with bootable volumes. Select the new drive to ensure your cloning was successful. If so, then swap out the drives.

I bet if someone were to search "replace HDD" or "replace hard drive"... it would come up with 300+ results telling one what is needed to do so.

Anyone wanna put five on it?

And 80% would make no mention of setting the drive to GUID partition table.

 

[InvalidUserID]

Followed the instructions and everything went fine: new HDD is in, computer boots up fine.

Only question I have is that when starting up now, textedit automatically opens a "CodeDirectory" file that reads:

a bunch of letters I tried to copy and paste that aren't showing up plus "Pcom.apple.iokit.IOSCSIFamily..."