Restoring time machine backup on a blank harddrive

[redryder]

Hi guys.

I have a question about upgrading the harddisk on my unibody macbook (last year's model).

I have done a time machine backup and the macbook is running snow leopard. However, I currently don't have the snow leopard DVD with me, only the leopard DVD that came with the macbook. Can I still do the hard disk upgrade?

In other words, can I boot with the leopard DVD, and restore back to snow leopard via time machine or do I need the snow leopard dvd?

 

[BlueRevolution]

You'd need the Snow Leopard DVD, or you can clone the hard drive with Carbon Copy Cloner instead.

 

[redryder]

You'd need the Snow Leopard DVD, or you can clone the hard drive with Carbon Copy Cloner instead.

Thanks, but I’m still a bit confused.

When I buy a new 2.5” harddrive to install in the macbook, it doesn't come with any USB enclosure. There’s only a SATA interface. How do I clone my existing harddrive onto the new one?

Is there some kind of SATA-USB cable I have to purchase?

 

[SaSaSushi]

Thanks, but I’m still a bit confused.

When I buy a new 2.5” harddrive to install in the macbook, it doesn't come with any USB enclosure. There’s only a SATA interface. How do I clone my existing harddrive onto the new one?

Is there some kind of SATA-USB cable I have to purchase?

To clone the system you will obviously need an external HD or an enclosure to put the new HD in.

If you do clone to an external HD then yes, you can use the Leopard DVD to install to the new HD and then restore the cloned system from the external HD and you would be back to Snow Leopard again.

If you were to put your newly purchased HD into an enclosure and clone the system to it then all you'd have to do is install it in the Macbook and it should work fine.

 

[BlueRevolution]

If you do clone to an external HD then yes, you can use the Leopard DVD to install to the new HD and then restore the cloned system from the external HD and you would be back to Snow Leopard again.

This won't work. You can't clone an image over the system you're using, but you can reboot to the old hard drive, now in an external enclosure, and clone from there onto the new one. There's no need to use the Leopard disks at all.

Alternatively, as I somewhat obliquely suggested earlier, you can erase your Time Machine drive and clone onto there, replace the hard drive, restart to the Time Machine drive, and clone back. If you do it that way, you won't have to worry about getting a 2.5" SATA enclosure just to transfer files.

 

[SaSaSushi]

This won't work. You can't clone an image over the system you're using, but you can reboot to the old hard drive, now in an external enclosure, and clone from there onto the new one. There's no need to use the Leopard disks at all.

Wow, major brain lapse there, thanks for the correction. D'oh! Yes, obviously the main thing is you have to boot to the external HD in order to clone back to the new HD.

 

[redryder]

Alternatively, as I somewhat obliquely suggested earlier, you can erase your Time Machine drive and clone onto there, replace the hard drive, restart to the Time Machine drive, and clone back. If you do it that way, you won't have to worry about getting a 2.5" SATA enclosure just to transfer files.

Please bear with me, I'm still confused

1) Lets see if I understand this. I erase my Time Machine backup, and clone my current harddrive onto the external USB (where my time machine used to be).

2) I then remove my current drive, and install a blank 500GB drive in the macbook.

3) How do I boot off the external USB drive? Won't I need a DVD to boot off?

4) After booting off the external USB, how do I clone back the contents onto the internal 500GB drive? Would I be able to run Carbon Copy Cloner from the External USB that I booted off from?

 

[BlueRevolution]

1) Lets see if I understand this. I erase my Time Machine backup, and clone my current harddrive onto the external USB (where my time machine used to be).

Yes.

2) I then remove my current drive, and install a blank 500GB drive in the macbook.

Right.

3) How do I boot off the external USB drive? Won't I need a DVD to boot off?

No. If you hold the option key on startup, you will be allowed to choose which drive to boot from. This includes any bootable external hard drives you may have, which Carbon Copy Cloner will turn your Time Machine drive into.

4) After booting off the external USB, how do I clone back the contents onto the internal 500GB drive? Would I be able to run Carbon Copy Cloner from the External USB that I booted off from?

You've got it.

 

[redryder]

Many thanks! You guys are great!

 

[redryder]

Sigh, ran into problems trying to partition the external USB before cloning.

Carbon copy cloner warned me to first partition my external USB drive to GUID so that it would be bootable. Unfortunately, Disk Utility refused to partition the disk. I keep getting partition failed error message.

Nothing wrong with the disk. I can partition and format it fine on my windows machine.

 

[SaSaSushi]

Carbon copy cloner warned me to first partition my external USB drive to GUID so that it would be bootable. Unfortunately, Disk Utility refused to partition the disk. I keep getting partition failed error message.

Is that the extent of the error message, just "Partition failed"?

Will Disk Utility allow you to erase the drive?

 

[redryder]

Posix reports: The operation couldn't be completed. Cannot allocate memory.

 

[SaSaSushi]

Posix reports: The operation couldn't be completed. Cannot allocate memory.

Have a look at this article at MacFixit to see if it might help you out.