Simple (hopefully) MBP HDD replacement question

[FTE]

Planning to swap out the 250gb drive in my 08 MBP for the Western 640. I've seen these posts: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/836253/ and https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=8964720 and have the ifixit guide.

I plan to go to Snow Leopard at the same time, and do that as a clean install on the new drive.

Here's the question: Can I simply pop the old drive into an external case and use the migration feature during the Snow Leopard install to load my new drive off the old?

(Yes, definitely plan to back up the old drive before starting.)

 

[mbburn]

I would just use Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper to make a clone of your current drive, unless you're having some problem. Just make sure you properly format the drive beforehand.

 

[rgarjr]

Just backup your current drive in Time Machine to an external drive. Then just re-install OSX and use the migration feature to restore, what ever you choose to restore.

 

[FTE]

Thanks everyone. As someone with a relatively low-level tech aptitude, I've got this follow on question:

Beyond backing up the files, what's the advantage of cloning the existing drive to a second drive over simply putting the removed drive (it's in okay shape, just upping capacity with the new drive) into an external case and migrating from that?

 

[rgarjr]

Less work, that's the advantage.