So I replaced my hard drive ... Now what? (Help!)

[Adamantoise]

I just replaced my hard drive in a 2011 Lion MBP.

I was under the impression this would have a recover over the internet deal, but now when I boot up all I see is a white screen.

Even if I performed a time machine backup of the old drive, I'm not seeing how I can get the machine to boot regardless.

Help?

 

[getz76]

I just replaced my hard drive in a 2011 Lion MBP.

I was under the impression this would have a recover over the internet deal, but now when I boot up all I see is a white screen.

Even if I performed a time machine backup of the old drive, I'm not seeing how I can get the machine to boot regardless.

Help?

The easiest way to do it is to use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone your drive. That assumes you have some type of external case or dock for one of the drives.

Do you have a 4gB thumb drive or SD Card? Then use the official Lion Recovery Disk Assistant.

 

[Adamantoise]

Thanks.

I do have an 8GB thumb drive. However, I'm not sure I follow on how to use this tool you linked me to.

Must I replace my stock drive in my machine and then install the tool prior to replacing my stock drive for the new one?

Or do I just place the .dmg on the thumb drive and boot from the thumb drive with the new drive already in the machine.

Thanks again.

 

[Sam2lucky13]

Getz you really know your stuff man..appreciate all the great info.

 

[getz76]

I do have an 8GB thumb drive. However, I'm not sure I follow on how to use this tool you linked me to.

Must I replace my stock drive in my machine and then install the tool prior to replacing my stock drive for the new one?

Or do I just place the .dmg on the thumb drive and boot from the thumb drive with the new drive already in the machine.

Yes, you need to reinstall the old drive. Run the tool. You should be good to go after that.

Anything you have on the thumb drive is going to be erased, so make sure you don't have anything important on it.

What are you planning on doing with the old drive? Do you have any documents on the old drive? Consider getting a dock or a case to use the old drive externally. If you already have one of those, you should be able to boot from the old drive; hold Option during the power-up sequence of your machine and select the USB disk to start up. I do not know if the Lion Disk Recovery Tool will work with a USB drive as the source, though.

I have carried around an 8gB SD card for reinstalls since Snow Leopard. Since you can boot from the SD card, it makes it easier than carrying around the CD in case you have an issue. And since the SD cards are dirt cheap, it isn't a bad idea.

Getz you really know your stuff man..appreciate all the great info.

No problem. I know the simple stuff. There are plenty of people on the forum that know the dirty details.

 

[Adamantoise]

Thanks man, I did as you said.

Put back the stock drive in order to create a recovery disk.
Then I took out the stock drive and put in my Momentus XT
Now I'm reinstalling Lion via the recovery disk.

For anyone reading this in the future ...

Make sure you sign in to the App Store at least once prior to doing this. It will enable you to recover your iLife applications after you reinstall Lion.

 

[Synergie]

I just upgraded to the Momentus XT myself... just yesterday. To avoid having to reinstall anything at all. I used Carbon Copy Cloner and a Hard Drive Dock (it's not really an enclosure per say) through USB.

I have to vouch for Carbon Copy Cloner as being the easiest way to upgrade your HDD! Seriously. I formatted the Momentus XT while it was in the external dock, using Disk tools, and then Carbon Copy Cloner took just over an hour to clone the whole HDD. I then just swapped them out and booted as per normal. Everything was as it was on the previous HDD. No need to reinstall anything at all!!!

The only things I did on first boot with the new HDD were SMC reset, and a PRAM reset (as suggested by someone on here) then once Lion booted, I repaired permissions.

The longest part was cloning the old HDD, which took just over an hour - the rest took maybe 10 mins to change them around and it booted as if nothing happened! (it even somehow managed to keep the state of which apps were open, and what page was loaded on Safari at the time of the clone! LOL)

BIG THUMBS up for Carbon Copy Cloner!! I'm gonna donate to the dev for making this so easy!