Switching and transferring internal HD

[Sup3rknova]

Whats up yall...ok a while back my internal HD was failing so i bought i new bigger HD. Had it installed but i did not transfer over everything from the old one. I now have new downloads, programs etc on this new one. My question is, I bought a kit to transfer items from my old one. Having never done it, when i transfer them over or "clone it" as some suggested, will it erase everything i have on this new one? Whats the best way to do it? Im running 10.6.6 iMac5,1 Intel Core 2 Duo

 

[bmcgonag]

Whats up yall...ok a while back my internal HD was failing so i bought i new bigger HD. Had it installed but i did not transfer over everything from the old one. I now have new downloads, programs etc on this new one. My question is, I bought a kit to transfer items from my old one. Having never done it, when i transfer them over or "clone it" as some suggested, will it erase everything i have on this new one? Whats the best way to do it? Im running 10.6.6 iMac5,1 Intel Core 2 Duo

A full clone will definitely erase what's on the new HDD...you could use Diskutility to partitioin the internal drive into 2 partitions, and clone the old drive to the second partition. Just be careful as you could also wipe your drive during partitioning.

If there are just certain things you want off the old drive, just copy them over manually. Particularly if they are mostly in your Home Folder, etc.

If it's more to move Applications over, you might want to just re-download them from the company and try to find your license keys as needed.

You could try migration assistant as well to move some of the old files over.

It will often move over your apps as well.

 

[Sup3rknova]

A full clone will definitely erase what's on the new HDD...you could use Diskutility to partitioin the internal drive into 2 partitions, and clone the old drive to the second partition. Just be careful as you could also wipe your drive during partitioning.

If there are just certain things you want off the old drive, just copy them over manually. Particularly if they are mostly in your Home Folder, etc.

If it's more to move Applications over, you might want to just re-download them from the company and try to find your license keys as needed.

You could try migration assistant as well to move some of the old files over.

It will often move over your apps as well.

Basiclly I just want to move over my itunes library, all my iphoto library (and the app) some other apps and a bunch of my kids movies i either downloaded or ripped.

 

[sarge]

whenever I swap HD's I usually:

-Make a bootable clone using Carbon Copy Cloner and then test to make sure I can boot from the clone (Option-Command-Shift-Delete)
-Perform a clean install of the OS and all the programs
-Fire up the OS on the new HD - OSX Migration Assistant should prompt you to ask if you want to move files from another compute. Assuming you have the clone drive connected OSX should automatically import all the user account info, including iphoto, itunes, etc. for you.
-Perform software updates
-Repair permissions

 

[Sup3rknova]

whenever I swap HD's I usually:

-Make a bootable clone using Carbon Copy Cloner and then test to make sure I can boot from the clone (Option-Command-Shift-Delete)
-Perform a clean install of the OS and all the programs
-Fire up the OS on the new HD - OSX Migration Assistant should prompt you to ask if you want to move files from another compute. Assuming you have the clone drive connected OSX should automatically import all the user account info, including iphoto, itunes, etc. for you.
-Perform software updates
-Repair permissions

Thanks, that sounds like alot though. When I plug in the old HD cant I just drag everything over? iphoto, itunes, apps, etc...

 

[Sup3rknova]

So I transferred stuff over using migration asssistant last night. took a little less than an hour. But when I click on the files it says I dont have permission. Also, the apps I transferred over (iphoto for example) said I couldnt run it on the version i have. any help is appreciated. I dont have too many things on this new HD (all replaceable) so I suppose I could do a fresh install of OSX and then transfer it over?

 

[bmcgonag]

I've run into this permissions issue as well using migration assistant.

Did you do the fresh install, then run migration assistant during setup? I've had better luck doing that.

There are some posts about repairing your /Applications folder permission issues using the command line.

You should be able to copy photos, iTunes library etc over just copying...but iPhoto uses an Installer so it may not just copy directly. There are other files that go elsewhere on the system I imagine. That's why migration assistant is better.