upgrade mpb drive - old drive in external case

[4now]

Is it possible to slip my old drive that was in my MBP into an external case

and after installing a new drive

restore from the old drive.

What is the process?
And is this an easy way to have things just the way they were
without having to reinstall apps

thanks

 

[m3coolpix]

Did this in my MBP just a few months ago.

Get a SATA/USB2 drive enclosure.

Get a copy of Carbon Copy Cloner.

Put new drive in enclosure.

Format with disk utility.

Use CCC to clone MBP drive to new drive.

Swap drives and reboot.

Done.

 

[4now]

oops

so just format mac extended journalled..

 

[m3coolpix]

oops

so just format mac extended journalled..

Well, many SATA drives nowdays technically don't have to be formatted, they are ready to be partitioned with Disk Utility. Then, during the partitioning step, it'll format if it needs to (IIRC).

Carbon copy cloner will have questions/steps to get the new drive bootable.

I made sure to search for/buy a drive that others had left feedback/comments on that they successfully used it in a MBP. Newegg.com or Other World Computing are two good places to look for either Seagate or Hitachi drives.

HTH.

 

[4now]

ok so now CCC is cloning onto the new drive
partition map GUID
mac os x ext journaled

do I need to name the new drive
'MacBook Pro HD'
?