Use Disk Utility to clone HD to new larger drive?

[mateus]

I know this has been asked a billion times but with every new release of OSX the best practiced solution seems to differ. And there are all sorts for differing suggestions on the net.

It's the usual story, I have an old MacBook Pro with a full 130GB drive which I’m going to replace with a 500GB Hitachi Travelstar.

I think I have three options:

• Use my Time Machine drive to restore the Mac data (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1177) and WinClone to restore BootCamp data.

• Use Disk Utility from the install CD to simply clone one drive to another (http://www.macinstruct.com/node/147) via a USB-SATA cable and resize the new drive’s partitions to 500GB once complete (will this work?)

• Simply reinstall everything from scratch.

I’m going to try Disk Utility because I need my Boot Camp (for .NET programming) unless anyone has any other suggestions. I realise this might take a week to copy 130GB via USB to the new drive but I’m not in a rush.

Thanks for your advice.

 

[gullySn0wCat]

Just use CCC and you will be fine AFAIK.

http://www.bombich.com/

 

[DoFoT9]

I’m going to try Disk Utility because I need my Boot Camp (for .NET programming) unless anyone has any other suggestions. I realise this might take a week to copy 130GB via USB to the new drive but I’m not in a rush.

Thanks for your advice.

in all honesty, i would use Time Machine for OSX (because it reinstalls the system components of the OS, thus making it that tiny bit fresher) and then use a free program called WinClone for the Windows partition.

CCC would work though.

 

[mateus]

Just use CCC and you will be fine AFAIK.

Thanks for the info on CCC however, according to their FAQ, CCC does not support Boot Camp. But I could use WinClone for that.

i would use Time Machine for OSX (because it reinstalls the system components of the OS, thus making it that tiny bit fresher) and then use a free program called WinClone for the Windows partition.

And this is the suggested route from Apple Support.

I'll experiment and let you know what worked best.

 

[DoFoT9]

And this is the suggested route from Apple Support.

I'll experiment and let you know what worked best.

wonderful, please do - i have actually never done this type of upgrade before on a personal machine. so keep us informed!

 

[mateus]

Just found this helpful article http://www.cultofmac.com/how-and-why-to-clone-your-mac-hard-drive-macrx/48861 that covers both Disk Utility and CCC.

 

[mateus]

I said I'd let you know how I got on, so here I am writing on my upgraded MBP.

The process was relatively easy. I used Disk Utility and a borrowed SATA to USB cable to 'restore' the OSX and Windows partitions to the new drive, only took about 4 hours (was expecting it to take all day). Then I whipped opened my MPB and swapped the drives. Booted up it up and it worked!

The only problem I had was Disk Utility messed up the Windows partition and I had to use the Windows XP CD to run an installation repair. I should have used WinClone for the Windows partition but a part from this issue, the whole process was fairly quick and painless.

The MBP is noticeable faster (as the HD now runs at 7,200rpm).

 

[msavwah]

How's battery life, any change?

 

[mateus]

How's battery life, any change?

Too earlier to tell but I'm expecting battery life to drop. However there's an article on Toms Hardware that shows Hitachi 7,200 laptop drives to be less power hungry than many others. The drive is also very quite.