Worried about 'carbon-copying' Mac OS from HDD->SSD

[chuckflip53]

I'm about to buy a new SSD for my MPB but am not sure about whether I should perform a clean install on my new HDD or just copy over my existing OS/programs.

My MBP currently has the Mac OS + Bootcamp Win7 but I only want to copy over my Mac OS partition along with most (but not all) of its programs.

The issue is, I'm afraid my current Mac OS is fragmented - which is why I want to perform a clean install on the SSD - though that would be such a hassle to reinstall all the updates, reinstall settings, etc...

I'm a noob at this but do the programs that clone hard drives have 'smart' options when copying over an OS? Also, do they allow me to select which programs to copy? (I don't want to copy over some apps).

Thanks.

 

[lgwells1]

With CCC you can select which apps you wish to sync. Or you can take an external HDD and use time machine to back up your computer, it won't back up the OS just the files, apps and etc. Fresh install your OS on the SSD, then use time machine again to recover your backup from the external drive. You cannot pick and choose with time machine. It is all or nothing, sorry.

 

[robgendreau]

I wouldn't recover from the backup, I'd migrate from it. There's a big difference. Ditto with cloning.

Since you're starting with a blank disk and a WORKING backup I'd install the system software on the SSD and then when Setup Ass't fires up I'd point to the old system/backup and migrate what you want from it.

And that would probably be the quickest. Cloning copies everything in exactly the same state and you really don't need to be that fussy.

Rob

 

[chuckflip53]

I wouldn't recover from the backup, I'd migrate from it. There's a big difference. Ditto with cloning.

Since you're starting with a blank disk and a WORKING backup I'd install the system software on the SSD and then when Setup Ass't fires up I'd point to the old system/backup and migrate what you want from it.

And that would probably be the quickest. Cloning copies everything in exactly the same state and you really don't need to be that fussy.

Rob

Ok, so perform a clean install of the OS on the SSD and then migrate my apps from my HDD to the new SSD OS (which is a built-in function of OSX?)

 

[Medic278]

I did a clean install of Lion when I upgraded to an SSD and it was pretty seamless, plus getting my apps back wasn't hard as I could either redownload them from the Mac App store or transfer them from my old HDD thats not in an external enclosure.

 

[chuckflip53]

I did a clean install of Lion when I upgraded to an SSD and it was pretty seamless, plus getting my apps back wasn't hard as I could either redownload them from the Mac App store or transfer them from my old HDD thats not in an external enclosure.

do you mean when you transferred your apps from your old HDD, you put it in an external enclosure and then connected it to your laptop via usb?

 

[Medic278]

Correct I found that it was the easiest way that I was able to find its nice and easy just drag and drop.

 

[Agent-P]

Just to throw in another perspective, I actually did copy my OSX install using CCC when I added a SSD to my system. I haven't had any issues thus far by doing this. I considered a clean install, but I was feeling too lazy

 

[theSeb]

Just to throw in another perspective, I actually did copy my OSX install using CCC when I added a SSD to my system. I haven't had any issues thus far by doing this. I considered a clean install, but I was feeling too lazy

Yep. I did the same thing. By the way, op, if your hard drive is fragmented it won't make any difference since a tool like carbon copy cloner will write sequentially to your ssd and it won't be fragmented. Unless you mean something else by fragmented.

 

[scmarcos]

In term of system speed, does the clean install add something against CCC?

 

[Agent-P]

In term of system speed, does the clean install add something against CCC?

Not particularly. The only difference will be that you'll get a "fresh from the box" experience rather than being able to pick up your system exactly how it was. The speed benefits only come if you have bogged down your system with tons of stuff. If you're aware of what you install, then it shouldn't matter if you do a full CCC transfer rather than clean install.