[macadaisical]

I have an 80 gig HD in my IMac and need more space. I have an external enclosure that I could put a new, larger hard drive on temporarily, just to copy what is on the system drive to it. Then simply put the new HD into the IMac and everything will work the same only with more free space...right? Well, that's the plan. Does anyone know if this will work or is there a better way to do it? I can't just use the external for extra space cause I use it for video.

Thanks!

[iREZ]

i dont known if this will work but its worth a shot.

replace the drives without copying anything over (ie new hard drive in imac and old hard drive in the external enclosure).

then setup the new drive in the imac by installing the os.

then when migration assistant asks if you have another mac that you want to transfer info from, hook up your external.

in theory this is probably the best way to get all your settings as was before, but ive never tried so :shrug:

[Sparksymusic]

A good way to do this is to use the free program: Carbon Copy Cloner. Use it to copy the system drive onto the new external. Install a new drive, boot from the external (assuming it is a firewire drive) and use CCC to copy back onto the new internal. You'll still have your old system drive handy as a backup too. :-) I have done this with two powerbooks without issue.

[imitchellg5]

I highly recommend Carbon Copy Cloner. I have used it with the following systems successfully: iMac G3, iMac G4, iMac G5, Power Mac G4, 2 PowerBook G4s, and 3 iBook G4s. Obviously it works great.