[brokenpinky]

Hi,

I was going to buy a new MBP very soon, and wanted to do so without the hassle of having to get my system back up to where it currently is. I've got so much stuff exactly where i want it, including stuff in bootcamp, etc.

I need to know if its at all possible to just make an exact duplicate of my current drive and just wipe the drive of the new MPB and just do like a restore and have it be up and running, with all my old settings?

I've looked at CCC and SuperDuper and i still dont know if they are just backup solutions or actually do what i need... but I'm leaning towards having someone give me an experience on if doing that is totally possible, or would it not work at all (ie some vital files aren't copyable or ...)?

thanks

[silver]

I've made multiple bootable Hard Drives (Internal/External) using CCC. Copies either all your data or just what you want. I do this for a bootable back up on an external drive.

Another tool you'll need to get the job done is winclone, here. Very cool tool for us bootcamp users.

You might even be able to use Disk Utility to do the whole thing, but I haven't gotten around to seeing if it'll work.

Anyway when you get your computer:

1. Connect a firewire cable from one computer to the other and restart new computer holding the t on your keyboard. You'll see a firewire icon moving on the screen eventually. (Target Disc Mode).

2. Launch Disk Utility on your old system and select your new computers Hard Drive in the side panel (other computers drives should just mount while in Target Disk Mode).

3. Create the partitions as you see fit.

4. Clone your old OS X system into one of the newly created partitions (I use CCC).

5. Clone your old XP or Vista to the other newly made partition using winclone.

6. After all that's done, unplug firewire cable and reboot new computer.

7. Marvel at your new cloning abilities.


Hope that helps.

[brokenpinky]

wow cool, sounds super simple, and i didn't know about winclone - just the type of advice i needed!

[analogika]

Use Winclone for the Windows partition - great tip btw!

But for the Mac, just use the Setup Assistant.

When you get a new machine, the first thing it asks you (after what language you want to work in) is whether you have an old Mac you want to transfer data from. Which you do.

It'll then tell you all you need to know - including the bit about restarting the old machine holding down the "T" key and connecting them via Firewire cable.

This will keep all your settings, data, passwords, applications, and user structure.

I would advise AGAINST cloning the disk to the new machine, because if it's a brand new MacBook Pro (e.g. if you wait for the new models), it may depend on new system libraries or such that aren't installed on your old machine yet until a later update.

Also, you didn't specify what machine you're coming from. If you're still on a PowerPC machine, for example, cloning the drive to the MBP is guaranteed to NOT WORK AT ALL.

Or if you're still on Tiger, there is no way the next model MacBook Pro will still boot from a cloned disk - it will most certainly require a new build of Leopard.

[silver]

Yes, I forgot mention that. Like analogika said, if your moving from PPC to Intel then there will be problems.

So if your moving from an Intel to Intel then either the steps I posted earlier will work or use analogika's method to get your old OS X set up onto the new machine. The only thing is with both methods you'll still have to make the partition for XP or Vista.

Another thing to consider is, is your XP or Vista disk NTFS or FAT32? This is pretty big as if your existing Windows install is FAT32 then all is good as OS X's disk utility can create FAT32 partitions and you can winclone to that. But if it's NTFS then the only way to get your new partition to NTFS is to let the Windows install disk create one for you, then you can use winclone.

I know it can sound a bit confusing, but In the end you'll find this to quite a easy task.


Cheers