[worldwearyeyes]

I'm upgrading my macbook to a 100gb hard drive. Just wondering about easy and simple ways to transfer my data to the new drive, as well as to erase the old drive. I do have an external USB hard drive to help w/ the transfer.

Any insight or info is appreciated....thx.

matt

[uicandrew]

step 1 - use superduper to copy your original hard drive to the external usb hard drive. superduper is shareware (free, but it is a GREAT program, so consider donating) and is much better than carbon copy cloner.

step 2 - ?

step 3 - profit!

(sorry, a bit of south park humor)

real step 2 - to erase original hard drive, put the installation disc 1 (that came with your macbook) into your hard drive and restart the computer while holding down the letter "c." then select english and choose "disk utility" and then erase your hdd using that program (which is on the disc, not on the hard drive)

real step 3 - install new hard drive, but when booting for the first time, also put the installation disc 1, and reinstall Mac OS. after installation, it will ask you if you want to transfer data from another mac. have the usb external hard drive plugged in. and choose "transfer from another partition on the mac." and let it go.

there you go!

[worldwearyeyes]

Originally Posted by uicandrew 

step 1 - use superduper to copy your original hard drive to the external usb hard drive. superduper is shareware (free, but it is a GREAT program, so consider donating) and is much better than carbon copy cloner.

step 2 - ?

step 3 - profit!

(sorry, a bit of south park humor)

real step 2 - to erase original hard drive, put the installation disc 1 (that came with your macbook) into your hard drive and restart the computer while holding down the letter "c." then select english and choose "disk utility" and then erase your hdd using that program (which is on the disc, not on the hard drive)

real step 3 - install new hard drive, but when booting for the first time, also put the installation disc 1, and reinstall Mac OS. after installation, it will ask you if you want to transfer data from another mac. have the usb external hard drive plugged in. and choose "transfer from another partition on the mac." and let it go.

there you go!

Sounds like fantastic advice...exactly what I was looking for. Thanks Andrew.....matt

[windsurfer_nyc]

uh, what if you don't have an external USB drive? Is it possible to hook up a wire between the old and new drives?

[jokell82]

Originally Posted by worldwearyeyes 

Sounds like fantastic advice...exactly what I was looking for. Thanks Andrew.....matt

It's actually a lot easier than all that. Simply put the new drive in your USB enclosure and use a hard drive copying software (I prefer Carbon Copy Cloner - it's completely free and the newest beta is much better than SuperDuper) to clone your original disk to the new one. Then shut down and swap out the drives - new one in the macbook and the old one in the usb enclosure. The computer will boot off your new hard drive with no problems. Then once you're into the OS, run disk utility and format the old drive.

There's no need to ever boot off the install disc.

[ibook_steve]

Originally Posted by windsurfer_nyc 

uh, what if you don't have an external USB drive? Is it possible to hook up a wire between the old and new drives?

No. You've got to have some place to put the drive where it can be accessed. Enclosures cost less than $20 or $30 these days.

Steve