joey_turbo

iTrader: (26)

I want to swap out the 250gb HDD in my Imac for a 1TB. I have the OSX install disc, but there are too many other programs I want to keep that I don't have discs for. So I want to clone it, then put the image on the 1TB.

So first off, can it be done?

Secondly, I have access to my PC, with a few spare SATA ports. Is it worth putting them both in the PC, and cloning that way?

Or...
Should I back up onto an external USB HDD, swap out the drives, then restore onto the 1TB?

I know the 1st way should be faster, with the SATA speeds being better than USB. But, the second option can be done with Mac software, and the 1st will have to be done in windows.

Any advice with links to free software up to the job?

Thanks in advance.

Ant

I'd do it under time machine and surprisingly it shouldn't take long.

I did it this way when swapping my 250gb for a 640gb

Windows might have a hissy fit viewing the mac HDD.

BuRR

Carbon copy cloner. It's free.

If you can, stick the 1TB drive in a 2.5" caddy and format it using disk utility. Make sure it's bootable by choosing the top option in the drive options dialogue.

Clone your drive, then swap them over.

Easy

joey_turbo

iTrader: (26)

Thanks, will give those options a try.

Although the 1TB is gonna be a 3.5" and I don't have a caddy for that. But I do have a 2.5" 250GB external. So if I do go the carbon copy route, could I back up onto the external via USB, install the new 1TB and boot from the USB, then clone on to the 1TB thats now installed?

Markus

There are various ways you can do this, depends on what you have at hand.

1. Time Machine - If you use TM to back up your machine then you could ensure it's up to date, swap the drives around, boot from your OS X install DVD and then use the Restore from TM Backup option.
Major thing to note here is that you MUST have an OS X install DVD whose version matches the current version of OS X you are running. So if your machine came with 10.5 and you're now 10.6, you WILL need the 10.6 retail DVD. If you don't then TM won't restore from the 10.5 DVD

2. Carbon Copy Cloner

3. Retrospect Backup - This is what I used when I went from the original drive to a 500GB drive. It's a little more complex, as you need another drive in the mix. What I did was to backup using retrospect to an external drive which had a bootable partition on it and retrospect installed. I then swapped the drive, booted from my external, fired up retrospect and got it to restore the backup onto the internal drive, once done I rebooted from the internal drive and all was well.

Markus

If the USB drive is bootable AND has CCC on it, then in theory, yes, you should be able to do that.

BuRR

Sorry - for some reason I thought you were using a laptop.... the 3.5" disk should have no difference to the 2.5" .... the same principle applies.

As per Markus' post..... I can concur with all. Another option is SuperDuper, but you'll have to pay for that

joey_turbo

iTrader: (26)

Thanks again for the help.

It looks like the Time Machine would be best.
So I'll be backing it up to an external, via USB, using TM.
Then installing the new HDD.
Booting from the OSX disc, which is the same version as the OS on there now.
Then restore using TM.

That seems easy enough.

Thanks

Ant

Yup that's all that needs to be done