Easier to clone my HD...or use Time Machine??

Hey all....I can get a good price on a Seagate 500GB HD. Question is to those more experienced, would it be easier for me to run SuperDuper and clone my HD that way.....or would it be easier to install the OS on the new HD external, install it in my Macbook and transfer my files and backups from Time Machine....or am i confused as a new user? lol....thanks alll


Ohhhhh, 1 more thing. Is it possible to bump myself from 4gb of RAM to 6GB of RAM? I can get a good deal on a 2GB stick as well and bump from 4 to 6

BTW this is all on my new Macbook 6,1 PolyCarb uMB

Thanks Mac'sters!

Assuming that the Seagate is an internal drive, what you could do is buy an enclosure similar to this one and pop your new (blank) drive into it. Plug it in to your MB, clone your current drive to the new one using CCC or SD. Then when you swap drives, everything is already on there and you're ready to run.

Not sure about the RAM question, but you can wait for someone else to chime in or Google it.

Definately easiest to clone the drive and then swap them over.

Ohhhhh, 1 more thing. Is it possible to bump myself from 4gb of RAM to 6GB of RAM? I can get a good deal on a 2GB stick as well and bump from 4 to 6

BTW this is all on my new Macbook 6,1 PolyCarb uMB

Click to expand...

According to Mactracker you can bump your memory up to 6 Gb. That would mean 1 x 2 Gb module + 1 x 4 Gb module = 6 Gb.

Not sure you need all that memory but if you can get it discounted and it's good memory, why not?

Regards.

MYmacROX said:

Assuming that the Seagate is an internal drive, what you could do is buy an enclosure similar to this one and pop your new (blank) drive into it. Plug it in to your MB, clone your current drive to the new one using CCC or SD. Then when you swap drives, everything is already on there and you're ready to run.

Click to expand...

Not to doubt you MYmacROX, but how accurate is cloning the drive by doing it the way you described while doing this in regular operational mode in OSX?
I guess I'm still used to the Windoze way of either going SAFE mode or DOS mode for cloning/back up regular files and system files. Has anyone verified that CCC or SD is acccurate in cloning another HD? I guess I am paranoid about HD failure and want the best method for backup.
Thanks in advance.

I have used Carbon Copy Cloner, Disk Utility, and Super Duper to clone drives without issue. I do suggest that when the clone is finished you attempt to boot from it just to make sure that it is bootable. Of all the clones I have made I had one that did not boot properly. But that is one failure against I don't know how many successes.

The other suggestion that I would make is to make sure you are using a current version of whichever program you choose. From time to time there are changes to the underlying structure of OS X that older utilities (including cloning programs) do not manage properly.