Carbon Copy Cloner question - new HDD

I'll be getting a new HDD for Xmas and will use Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) to transfer the stuff from my current HD to the new one. I realize an HD enclosure would be the easiest way to do this, but I'm trying to avoid buying one. What I do have is an external hard drive with enough free space to copy my current HD onto it.

1. I currently have lots of pictures/videos on the external hard drive. Can I use CCC to clone my current HD to my external HD without affecting these files? Likewise, will I be able to transfer the cloned HD from the external the new internal HD without affecting the pre-existing files?

2. When I first insert the new internal HD, nothing will be installed on it. Will I need to format it before I transfer the cloned HD on my external to the new internal HD?

3. Since I will not have an OS installed on the new internal HD, will it even be possible to use CCC to transfer the cloned HD from the external to the new internal? I read in another thread somewhere the suggestion to "just open CCC on the computer and transfer the cloned hard drive over," but without an OS installed it seems this would be difficult.


TIA

*EDIT: I just had an epiphany. If I have cloned my hard drive onto the external, I should be able to boot from the cloned copy on the external, right? If I can do that, then I should be able to open the CCC that is on the external and select the internal as the destination drive when I reclone the clone. Is it this simple? If so, my only question is how to you boot from the external??

1. No. CCC requires that the drive be formatted to HFS+ Journaled, GUID. If you have to format the drive, that will destroy everything and if the drive is already formatted to HFS+, CCC will overwrite the data that's already on it. Use a clean drive.

2. To be safe, yes, first format the drive as HFS+ Journaled, GUID. Then boot from the external drive and use CCC to clone from the external to the internal. I believe you don't have to format the new drive first but I did anyway to be on the safe side. (Use your install DVD to format.)

3. You don't have to worry about the OS being installed on the new drive since you'll be booting from the external and cloning to the internal - which will make an exact copy of everything including the OS on the internal.

chscag said:

1. No. CCC requires that the drive be formatted to HFS+ Journaled, GUID. If you have to format the drive, that will destroy everything and if the drive is already formatted to HFS+, CCC will overwrite the data that's already on it. Use a clean drive.

2. To be safe, yes, first format the drive as HFS+ Journaled, GUID. Then boot from the external drive and use CCC to clone from the external to the internal. I believe you don't have to format the new drive first but I did anyway to be on the safe side. (Use your install DVD to format.)

3. You don't have to worry about the OS being installed on the new drive since you'll be booting from the external and cloning to the internal - which will make an exact copy of everything including the OS on the internal.

Click to expand...

Meh...I guess I'll just get the enclosure then. I've got about 200 GB of stuff on the external and I have nowhere to put it. I assume I'll still need to format the new HD when it's in the enclosure before I clone my current HD to it. Can you point me in the right direction to see how to format it??

Thanks a ton for your help.

Put the new hard drive in the enclosure and attach it via USB to your machine. Make sure it mounts on your desktop. Then open Disk Utility from Applications, Utilities. Highlight the drive on the left (top entry) and click on the line that shows the capacity.

Click erase at the top of the screen. Select the format: Mac OS Extended Journaled. Change the name of the HD to "MacIntosh HD". Click erase at the bottom of the screen, then click erase again on the second window.

It may take a few minutes for the procedure depending on the capacity of the drive. You're done.

You da man, chscag.

I'm sure this type stuff is asked a lot. Thanks for taking the time to help me out. I think I'm going to set aside a partition to install windows. I've already found a few youtube videos showing how to partition, so I guess I'll be able to handle it.

If you decide to install Windows later on, be sure to use the Boot Camp Assistant utility to do the partitioning and installing. Print out the Boot Camp instructions and have them before you while you work. Have fun and let us know.

You may also need to partition the drive, even if only a single partition is created, and when in Partition, select Options and set map as GUID.

if they say exact,

wouldn't it mean i can actually then use the CCC clone as my main HD? if say they present one got damaged.. i don't lose anything at all?

oddly my CCC clone and my HD in my mac are of slightly different sizes.. wonder why..