Upgrade Hard Drive / Backup in 2008 Macbook

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Hi, I have a 13" black Macbook I purchased in summer 2008.

I bought a new hard drive to give myself some more room and clean things up. Here is what I want to do:

My Mac is starting to slow down a bit because the hard drive is failing and I probably downloaded a lot of crap I shouldn't have over the years. How can I make it so that when my new hard drive is installed with my operating system, it is "fresh" and doesn't have all the crap on it... but at the same time I don't want to lose all the stuff I have on my computer now?

The best way to compare it(I'm not that knowledgeable with macs) is if I had a PC and installed a new hard drive with a new operating system. Then I "copy and pasted" over my old hard drive onto the new hard drive, so that if I wanted to, I could dig through the old hard drive if I had to find some music, a picture, document, or whatever, but none of the stuff would actually be "installed" on it... does that make sense?

Any thoughts? Am I over thinking this? What kind of tools/programs will I need... anything I can do for free?

THanks!

alexdude777
 

chscag

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For free? How about Time Machine? Backup your old hard drive less any of the stuff on there you don't want. Or, if you buy a new hard drive that can hold more data, just backup everything.

Install the new hard drive, format it with Disk Utility from your original OS X DVD. During the process of installing OS X to your new drive you'll be asked if you want to restore from a Time Machine backup or use the Migration Assistant. Select TM and make sure the external drive is attached. Time Machine will restore everything to your new drive, applications, settings, music, photos, and so forth. You should be good to go.
 
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Gotcha...so when I am using my Macbook from my new drive, it won't be "junked up" from backing up my current drive?

The new HDD I have is an internal one...how do I connect it to my computer to do such a thing, like a USB cable? Do internal HDDs have USB slots...or in order to do that would it need to be an external hard drive with like a casing and what not?

Thank you so much!
 
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Another way you can do it is to install the fresh OSX onto your new hard drive then purchase a HDD enclosure and use your old HDD as a portable back up. Doing so, you will have a freshly installed system and will be able to plug in your old HDD and get whatever you choose off it, selectively. I picked up a HDD enclosure at a local store for only $19.99.
 
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^ I did just that! I'm impressed I managed to not break anything while installing all of the stuff. So here I am, on a fresh boot...everything is so clean and fresh again.

So any recommendations on which/what hard drive enclosure and cable to buy for my old hard drive, so I can transfer over my files?

Thanks so much!
 

chscag

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Check out what the folks at Mac Sales have: Here is the LINK. They also sell a universal adapter which is even better than a hard drive enclosure.
 
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^ I did just that! I'm impressed I managed to not break anything while installing all of the stuff. So here I am, on a fresh boot...everything is so clean and fresh again.

So any recommendations on which/what hard drive enclosure and cable to buy for my old hard drive, so I can transfer over my files?

Thanks so much!

Any 2.5" HDD Enclosure will work. You can also use the universal adapter as said above, I have both.

Here are the links to what I purchased. (You only need one or the other).

The Universal Adapter
NewerTech U3NVSPATA Universal Drive Adapter USB... in stock at OWC

The external HDD enclosure
FRYS.com | ACOMDATA
 
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Great!

Well just checking best buy and the likes the cheapest ones they have are like $60 so screw that. I will check around for cheaper ones in the area but if I have to get it online I have to get it online.

Sorry for all the questions(I suck at computers) but I am almost ready for my decision...

What are the advantages of the universal adapter as opposed to the cheaper(19.99) acomdata one?

Is it worth the extra $10 generally speaking?

All I want to do is copy data from my old drive onto my new one, at least the important stuff, and that's it I will probably never use the drive again because it is already failing. but I guess I could keep my enclosure and always put a brand new, nice drive inside of it...what do yall think?

Thank you!

Alex
 
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