copying from dying hard drives

[dee gee]

so..as a follow up to an earlier post, just bought a HDD because my La Cie basically warned me it is dying. Can i simply hook the USBs into macbook pro 13 and drag and drop from one to the other?
Thanks in advance

 

[gsahli]

Make sure you format it first. But ya, you can drag and drop or use some copying program, like carbon copy cloner.

 

[RadDave]

so..as a follow up to an earlier post, just bought a HDD because my La Cie basically warned me it is dying. Can i simply hook the USBs into macbook pro 13 and drag and drop from one to the other?
Thanks in advance

Hello - you might want to tell us 'what' you are putting on the new HD? If a Time Machine backup, then take a look at Apple's Guidelines; if just files, such as docs, pics, music, then drag and drop should work depending on how these may be organized on your computer. Good luck - Dave

 

[dee gee]

thanks. i do not see the need to back up Time Machine, so just text, docs, vids and music…thank you.

 

[dee gee]

..sorry but am not sure what you mean by format it first….

 

[RadDave]

thanks. i do not see the need to back up Time Machine, so just text, docs, vids and music…thank you.

Well, if you're not using a program that may need special formatting, then for the needs above, a simple 'drag & drop' should work for you.

..sorry but am not sure what you mean by format it first….

Quoted below is a 'simplified' listing of some of the main drive formatting options - your 'new' drive may already come formatted, likely as FAT 32, but you can easily reformat to another option, such as Mac OS Extended if you plan to use the drive only in an Apple environment. Dave

Hard Drive File Systems

HFS+ (Hierarchical File System), a.k.a. Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
File system used by Mac OS and needed for Time Machine
Windows requires additional software to use the Mac OS

NTFS (Windows NT File System)
Read/Write NTFS from native Windows
Read only NTFS from native Mac OS X
OS X needs additional software for interaction

FAT32 (File Allocation Table)
Read/Write FAT32 from both native Windows and native Mac OS
Maximum file size: 4GB
You can use this format if you share the drive between Mac OS X and Windows computers and have no files larger than 4GB