Backing up HD's to swap

[celtictricky]

Hi All,

I'm just about to take the plunge and by a bigger HD for my Macbook. Just one question, I really do not want to go through the pain of re-installing everything, so is there a way to clone the current disk 100% and move it onto the new disk etc?

Thanks - your wise guidance in this matter will be much appreciated

 

[visualpurple]

1. buy a 2.5" SATA external HD enclosure

2. put the new HD in the enclosure

3. use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the old HD to the new one (don't worry if it doesn't seem like it's working, it takes a long time to complete)

4. boot from the external HD to make sure it's working

5. take out the old internal HD and install the new one (make sure you have a Torx T8 screwdriver; you can buy them at Radio Shack)

6. in system preferences, set the boot drive to the new internal HD

7. repair permissions, etc.

8. put the old HD in the enclosure and you have a nice portable external HD. You can format it if you want, or leave it as a bootable backup disk.

you're good to go. very easy to do, once the cloning process is done, it takes 10 minutes to swap out the old HD.

 

[celtictricky]

Wow - That seems simple

Any advice on HD's at all? Looking for 160 as a min size.

 

[cwa107]

Wow - That seems simple

Any advice on HD's at all? Looking for 160 as a min size.

You can buy a cheaper adapter like this one that allows you to hook up any hard drive via USB. This is a very worthwhile tool that comes in very handy if you have multiple computers.

I recommend Seagate drives (they make a 160GB for about $150) because they have a 5 year warranty.

 

[visualpurple]

I have a Western Digital 160GB ($115 CDN) that has performed well for the 2 months I've had it in there.

 

[celtictricky]

like this one

http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/108779

 

[crazy8dude11268]

hey guys, i too would like to upgrade my HDD from the stock 80 to possibly around 160 *seeing to the fact i only have 12 gigs left* but my main concern is that it is going to void my warranty....i was under the impression anything replaceable yourself *easily that is i.e. ram/hdd in macbook* would NOT void your warranty, has anyone had any problems from apple with this?

The only reason i ask is because i had to ship my macbook out once for a screen issue *still unresolved unfortunatly* and when i had originally purchased the macbook they shipped my mac with 1gb of ram instead of the 512 i had paid for and it says it has underneath the battery. Well when i was experiencing problems with my screen they told me it could be because i installed my ram and i said NO WAY! thats Apple ram....they took it out and apparantly it was so no more questions were asked...

BUT the point is....if anything else happens are they going to say they wont cover the repair because the HDD is not theirs?

Thanks