What should I use to transfer my HD to a new SSD?

LDP


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I recently bought a refurbished MacBook Pro with OSX Lion. I was going to buy an SSD drive from Crucial but discovered that the software they provide to transfer the contents of my old HD is not actually available for MacBooks. I scoured YouTube but the tutorials there all show using some sort of software and a dongle to transfer the contents. When my Mac Mini's HD failed I did something of the sort to restore it but I can't find the directions I used then. There was something about a hidden partition of the HD that I was able to use. So I'm at a loss. Any assistance would be appreciated.

EDIT: after I posted this I found links to answers to basically the same question at the bottom of the page and some helpful information about writing posts: apologies for the confused message above. It looks like it will cost more than the price of the new SSD drive. I decided to save the idea for later and just enjoy by new 2011 MacBook Pro the way Apple made it. For a while anyway. After 25 years on Windows my Mac Mini was a treasure but I've never had a real Mac until now, not one that was all Apple clear through, and I'm very happy with what I have.
 
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G'day nd welcome to the forums.

If you wish to go the SSD way, review downloads available from manufacturers. In my Mac Pro days used OWC SSDs and their advice at that time was never clone from a platter to an SSD. Use the system discs or the USB thumb drive you used to make a copy of downloaded operating system, format and install and then connect old drive up via external caddy and use Migration Assistant.
 
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MacBook A1181 C2D 2.1ghz, 1 gb, 120gb SSD OSX 10.6.8 iPhone 5c 16gb IOS 8.1.3
Ssd

I just recently got a SSD for my MacBook with 10.6.8 and it had a SATA drive in it. I merely went to disk utility and while having my SSD in a USB drive case I did a single partition, erased and ran restore of the OS to the new drive. I then shut down and switched drives. I have stored my SATA drive as a back up and I am now running on the SSD. It is faster than the old one and my MacBook never missed a beat on the switch. Opinions may vary on this topic, but that worked for me.
 
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I've cloned a couple of platters to SSDs without issue. Maybe I'm just lucky!
 

chscag

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I've cloned a couple of platters to SSDs without issue. Maybe I'm just lucky!

Today's SSD drives are not like the older models. The OWC SSDs for example, do not require TRIM and as far as I could tell, they no longer state that you shouldn't clone from a platter drive to a SSD. I just wish prices would come down a bit faster.
 
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I'm a fan of clean installing the OS from media, and then doing a migration with the old drive attached with a USB>SATA cable.
 
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Charlie you been sayin' that now for years lol. The old economic issue of supply and demand will keep 'em high. With Mavericks, Yosemite and Windows 10, folk are trying to get more speed into their machines and an SSD is the first step.
 
M

MacInWin

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Yeah, Charlie, it's like waiting until you can afford it to have children. Ain't never gonna get there, son. Just pull the trigger and go for it!
 

chscag

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I'm currently in the market for a portable computer to supplement the iMac I have here in our home office. It will definitely have a decent sized SSD. I just 5 minutes ago scanned thru the Apple refurbished store. I did find one 11" MBA with a 512 GB drive and 8 GB of memory but the price is still a bit high. Still thinking and looking.
 
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Today's SSD drives are not like the older models. The OWC SSDs for example, do not require TRIM and as far as I could tell, they no longer state that you shouldn't clone from a platter drive to a SSD. I just wish prices would come down a bit faster.

Both of the SSDs that I have are OWC ones... So there we go!

I'd like their prices to come down too! I'd love to put one into my PC.
 

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