Q: iMac 1TB Replacement Program

I didn't say it would have the wrong files.  Do you do online banking?  Do you understand the difference between push and pull?  You can have your checking account push payments to your credit card or you can have your credit card pull the money from your checking account.

You can boot the new system and pull your files from your clone or you can boot your clone and push your files to the new system.  Neither is wrong.  I just pointed out that I don't think you need to boot the clone in order to pull the files off it (assuming it uses actual files and not containers).

Boot the machine and restore from the clone.  I think that will work.

I must disagree. I've booted from my clones and simply cloned back. I've not booted from another system and then used the clone to restore. I will try to get baltwo's attention to chime in since he is our CCC/clone guru.

Understood.  But what then is the basis for your disagreement?  You know one way works, but you admit that you have never tried the other.

Seriously folks, what harm will be done if you try and pull the files from the clone?  If it doesn't work, boot from the clone and push.  It ain't  that hard.  It's just a computer.  Isn't that what restore is all about?  You can screw up the whole thing and then recover a working system. 

There really isn't anything to argue about.  If you don't like Coke drink Pepsi, but how can you make comments about Coke if you have never tried it?

Exactly. If you have no OS, you have nothing to boot from except the clone or the install disk.  The clone will be faster. If your new drive has an OS, I think (based on real life experience) you can just restore from an external drive and pick your CCC cloned backup.

You have to remember that CCC copies files.  I have a CCC clone of an old Snow Leopard.  It has files on it that aren't on my machine.  If I want to use them, I go to that drive and double click on them and they open in the current version of the application. I don't need to restore using CCC to open a single file. That's one of the good things about CCC.  It has all your files as files, not trapped in a container.

You had it right the first time. After the tech pops in the new HD, restart, holding down the OPTION key, select the clone, boot with it, run DU to erase and format the new HD, and then restore the clone. That's what I did when mine was replaced in April. Do ensure you do this before the techie leaves. Albert's issue dealing with TM made w/Lion and then mucked up with ML caused his issues.

Are you saying that the CCC clone does not have files that can be pulled from the new system?  You did it one way, but do you know it won't work the other? Have you tried?

This issue has nothing to do with my issues with SL, L, and ML.  Can you pull or do you have to push is the issue.

Do you know that you can't pull files off of a CCC clone?

Of course the answer is that you can pull files.  Boot into your new system and then install CCC. Are you saying that CCC can't pull the files off the CCC clone drive?

I've "screwed" it up plenty of times testing. That is not the point. I have no problem with Coke vs. Pepsi. That is not the point either. You are unnecessarily confusing the issue for the OP.

Being able to clone back the entire system is precisely what a clone is for. Why try to muck it up by using a clone as a TM facsimile? And, why bother - even if it were to work - by having to pick and choose to restore when a simple click on "clone" will present you with the exact setup you had before you had the HD replaced. It doesn't make sense and will confuse people.

For the OP: you'll be fine following baltwo's suggestions.

For baltwo: thanks for jumping in and confirming so quickly.

I'm saying that although you can restore users, settings, and apps from the clone on first boot with a clean OS on the new HD, that it's slower using the Setup Assistant, that you don't know which OS is on the HD, and that it's faster and smarter erasing, reformatting the new HD, and restoring the clone. You brought up having to use the recovery option to deal with the nonsensical inability of ML to restore the Lion TM backup.

Albert Kinderman wrote:

Of course the answer is that you can pull files.  Boot into your new system and then install CCC. Are you saying that CCC can't pull the files off the CCC clone drive?

You're answer is completely wrong. CCC cannot pull files from a volume and install them onto the boot volume. It can clone a boot volume to another volume or do clone one volume to another, but no way can it pull files to the boot volume.

FWIW, I base my reply on having moderated the Bombich forums for over six years and am intimately familiar with how it works.

Albert Kinderman wrote:

Do you know that you can't pull files off of a CCC clone?

Yes, you can "pull" (copy) files off the clone to whatever drive you want. But you can't copy the OS (including all its supporting files & directories & everything else that makes it functional) from one drive to another without using special software procedures designed to keep everything properly synced & linked. That's what cloning software like CCC does.

So the fastest, simplest, most goof-proof way to restore the new drive is to clone the clone made from the old drive back to the new drive. That preserves everything: the OS, all its folders (including the hidden ones), any updates that have been installed to the OS or to apps, all the file system attributes & links, user domain stuff, preferences, etc. After this is done, the drive is in the same state as it was when you made the clone & you begin using it from that point in time, just as if you had not switched out the drive.

baltwo wrote:

You're answer is completely wrong. CCC cannot pull files from a volume and install them onto the boot volume.

My mistake. You are right with respect to system files, but it can pull other files and install them on a boot volume, or so the help says.

"Restoring non-system files

...

If you choose your startup disk as the destination volume, CCC will impose a protective filter on system files and folders. It wouldn't be a good idea to overwrite or delete system files on the OS that you're booted from, so this isn't something that CCC will allow. "

Also, the help also mentions using setup assistant and migration assistant in the case of changing the OS.

"Your new Macintosh cannot boot from the older version and build of Mac OS X that is installed on your older Mac, so simply cloning your old Mac onto your new Mac won't work. Due to this limitation, we recommend that you use the Setup Assistant application (runs on your Mac's very first boot) or the Migration Assistant application to migrate content from your old Mac to a new Macintosh. "

The origins of this "debate" were the statements that you had to boot from the cloned drive and that Setup Assistant wouldn't work.   My understanding of your earlier reply is that you agree that Setup Assistant would work, but that it is not as clean nor as fast as booting from the clone.   I can accept that, having no direct experience; the only reason I entered this part of the thread was the statement that you had to boot from the clone.