Changing to external drive

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Level 1

15 points

Changing to external drive

I have a 1 TB external drive hooked up to my Intel iMac and have been using it for a while as my Time Machine backup drive. Recently, my iMac's internal drive started going bonkers and eventually died. I have a new external drive coming that I want to use in place of the internal.

So my question is this, what would be the proper way to restore all my files from the Time Machine backup drive to the new external?

Should I boot using the Snow Leopard disk and choose the Restore from TM option or use Migration Assistant instead?

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

iMac Intel C2D 2.4 GHz 3Gigs, Mac OS X (10.6.2)

Posted on Dec 5, 2009 7:32 AM

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Answer 1

V.K.

Level 9

56,174 points

Dec 5, 2009 8:27 AM in response to Craig Gee

Craig Gee wrote:
I have a 1 TB external drive hooked up to my Intel iMac and have been using it for a while as my Time Machine backup drive. Recently, my iMac's internal drive started going bonkers and eventually died. I have a new external drive coming that I want to use in place of the internal.

So my question is this, what would be the proper way to restore all my files from the Time Machine backup drive to the new external?

Should I boot using the Snow Leopard disk and choose the Restore from TM option or use Migration Assistant instead?

the first option is better in this spot as it will give you the exact copy of your old system and Migration Assistant won't. make sure the new drive is formatted correctly before restoring. it should be formatted mac os extended journaled and have GUID partition scheme. you can reformat it if necessary using disk utility on the install DVD before doing the full restore.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

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Answer 2

AxL

Level 6

11,435 points

Dec 5, 2009 8:28 AM in response to Craig Gee

If I were you, I'd start from the Snow Leopard full-install DVD, and go on for a fresh install of SL on the new external drive. At some point, installation asks about Restore from a TM backup: choose this.

Now will you be able to start your iMac since its internal drive is dead, I don't know?

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Answer 3

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

Dec 5, 2009 8:35 AM in response to Craig Gee

V.K. is correct; the full restore is probably best.

One caution: are you certain your new drive is bootable? Most are, some aren't. If it's a Western Digital, post back.

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Answer 4

Craig Gee Author

Level 1

15 points

Dec 5, 2009 10:48 AM in response to Craig Gee

Thanks for the info. The new drive is an OWC 500 GB. It is pre-formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled) with GUID partition. I also double checked it with Disk Utility to be sure.

I have an 80 GB external with Snow Leopard that I boot from just in case something like this happens. That's what I'm using now to access my mail and these boards.

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