what to do BEFORE replacing hard drive...

Question

Level 1

7 points

what to do BEFORE replacing hard drive...

Ok so I received my brand new hard drive for my MacBook Pro in my signature. Im going to a 500G instead of 120G. I received the DIY kit from OWC so I have the USB enclosure. I plan on cloning my currant hard drive then transferring. I do not need to know physically how to change the hard drive. I have all the videos and stuff for that. I need to know what to do BEFORE I dive into the inner working of my computer.

I have another external drive that I want to Un-partition (how would I do that? ) Its partition right now between my clone and backup. I just want to use that external drive for my backup as it doesnt have enough room right now for both. I want to use my OLD drive for my clone now.

Back up? format the new drive (how do I do that?) ,clone?

Please provide step by steps on what to do before I put the new drive in the computer. Thanks!

Message was edited by: ame8199

Macbook Pro 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, Mac OS X (10.6.6), Iphone 4 16g

Posted on Feb 8, 2011 4:06 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Feb 8, 2011 8:40 PM in response to ame8199

To unpartition a drive you would use Disk Utility.

If you select the drive name, in my case 55.11 GB Seagate, then select Partition in DU menu you have 2 choices.
a. Select the 2nd partition and click on the - below it. This will erase this partition and I think you can then drag the bottom RH corner of the 1st to contain the whole disk space. This should leave the 1st partition contents intact.

b. Under Volume scheme select the pop-up and 1 partition. This possibly erases the whole drive though I'm not sure about this.

If it doesn't matter if the contents on the external drive are lost then either process should be fine. If you want to save the contents of either or both partitions then it would be best to back them up in some way.

If you intend abandoning what's on the external & doing a new backup then I would choose option b.

The only remaining thing to remember is to use the Options to choose the correct format to match your computer - probably GUID (for an intel machine).

There is nothing else to do on the external.

On the MBP I would use DU to do Repair permissions, and again to Verify disk. If any errors show up in the Verify Disk then you will need to insert your original installation disk and restart holding the c-key until the grey Apple logo appears, select that OS and proceed to the 1st window that has a top menu. Under Tools select DU and do a Repair disk Repeat this until no further errors are found.

This process ensures the integrity of the files in your backup that you will use for restoration on the new internal hd.

I think this should ensure a safe transition!

Neville

Reply

Answer 2

Feb 9, 2011 11:38 AM in response to ame8199

Both OWC and ifixit.com have very detailed instructions for assembly.disassembly, and for formatting drives.

You need to make the decision of whether to make a bootable backup of your existing system, then restore the brand new drive with it.

OR, you might want to think of installing OS X fresh on the new drive, and use Migration Assistant to restore User Accounts and Settings and Documents - and then just re-install apps that you really use. For me, this was an attractive option. Although it took more time to dig up registration numbers for my purchased software, my system sure has a lot less clutter and crud on it than it would if I had simply restored all the original drive's stuff to it.

Reply