Best way to transfer to a new internal HDD?

Since your boot drive is failing, the data on it could be corrupted, so I recommend you only transfer personal file folders of Music, Pic's Doc's etc to a external storage drive, disconnect.

Install 10.6 fresh on the new drive, same name for user, software update fully, install all 10.6 programs as possible, then hook up the storage drive and transfer files back vetting them in the process for corruption.

No TimeMachine or Carbon Copy Cloner restores

Most commonly used backup methods

How to erase and install Snow Leopard 10.6

http://eshop.macsales.com/installvideos/

If your boot drive was working fine and you just needed a larger/faster one, then I would recommend a TM or bootable clone restore as it's automated.

Use Carbon Copy Cloner (free) and a blank external drive, you can then hold option key and boot off of it and reverse clone onto the new drive easy as pie.

If you have Bootcamp, use WinClone for that to another drive, then CCC OS X back first, reboot OS X and create the BootCamp partition, and then use Winclone again to bring Windows back, revalidate with Redmond.

Done. 🙂

Anthony Pucca wrote:

If I'm cloning, does it matter that the new drive is bigger than the original? (250GB vs. 1TB)

Nope. 🙂

Anthony Pucca wrote:

Also- not clear on the need for an external drive since I'm upgrading a Mac Pro (desktop) with an additional internal drive as opposed to a MacBook Pro where I could see an external is necessary... ?

MacPro internal drive to internal drive clone is fine.

We get a lot saying "MacPro", when they mean MacBook Pro, adn MacBook when they mean MacBook Pro. 🙂

You can do a full system restore from your Time Machine backups to any drive/partition that's formatted for a Mac. See Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #14 for details and instructions.

If you suspect damaged/corrupted files were backed-up, you might want to pick an earlier backup to restore, rather than the latest one.

Yes, as noted in step (h), it will be renamed.

It's a good idea (for you) to change it, but OSX doesn't use the name to keep track of a drive, so you can have two volumes with the same name, or rename them when desired, without causing a problem. It uses the UUID (Universally Unique IDentifier) instead.

Hi there Im having similar problems and wondered if you could offer some advice.

My MBP drive got full so I replaced it with a 750GB drive cloned using CCC then, once completed inserted into the MBP.

All good so far but then re-ran Time Machine and after awhile realised TM was deleting old backups even though there is 250GB spare capacity on the external back up drive.

The new drive is named exactly the same name as the old one and I had assumed TM would simply continue to add new backups as it has done before.

I have lost nearly two years of backups so far but dont want to lose anymore.

Any clues how to continue using TM without losing further backups very much apprecaited.

thanks and regards

Andy Nicholls wrote:

. . .

The new drive is named exactly the same name as the old one and I had assumed TM would simply continue to add new backups as it has done before.

It's a new, different drive, even if it has the same name, so Time Machine will do a full backup of it.

(Every drive has a UUID -- Universally Unique IDentifier, that's only changed when you format or erase it. That's what OSX uses to identify a drive, not the name. That's how you can change the name of a drive, or have two with the same name, without causing havoc.)

If you'd done a full system restore with Time Machine, instead of the clone, that should have left a "trail" so the next backup would have known what happened, and automatically "associated" the new drive with the old drive's backups.

You've posted in the Snow Leopard forum, so I'll assume that's what you're running -- if so, there's nothing you can do now.

If you've upgraded to Lion, however, you may be able to manually do the "association," per #B6 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.

I have lost nearly two years of backups so far but dont want to lose anymore.

I hope you've not been deleting things from your internal HD to save space, counting on Time Machine to keep the backups indefinitely. If so, that's very dangerous -- see Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question#20 for an explanation.

Your only other option is to get a new backup drive and let Time Machine start fresh on it. You can always see and restore from the old ones, via the Browse... option, per FAQ #17.

Dear Pondini

Thanks for your prompt and informative reply.

It's a new, different drive, even if it has the same name, so Time Machine will do a full backup of it.

(Every drive has a UUID -- Universally Unique IDentifier, that's only changed when you format or erase it. That's what OSX uses to identify a drive, not the name. That's how you can change the name of a drive, or have two with the same name, without causing havoc.)

This makes sense although I didnt know this!

If you'd done a full system restore with Time Machine, instead of the clone, that should have left a "trail" so the next backup would have known what happened, and automatically "associated" the new drive with the old drive's backups.

I did spend a lot of time on the forums researching the best methods for doing a drive replacement and there seemed to be a consensus that the clone was more accurate than the system restore with TM, so for better or worse this I what I did.😟

You've posted in the Snow Leopard forum, so I'll assume that's what you're running -- if so, there's nothing you can do now.

If you've upgraded to Lion, however, you may be able to manually do the "association," per #B6 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.

Yes, I'm running 10.6.8, is there really know way the surviving back ups are useful in snow leopard now? I didn't have plans to upgrade just yet.

I hope you've not been deleting things from your internal HD to save space, counting on Time Machine to keep the backups indefinitely. If so, that's very dangerous -- see Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question#20 for an explanation.

No I would never do this, everything on the Macbook Pro is kept and daily backups kept so I have everything pics, music etc all on the newly installed HD plus the back up. I am overdue on this having not backed up since the new drive was installed two weeks ago.

Your only other option is to get a new backup drive and let Time Machine start fresh on it. You can always see and restore from the old ones, via the Browse... option, per FAQ #17.

Is this my best option, to start a new back up and if so could this be done on my current back up drive? Its capacity is 500GB and I have 250GB of data.

Is one back up sufficient if all your data is also on your computer?

Many thanks once again for your help.

regards

Andy

Andy Nicholls wrote:

. . .

Yes, I'm running 10.6.8, is there really know way the surviving back ups are useful in snow leopard now?

Your backups are certainly useful; it's just that you can't make Time Machine treat the backups of the old drive as if they'd been done from the new one. So it will continue to delete old backups until it makes enough room for a new, full backup (plus about 20%).

Is this my best option, to start a new back up and if so could this be done on my current back up drive? Its capacity is 500GB and I have 250GB of data.

No, you can't do it on the same drive (unless you erase it). We already know there isn't enough room on the drive for a new backup. It varies widely depending on how you use your Mac, but usually, Time Machine needs 2-3 times the space as the data it's backing-up.

Is one back up sufficient if all your data is also on your computer?

Most experienced users say no. All hardware fails, sometimes sooner, sometimes later, and no backup app is perfect. It doesn't happen often, but there are a number of posts here where a full restore was needed, and the backup drive failed, or the backups were hopelessly corrupted, and everything was lost.

What I'd suggest is, get a larger drive for Time Machine. Since you now have a 750 GB internal drive, odds are you'll put a lot more data on it, so will need a larger drive anyway. If you want, you can copy the (remaining) backups from the existing drive to the new one, then select the new one for use with TM and continue backing-up to it. See Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #18 for detailed instructions (you'll need section 1 under How to).

And note that you'll need the procedure in #E3 of Time Machine - Troubleshooting to view and restore from the backups of the old drive.

Once you're sure everything copied properly, and you don't need the old backups any more, erase it and start making regular backups to it via CarbonCopyCloner. That will be fine until you get to about 480 to 490 GB on the new internal HD.

Great that sounds like good advice.

Thanks for your help, very much appreciated!

cheers from London

Andy