Wanting to install a new hard drive in my Mac Book Pro. Will Time Machine book up the OS on my current hard drive, so that when I do the reinstall it will boot up & operate as before, or do I need to use something like SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner?
Recovery Disk Assistant installs a small version of the OS in the Recovery Drive so you can use it.
Once you boot from the Recovery Drive, you can do several things.
One option is to run Disk Utilities.
Another is Restore the entire drive (including OS) from your Time Machine backup.
Chris,
What I'm trying to achieve here is when I put the new hard drive in, I want to install a fresh copy of Lion on my computer. This seems to be such a difficult thing to do, as no discs are provided from Apple.
I'm used to just inserting the Windows disc on my PC....letting it do it's thing & then it's all finished & I have a new fresh install to start with & then I just transfer all my files over from my back up.
I had a look at "Utilities" & it seems that I can only copy an image of my current OS??
....and if I use Time Machine i will once again get a copy of my original OS??
There must be a way to have a fresh install of the OS without jumping through all these hoops. If not, Apple have surely messed this one up.
I think I'll be going to the Mac store & asking them to do this.
I think I understand the process.
My preference would be No. 2 of your solution, but the difficulty I have is where to obtain a new copy of Mac OS X.
The Apple store doesn't sel Lion. So do I need to get Mountain Lion?
If that is the way to go, when I download this new OS, can I copy that to a DVD so that I will have it in the future?
And when the download finishes, how do I store that so that I can then use it for when I install the new HD.
Sorry for jumping in here:
Which version of OS are you on?
If your Mac didn't come with disks, did it come with Lion? I'm wondering because you stated that the store doesn't sell Lion - if you purchased it, you don't need to buy it again.
I'm not sure of the process, but I believe you may have to "authenticate" or register it - I'd suggest calling Apple (take advantage of your warranty) and checking that issue since you may need that download more than once. I got a new MBP a couple of months ago; however, in my case, it was never a problem since I had purchased Lion previously, so it was already available for download (same with Mountain Lion). You need to make sure you can download it any time you need it. In the meantime, I agree with all the other suggestions; my personal preference is a bootable clone with CCC - I just had my hard drive replaced. I made a fresh up to date clone > the hard drive was replaced > I booted off the external clone, erased the emptty new hard drive (just for kicks), and then simply let CCC clone my entire system back. Booted into my internal and I was done.
I'll take your suggestion & talk to Apple about the OS.
In the meantime I'll use the Recovery Disk Assistant procedure suggested by Chris & get things up & running by using your suggestion of the CCC.
Just to avoid confusion: no recovery needed when using CCC.
Actually, I just realized that since you want to do this with an MBP, there is an easy way:
If you buy your new hard drive from OWC (macsales.com), they offer a kit (the new hard drive, an empty enclosure and a little tool kit). When you get the package, put the new hard drive in the enclosure, attach to Mac, use Disk Utility to properly format the drive (Mac OS Extended, Journaled and GUID Partition scheme under Options). Then clone your internal to the new drive with CCC. Unmount new drive, unplug, turn off Mac and new drive. Open the new enclosure and take out the new drive. Open Mac and take out old drive > install new drive. Since it's already formatted and is cloned, you should be done. Put your old drive in the enclosure and you have an instantaneous backup.
Your hidden recovery partition may disappear during all of that. No worries, once the dust has settled and you can download Lion, do so over the top of what you have - it'll restore the recovery partition.
Great idea.
I've actually ordered an OWC60 Gig SSHD & an enclosure to fit the old HD in from Macsales, it should be here in about a week...(connection via Firewire).
I understand the procedure you describe & this seems fairly straightforward.
When I take the original HD & put it into the enclosure, if I was to format the drive,Mac OS Extended, Journaled and GUID Partition scheme (1).... will that erase everything on that drive, including the recovery partition? Will it erase the OS?
I ask because I just want to end up with an external HD with only my music files on it & nothing else.
sootshe wrote:
When I take the original HD & put it into the enclosure, if I was to format the drive,Mac OS Extended, Journaled and GUID Partition scheme (1).... will that erase everything on that drive, including the recovery partition? Will it erase the OS?
Yes and yes.
When I take the original HD & put it into the enclosure, if I was to format the drive,Mac OS Extended, Journaled and GUID Partition scheme (1).... will that erase everything on that drive, including the recovery partition? Will it erase the OS?
As Chris said: Yes.
Remember to do this only after you've done everything else and have tested your new drive to make sure everything is working as it should - if something were to happen, you'd still have your clone on your old drive just in case.
Have you looked under the Purchases section? It should be listed there
I got mine last year and it is always available to download again.
Yes. But it does not replace CCC, it is an alternative to it.
Time Machine will back up the OS, but that backup needs to be restored before the computer can be booted from it. Those programs can create backups which are directly bootable.
(71563)
Kappy - "Yes. But it does not replace CCC, it is an alternative to it."
Sorry, but if they both do the same thing, why do I need to do it twice?
Yes.
(71570)
Does time machine back up the OS?
