iMac 2009 snow leopard to El Capitan and new HDD. How?

Question

Level 1

0 points

iMac 2009 snow leopard to El Capitan and new HDD. How?

Hello. The hard drive on my elderly neighbours' late 2009 iMac is full. I have a new, blank one (which works with the temp sensor fan issue).

it is currently running snow leopard.

So, question is how do I proceed?

I have Made a USB installer version of El Capitan (followed apple's own instructions.)

I don't have the snow leopard DVD.

CCC then upgrade?

upgrade then CCC? (Less than 15Gb free of 500GB disc).

Clean install from the USB stick then migrate from the old disc?

clean install from USB stick then use time capsule backup to restore?

when I have done this before (twice on my own MacBook Pro) I've used the Internet recovery then time machine. Worked well both times.

Unfortunately ly this option is not available to me On an iMac with snow leopard.

I am aware that some programs will not run (office 2004 etc).

Any help gratefully received.

Posted on Feb 2, 2016 9:39 AM

Reply

Answer 1

rkaufmann87

Level 10

140,286 points

Feb 2, 2016 9:47 AM in response to stringbagmac

I would take the CCC approach. Clone the existing HD to an EHD. Then install the new HD into the computer and restart from the Clone, launch Disk Utility and format the new HD and then restore the clone to the new HD and you are done.

Reply

Answer 2

stringbagmac Author

Level 1

0 points

Feb 2, 2016 9:56 AM in response to rkaufmann87

OK, great thanks. one clone too many I think as I have an external HDD enclosure. At what point would you update the os?

Reply

Answer 3

rkaufmann87

Level 10

140,286 points

Feb 3, 2016 6:41 PM in response to stringbagmac

stringbagmac wrote:

OK, great thanks. one clone too many I think as I have an external HDD enclosure. At what point would you update the os?

After you have installed the new HD, formatted it and restored to it. Next boot the computer from the new HD and then once it's running okay then update OS X.

Reply