Upgrading to SSD 2010 15" Macbook Pro

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Level 1

4 points

Upgrading to SSD 2010 15" Macbook Pro

I just ordered a 500GB Samsung 850 Evo to replace my 500GB HDD. I ordered an enclosure for the transfer. My question is whether I should clone my HD or do a fresh install and migrate files later. My computer isn't extremely slow of anything but I would like a fresh start. I've installed a lot of junk and mac cleaners over the years. I have a 1TB external drive I keep backed up with time machine, I could use this to keep documents, pictures, iTunes library etc. stored for later transfer. Do you think this is my best route or should I just clone it? If cloning is the best route what software is best? If a clean install is best which route is best for transferring files? I'm sure this issue has been brought up a lot of times and I've seen a lot of solutions but would like one specific to my situation. Also since I will be using USB 2.0 should I try to delete large movie files etc, before the transfer? Thank you SO much!

Posted on Feb 5, 2018 10:04 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Grant Bennet-Alder

Level 10

140,831 points

Feb 11, 2018 11:31 AM in response to Bryan4747

I differ from most of the other responders here in that I am not bothered by the "extra step" of Installing a fresh copy of MacOS when changing drives. Since this also a common debugging step when you have problems, I do not see it as much of an annoyance. In fact, in my opinion, it is superior.

I recommend you leave the old drive in place, and install the new Drive in an external enclosure while you install MacOS from scratch.

The first time you start up your Mac after a new install, you will enter Setup Assistant. in Setup Assistant, if you have the old drive connected, you can ask Setup Assistant to copy over any of:

•Users
•Applications
•Settings
•Other Files and Folders

The source can be EITHER the old drive, or a Time Machine backup of the old drive.

Once you have the new drive working in an external enclosure, THEN do the "surgery" of installing it inside your Mac. Any problems at this stage are due to the items changed, such as the drive cable, since the drive itself and the image on it are "known good".

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Answer 2

Csound1

Level 9

60,063 points

Feb 6, 2018 7:38 AM in response to Bryan4747

If (as you say) the existing installation works fine I would suggest cloning. For which purpose I would recommend Carbon Copy Cloner. There is a 30 day free trial available if you don't want to pay any money for it.

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Answer 3

BobHarris

Level 9

56,933 points

Feb 6, 2018 12:04 PM in response to Bryan4747

Carbon Copy Cloner (30 day fully enabled demo period)

SuperDuper (full clones are always free; incremental updates to an existing clone require a license)

Disk Utility -> Restore (with your boot disk being the source, and the clone disk being the restore destination)

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Answer 4

y_p_w

Level 6

17,762 points

Feb 11, 2018 10:51 AM in response to Bryan4747

Bryan4747 wrote:

So my best bet is to use Carbon Copy Cloner 5 demo to clone a bootable copy? Is there anything I need to know about the new APFS file system?

Not really. Just format the new drive in APFS and you'll be fine even if the source volume is HFS+. You could even format in HFS+ and it auto-converts eventually, but I've formatted in APFS and it worked just fine. CCC 5 should also automatically create the recovery partition if your destination volume is APFS. With HFS+ it asks you at the end of the clone if you don't already have one.

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