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tolive

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 26, 2007
81
0
The current 160GB hard drive on my MBP is running out of free space, I'm thinking about upgrade to the new released 250GB 5400rpm hard drive.
I'm just wondering, is there an easy way for the upgrade process? i.e. without reinstalling OS and softwares. I currently have BootCamp Vista installed, as well as Parallels Desktop for Ubuntu 7.
Is there any way I can avoid reinstalling OS and all softwares?
 
I dont kknow much but would a clone (copy) of the HD is an option?
(if and only if your new 250GB is temp connected via usb or FW)
 
I do have 2.5" external USB hard drive enclosure, it's not a problem for hardware.
My question is about the hard drive RAW data clone software. For Windows, I use Acronis to clone hard drives, it's very easy only involving in several clicks.
But for Mac OS, does a reliable cloning software similar to Acronis or Norton Ghost exist?

I dont kknow much but would a clone (copy) of the HD is an option?
(if and only if your new 250GB is temp connected via usb or FW)
 
yes, either use carbon copy cloner, or the free version of superduper to make an exact clone of your hard drive. They work very, very well. It's one of the things that is much more straightforward on the mac than on windows.

I do have 2.5" external USB hard drive enclosure, it's not a problem for hardware.
My question is about the hard drive RAW data clone software. For Windows, I use Acronis to clone hard drives, it's very easy only involving in several clicks.
But for Mac OS, does a reliable cloning software similar to Acronis or Norton Ghost exist?
 
So if I get a brand new hard drive, can I put the new hard drive in a USB external enclosure, connect it to my MBP, then use the SuperDuper to clone my current hard drive to the new hard drive? After the clone, I can just simply replace my existing hard drive with the new cloned hard drive on my MBP?

yes, either use carbon copy cloner, or the free version of superduper to make an exact clone of your hard drive. They work very, very well. It's one of the things that is much more straightforward on the mac than on windows.
 
yes. That is how I'd do it. You should also boot off of the cloned drive while it's still in the usb enclosure just to verify that it works. You can do this by having it connected and holding down the option key as you start up your mac.

So if I get a brand new hard drive, can I put the new hard drive in a USB external enclosure, connect it to my MBP, then use the SuperDuper to clone my current hard drive to the new hard drive? After the clone, I can just simply replace my existing hard drive with the new cloned hard drive on my MBP?
 
Thanks, I haven't got a firm answer for this one more question:

Does carbon copy cloner or superduper also clone what I have on my bootcamp partition? I mean, which one of them, or both of them clone the hard drive block by block no matter what format it is?

yes. That is how I'd do it. You should also boot off of the cloned drive while it's still in the usb enclosure just to verify that it works. You can do this by having it connected and holding down the option key as you start up your mac.
 
No -- they don't. Well, I know that superduper does not, and I suspect that Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) does not either. Basically what all of these utilities do is to to format the drive, then just copy, file by file, the contents of your hard drive until it's a clone. The way Os X is set up, and the way most unixes are set up, this is a practical and easy way to make replicas. Windows isn't easy this way -- if you take a system hard drive and just copy the files over manually, good luck getting the sucker to boot. I'm not positive about this, but I've always assumed this has to do with some combination of NTFS and the way the windows registry works. I'm not sure how Acronis does it, but most of the windows cloning software I've seen actually does a sector by sector copy of the one drive to the other, which is physically copying the filesystem as well, and then you would later get windows to expand the system partition to take up the entire disk.

You could potentially do this same kind of thing, a sector by sector copy from one drive to the other, on your mac as well, and that would indeed capture all of both OS partitions. I don't know how well it'd work, and neither of the tools I mentioned will do that for you. My guess is that you'd be best served doing something like

1) clone the Os X partition of the drive with superduper to the new drive
2) install the drive into your macbook pro
3) run boot camp and set up your windows partition
4) run acronis and clone your old windows partition from the usb enclosure to the internal drive.

Others may have better ideas, or know of tools that I don't. The superduper forums, or FAQ, does answer this question, and might have more information as well.

Thanks, I haven't got a firm answer for this one more question:

Does carbon copy cloner or superduper also clone what I have on my bootcamp partition? I mean, which one of them, or both of them clone the hard drive block by block no matter what format it is?
 
I just ordered the Hitachi 200 GB 7K drive from ZipZoomFly to replace in my MBP. I"m n the same boat with BootCamp. But I think I'm just going to reinstall from scratch, PITA that it is. All my files are on the Mac partition.

I'm still trying to decide whether I want to clone my Mac partition, or do a clean reinstall, but without all the language packs, printer drivers, and apps I don't need.

I still need to get a USB enclosure for the drive. Any recommendations? Once I've done the swap, I'll use the old drive in the enclosure.
 
Yeah, get a FireWire drive, not USB, it's really freaking slow. Like half the speed.

them there are good...
Thanks for the link. USB2 is good enough for my needs.

I've been using a WD Portable 120GB USB2 drive. It's formatted FAT32 and I switch it between use on my MBP and my Dell WinXP laptop. I run development projects from it and performance is just fine.

But I might try the triple interface drive. Unfortunately my current Dell -- and I believe my new Dell laptop -- have 4 pin 1394 ports, and the enclosure comes with a 6 pin 800/400 adapter cable.
 
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