Mac mini/OS X Lion/Momentus XT Question

[swllnvag]

I've got a 2011 Mac mini (no optical drive). I purchased a Seagate Momentus XT drive to replace my current HDD. I'm using my MacBook to download Lion so that I can make a USB installer to put Lion on the new drive. I've been told my new drive needs to be partitioned prior to installing Lion but I have no way of doing so as the mini doesn't have an optical drive and I do not have an external.

Does anyone know if the new drive comes pre-partitioned or if I need to do so prior to installing Lion? I think I'm screwed.

Thanks in advance.

 

[gr8tfly]

The drive isn't partitioned or formatted out of the box.

When you boot up on the Lion Install USB stick, you can select Disk Utility from the list of options. (Startup holding the opt key to select the USB stick as the boot volume.)

Select the new drive, and using the Partiton tab, create a single Mac OS Extended (journaled) partition, with a GUID partition table (use the Options... button to select GUID).

Once that's done, you can quit Disk Utility, then install Lion.

 

[swllnvag]

Great to hear. The person who told me I couldn't do the partition actually works for Apple. Not sure of his title but he's the guy who teaches people how to use their Macs. I shall stop taking his advice.

Thanks!

 

[Foogoofish]

Great to hear. The person who told me I couldn't do the partition actually works for Apple. Not sure of his title but he's the guy who teaches people how to use their Macs. I shall stop taking his advice.

Thanks!

Maybe inform his line manager too....unless he is your boyfriend / friend!

 

[gr8tfly]

Great to hear. The person who told me I couldn't do the partition actually works for Apple. Not sure of his title but he's the guy who teaches people how to use their Macs. I shall stop taking his advice.

Thanks!

After I posted the above, it occurred to me you might have a newer version of Lion on the mini than what you can currently download. This means you should get a USB case for the XT to allow you to clone the original drive. I'll paste my edited instructions below (I think it better to repeat myself a bit, rather than backtracking, now that there are more posts - it took me a while to make sure I had everything):


The drive isn't partitioned or formatted out of the box.

Provided the version of Lion you download is the same or newer as that which was shipped with your mini, the following should work (I'm not sure about how you go about downloading iLife, but I believe you can do that through the App store at no charge.) Otherwise, skip to the "Edit" section below. I would assume at some point, the download version will be the latest and compatible with current models. I don't think that's happened yet.

When you boot up on the Lion Install USB stick, you can select Disk Utility from the list of options. (Startup holding the opt key to select the USB stick as the boot volume.)

Select the new drive, and using the Partiton tab, create a single Mac OS Extended (journaled) partition, with a GUID partition table (use the Options... button to select GUID).

Once that's done, you can quit Disk Utility, then install Lion.

Edit: If your Mini came preinstalled with Lion, you'll probably need to clone the current drive's contents (this will also include your iLife install). The version of Lion shipped with the mini could be newer than the one available through the App Store. You'll need to put the XT drive in a USB case, then startup on the original drive's Recovery HD (startup holding down cmd-R, or opt and select it). Prepare the XT using Disk Utility per above, but add a second 1GB partition so you can install a Recovery HD partition there later. Then use Disk Utility Restore to clone the original drive to the new one (it must be installed in the large partition, of course). Check "erase destination..." to enable block copy. Make certain you have the correct source and destination set.

Boot up again on the original drive and run the Lion Recovery Disk Assistant tool (available through the Apple support site). It should allow you to select the 1GB partition on the XT in the USB case for the install (I've only done it on a USB stick, but a USB HD should also work). After it's complete, that partition will be hidden from the Finder and Disk Utility.

You should now be able to startup on the new XT drive in the USB case (hold down opt on startup to select). If everything's fine, you can go ahead with the drive swap. Once complete, I'd recommend going into System Prefs > Startup Disk and make sure the internal drive is selected as default.

Sorry if this ran long. If you need any clarifications, please feel free to ask.

 

[Fishrrman]

"I purchased a Seagate Momentus XT drive to replace my current HDD. I'm using my MacBook to download Lion so that I can make a USB installer to put Lion on the new drive. I've been told my new drive needs to be partitioned prior to installing Lion but I have no way of doing so as the mini doesn't have an optical drive and I do not have an external."

Here's a quick, easy and CHEAP way to get a "bare" "in-your-hand" hard drive up and running:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=usb+sata+dock&x=0&y=0
(Note: many different items shown, they all work the same, just pick one you like that's cheap)

Just hook it up to the Mac, put the bare drive in, turn it on, and it will now "behave" as if it were an external drive in an "external enclosure". Except you don't have to put the drive into the enclosure -- when you're done, just push the "eject" button and take it out.

You can even boot from these gadgets, same as if it were "an external drive".

With a "dock", dealing with a bare drive has now become easy, actually _easier_ than working with a bare drive and enclosure. These are VERY handy gadgets to have around. And did I mention they were _cheap_, as well?

When you're done with the drive swap, put the _old_ drive into the dock, and use it as your backup drive. Use the free CarbonCopyCloner to create a bootable "clone" of the internal onto the docked drive. Now you have _two_ bootable drive sources.