Removed Apple 120 GB HD, now what?

[chuxdaddy]

Now that I upgrade my mac mini hard drive to 500GB, what can I go with the 120GB that can with the mac? I tried to reformat it, and used as a storage drive, but during the process it failed at the erase process.
Is it possible to reformat the original drive? And for those of you that have replaced to original drive, what are you doing with it?

 

[fhall1]

I reformatted mine and put it in an external USB case and use it for additional storage.

 

[GoCubsGo]

That is what I intend to do with mine (format and external housing). I won't get rid of it just in case the mini needs repair later on … I'll have to take out the ram and hdd and put in the stock stuff.

 

[MacDawg]

Same... external case, extra storage
Actually, it will be an insurance backup "just in case"

Woof, Woof - Dawg

 

[u49aa2]

Just to reinforce Jessica point for the OP. Don't even think to sell or get rid of it. As in the future if you required to take your mini to apple for repair and they discover that you opened the mini, they will very likely void your warranty. People have argued in this forum for a long time if customers are allowed to upgrade their mini's without apple approval and up to now many people came back from apple disappointed (warranty voided!!)

So if you can format it and use it as an external drive, then that's fine, if not just keep it in safe place. So if you required repair, you can put it back.

 

[Enigmafan420]

I just ordered my 500 GB and will soon be doing the same thing.

My question is, what is the best way to transfer my data? I do have frequent time machine back-ups, though I don't leave the mini on 24/7. How do I restore these to a blank HD? Is this something done when I first boot the OS X DVD system disc?

I also have a Windows partition on the same HD using bootcamp and I think time machine is no help for that.

Any suggestions from successful data migrators will be aapreciated

 

[MacDawg]

^^^^^

Yes, you can restore from your Time Machine when you boot from the OSX disk.
You can use Migration Assistant if you do a fresh install or you can do a complete restore including your system

Clone your Windows partition using WinClone to an external drive
Once you restore your OSX system, repartition the new HD with Boot Camp Assistant and restore the clone

Woof, Woof - Dawg

 

[Enigmafan420]

^^^^^

Yes, you can restore from your Time Machine when you boot from the OSX disk.
You can use Migration Assistant if you do a fresh install or you can do a complete restore including your system

Clone your Windows partition using WinClone to an external drive
Once you restore your OSX system, repartition the new HD with Boot Camp Assistant and restore the clone

Woof, Woof - Dawg

Thanks for the info-I have downloaded WinClone. But it has me sort of scared to use it. The disclaimer is SCARY!

Have you used it. Is everything okay?