replace harddrive, copy system to USB drive?

[lily69]

OK, first, thanks for all that helped. I got my mini for BB yesterday.
The new Mac mini is indeed quite as dead! Love it so far.

Only thing is that, it's a bit slower compares to my Mac pro. It's expected. So I need upgrade some memory and harddisk I think.

I am thinking if I can buy a new HDD, put it into USB enclosure and duplicate OS over and then swap using Disk Utility booted from DVDROM, is it possible? I hate re-install OS. Anyone did this before that can confirm it's doable over USB?
Thanks.

 

[spinnerlys]

Use CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper to clone your internal HDD to an external HDD connected via Firewire or USB. After the cloning is finished, you can simply switch the HDDs without further ado.

 

[Baby Mac]

Been there done that (yesterday)

My SSD came with a bundled USB external case. I inserted the drive and plugged in the USB cable. After using Disk Utility to partition the SSD, I backed up the internal drive to the external, and swapped the drives. The now-internal SSD booted up just fine.

iFixit SSD Replacement

Just be careful that the instruction -- to not pull the logic board out more than 5mm -- comes after they tell you to get a grip on both sides and start pulling.

Also, I did not have to do any fancy booting from DVDROM.

 

[lily69]

Thank you guy, work completed

I use Seagate Momentus XT, not bad. Only problem is the temp sensor on the original harddrive, kind difficult to get it sticky on the new one any more, so I just leave it at the near the HDD, hope it's ok.

 

[mangrove]

From what I understand you can just add a little piece of black electrical tape where the original tape was.

You might not want to leave anything just loose in your nice new Mac.