SSD upgrade in Mac mini - how best to data transfer?

[DrBrush]

Hi,

I am going to visit my Dad this weekend and one of the jobs while there is to upgrade his Mac Mini. He has a late 2012 i5 with spinning disk and 4 Gb of RAM, still running Mavericks. He is a very light user - safari and iPhoto (soon to be Photos) mainly. He has a Time Machine backup. I have a mid-2012 cMBP as my main machine to use.

My plan is to upgrade his RAM from 4 Gb to 12 Gb, and his HDD to an SSD (both 500 Gb), so hopefully this Mini will keep him going for another few years.

My question is how best to transfer data from his old HDD to the new SSD. In an ideal world I would make the data transfer first so that subsequent software upgrades are done on the SSD not HDD (he might have all the time in the world but I don't!), but I wasn't sure how best to do it. I can put the new SSD in an external enclosure, but can I connect to his mini from my MBP using target disk mode and then use CCC to clone the old drive to the new drive? Then install it and upgrade the software from there? Would I be better just installing the empty drive in his mini and restoring from Time Machine following booting from the network recovery?

What would you guys recommend?

Brush

 

[DanBig]

Just get a SATA to USB adapter cable and use the connection to prep your new SSD with a fresh copy of MacOS you want to use and then at the end of the OS install you'll be asked if you have data to migrate over to your drive say yes and select your HDD drive as the source. As long as your SSD is the same size if not larger than the HDD just select everything, if not you'll want to be selective but make sure you move over the user accounts.
Do keep in mind you want to not over fill your new SSD! Keep at least 1/4 of the drive unused so the OS & Apps have breathing room (Virtual RAM, Cache, Paging or scratch space)

Don't use cloning software as it tends to mess things up between the failure to setup the hidden partitions and not supporting Apples new APFS file system its just easier using what Apple provides.

 

[BrianBaughn]

Just get a SATA to USB adapter cable and use the connection to prep your new SSD with a fresh copy of MacOS you want to use and then at the end of the OS install you'll be asked if you have data to migrate over to your drive say yes and select your HDD drive as the source. As long as your SSD is the same size if not larger than the HDD just select everything, if not you'll want to be selective but make sure you move over the user accounts.
Do keep in mind you want to not over fill your new SSD! Keep at least 1/4 of the drive unused so the OS & Apps have breathing room (Virtual RAM, Cache, Paging or scratch space)

Don't use cloning software as it tends to mess things up between the failure to setup the hidden partitions and not supporting Apples new APFS file system its just easier using what Apple provides.

I disagree. I can't think of anything quicker for the OP than to get a $10 USB3 to SATA cable and using Carbon Copy Cloner. APFS doesn't apply to Mavericks. Read about CCC and Recovery Partitions here.

 

[Fishrrman]

I agree with Brian

Get a USB3/SATA dongle/adapter. Looks like this:
https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-2-5-...478&sr=1-2-spell&keywords=sabremt+usb3+to+ssd

Download CarbonCopyCloner from here:
http://www.bombich.com/download.html
(CCC is FREE to download and use for 30 days -- this will cost you NOTHING)

When you get to your dad's, do this:
1. Connect SSD to adapter, plug into Mini
2. Use Disk Utility to format/erase the SSD to Mac OS extended with journaling enabled (GUID partition format)
3. Open CCC. Accept all CCC's defaults.
4. Put source drive (OLD HDD) on the left.
5. Put target drive (SSD) "in the middle"
6. Click the clone button. If CCC asks if you wish to create and clone the recovery partition, YES, you want to do this!
7. Let CCC do its thing. It could take a little while.

OK, now the moment of truth:
a. Power down, ALL THE WAY OFF
b. Press the power-on button and IMMEDIATELY hold down the option key and KEEP HOLDING IT DOWN until the startup manager appears.
c. Do you see an icon for the SSD? If so, select it with the pointer and hit return.
d. Do you get "a good boot"? You should get to the login screen or the finder.
e. Have your dad log in and "look around". Things should look exactly as they did on the old HDD.
f. If you're satisfied that things are as they should be, NOW is the time to power down and "do the drive swap".

That's the easiest and most trouble-free way to do it.

HOWEVER --
You didn't tell us WHICH version of the OS you are going to upgrade to.
You might consider connecting the SSD (again with the dongle/adapter), and then installing NOTHING BUT a clean copy of the "new OS" to the SSD.
Then, boot and setup. When setup assistant asks if you wish to migrate data, select the internal HDD and proceed from there.
Setup assistant will bring over all your dad's personal stuff to the new version of the OS.

Again, once this is done, look around, and if things look ok, THEN power down and do the drive swap.

One last (and important) consideration:
Once you have the new drive in, boot up with the option key trick (as I described above).
When your dad gets logged in, go to the Startup Disk preference pane.
Click the lock, enter the password, then designate the NEW internal drive to become the boot drive.
Close system preferences and that should do it.

 

[DrBrush]

Hi all,

Thanks for your comments, especially Fishrrman's detailed reply (and I am moving him to Mojave, so that he has as many point upgrades and security updates as possible before I need to do another "major" OS upgrade. I use TeamViewer to keep him running from afar, but only like doing bigger upgrades in person).

Although I have a (purchased) copy of CCC and an external enclosure for the connection of the new SSD as well, I wasn't sure about the best way to connect the old HDD and the new one to my MBP - hence my comment about target disk mode which feels a bit old hat nowadays.

The idea of downloading a demo copy of CCC onto my Dad's mini and using it from there is an excellent one and I think I will use that approach. He does nothing to personalise the computer at all, so there will be very little benefit in a clean install followed by data transfer vs the clone followed by the upgrade.

[Off-topic]
He won't mind me telling this story - I recently had to try and sort out a problem he had with Mail. He had accidentally switched Mail into full screen, and couldn't work out how to get out of it, so every time he checked his emails he then had to hold down the power button to force the computer off and then turn it back on again just to do something else...!

 

[DanBig]

I disagree. I can't think of anything quicker for the OP than to get a $10 USB3 to SATA cable and using Carbon Copy Cloner. APFS doesn't apply to Mavericks. Read about CCC and Recovery Partitions here.

He's upgrading his dad's system why wouldn't he also upgrade to the newer macOS as well. Then it does matter! I've long since given up using cloning software on Mac's. They made sense in years past, not any longer.

 

[DrBrush]

I plan to upgrade him to Mojave the same weekend. But, my understanding is that if I use CCC to move to the SSD it will retain the HFS+ file system, which will be converted to APFS when I install Mojave over the top of Mavericks, will it not? And that conversion will be happening after the cloning, so there should be no issue with cloning an APFS file system...

Unless I'm missing something?

 

[Fishrrman]

CCC can clone "back 'n' forth" from HFS+ to APFS drives.

You could prepare the SSD at [your] home before you take it to your dad's.
(assuming you use a dongle/adapter to connect it)

Just connect it to YOUR Mac, and install Mojave onto it.

When the install is done, you should see the opening setup screen ("select your language" ?).

What I would do at that point is just pull the plug on the computer, let it "go dark". This prevents the setup "from going further".

Then, disconnect the SSD, take it to your dad's, and connect it into his Mini.

It should boot right back up to the setup screen. And from that point, do the setup with him. You can use setup assistant to migrate from the Mini to the SSD.

Then, when it's all "prepped, tested, and ready to go", do the drive swap.

 

[DrBrush]

Hi all,

Just thought I would post an update. All went very easily. I had the drive and extra RAM sent directly to my Dad so could not prepare the drive before I went. But I downloaded CCC, cloned the drive to the new SSD in an external enclosure, swapped the drives and it was all good. Then I ran the standard Apple update procedure to upgrade from Mavericks to Mojave. All painless, relatively quick and with no problems.

Thanks for all of the advice.

Brush

 

[Fishrrman]

Once again, post 9 demonstrates why CCC (also SuperDuper) can really come through with flying colors...