Thinking of upgrading my HD

[R.Youden]

I have found a relatively good deal on a 160GB drive for my MacBook Pro (to replace my standard 80GB) and I was wondering how much hassle it is.

I have a big 500GB HD that I can back things up to. Did I hear somewhere that I could use an app called CarbonCopy to make a full system backup? Then can I boot the new HD off my MacBook Pro DVD and use the migration assistant to put everything onto the new drive?

Thanks.

 

[PlaceofDis]

with your external use either Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper! to make a bootable backup, and then install the new drive. once you're done boot from the external and then just do the same thing in reverse. alternately you could get an enclosure for the current internal drive and just swap 'em out and then boot from the old one, now in an enclosure, and use either app to clone it back.

but changing the hard drive in a MBP is no where as easy as with a MacBook. and it will void your warranty i believe since its not a user serviceable part.

once my 12"powerbook was out of warranty i switched the drive in there, took about a 1/2 hour, but there were a lot of screws and took a lot of diligence to remember what went where. so if you're not sure about opening up your Mac...

 

[R.Youden]

I am fine with opening it up. The warranty is up in a few months so I will look at doing it then I think.

Also, I want to install Bootcamp wo run windows XP / Vista. From what I understand if I want a drive that I can transfer files it has to be in FAt 32 format which has a limited disk size. Is that correct?

Thanks.

 

[PlaceofDis]

I am fine with opening it up. The warranty is up in a few months so I will look at doing it then I think.

Also, I want to install Bootcamp wo run windows XP / Vista. From what I understand if I want a drive that I can transfer files it has to be in FAt 32 format which has a limited disk size. Is that correct?

Thanks.

i switched out the drive in my macbook not that long ago... this is what i would recommend based on my experience...

switch out the drives and clone your previous install back over, and then run the bootcamp installer which will then partition your drive for you and let it be formated as Fat32 (needs to be under a 30gig partition i believe then for this formatting). this was/is the easiest solution in my book.

 

[munckee]

I don't know exactly how different it is, but I opened up a powerbook this past weekend to get at the hard drive. The entire process start to finish took about half an hour. Just make sure you have the right screwdrivers (the hex bolts above the keyboard are the tough ones) and print out a copy of the ifixit guide.

Again, YMMV due to differences between a powerbook and a MBP, but the powerbook was easy enough.

 

[mustang_dvs]

Alternative step-by-step MBP HD Install

http://www.hardmac.com/articles/61/

 

[AZJayhawk]

What if you have Boot Camp and Windows XP already installed in the current drive?

If I clone my current HD to the new HD connected to an enclosure using Super Duper, will my Boot Camp partition with Windows XP automatically migrate to the new drive as part of the cloning procedure?

Or, will it just clone the "Mac" side of my current HD and then have to reinstall Boot Camp and go through the Windows installation procedure again?

 

[bored911]

back to the topic of backups, i use SuperDuper! and always have, mostly because it is quick and easy, but also because it is more customizable.

 

[mustang_dvs]

What if you have Boot Camp and Windows XP already installed in the current drive?

If I clone my current HD to the new HD connected to an enclosure using Super Duper, will my Boot Camp partition with Windows XP automatically migrate to the new drive as part of the cloning procedure?

Or, will it just clone the "Mac" side of my current HD and then have to reinstall Boot Camp and go through the Windows installation procedure again?

I cannot say with absolute certainty, but an educated guess says that unless you formatted the BootCamp partition as FAT32, it will not clone on a stock installation. If it is an NTFS partition, try installing MacFUSE and NTFS-3G with the MacFuse tools for seamless NTFS integration in Tiger. Details and links are on MacOSXhints.com -- it's very simple with the pre-complied files.