Transferring data to new drive??

[j26]

I'm thinking of changing my MB's HD for a larger one (160+), but the thing holding me back is that I'm not sure about the mechanics of doing the change.
Swapping the HD itself should be fine, but I'm not sure how to manage the transfer of data and settings etc.

I currently have a 250g external (usb) that's fairly full, but there are no separate partitions on it. I don't want to lose the data I have on it. I also have Chronosync which I'm sure might be of use.

Will I have to reinstall Tiger and apps, and lose my settings, or is there an easier way for me to transfer everything across to the new drive without having to buy loads of new stuff?

Also, as a side issue, is there a way to shred any info I have on the current drive, so I can flog it on fleabay or something (for whatever it's worth)?

Thanks

 

[AlecEdworthy]

I'm thinking of changing my MB's HD for a larger one (160+), but the thing holding me back is that I'm not sure about the mechanics of doing the change.
Swapping the HD itself should be fine, but I'm not sure how to manage the transfer of data and settings etc.

Will I have to reinstall Tiger and apps, and lose my settings, or is there an easier way for me to transfer everything across to the new drive without having to buy loads of new stuff?

Also, as a side issue, is there a way to shred any info I have on the current drive, so I can flog it on fleabay or something (for whatever it's worth)?

If you buy an external SATA enclosure with a USB interface (or firewire but these are harder to find) on it (which are getting pretty cheap these days, you can pick them up as cheaply as about £6 I think) then you can put the old (or new) hard drive in it, partition the new one and use something like Carbon Copy Cloner to copy everything across. If you put the old hard drive in the external housing then hold down option (aka Alt) as you power on the MacBook to select the external hard drive as the boot device. Another benefit of this is that you then can use the old drive in it as an external drive if you decide not to sell it.

As for erasing it, Disk Utility has the ability to do this, see the Erase section and in particular the Security Options button. I am fairly sure that if you use a multiple pass wipe method in disk utility then it will be fairly secure (though I'd still look to use something like DBAN on a standard PC instead I think, not sure if DBAN will boot and ruun on a MacBook - I suspect not because of the problems with the keyboard).

Alec

 

[j26]

That looks straightforward enough and not too expensive.

Thanks a million.