Upgrade internal HDD or add ext. HDD

[gumbymac72]

I have a 3-year old iMac C2D with a 320 GB HD and a 1TB Time Capsule hooked up to it. I also have a FireWire 400 ext. case with an old 120GB HD in it. My mac has been feeling a little sluggish and I think it's time to do a fresh install on my mac as it's been ages since I've done a fresh clean install (I upgraded Tiger to Snow Leopard).

I recently added an HD HomeRun capture device so I can record High-Def cable with elGato's EyeTV but now I'm going to be filling up my hard drive pretty quick! (a 30-minute show at 1080p is 3GB!) I also want to start using the new App store from Apple but I want a fresh install to build upon. So my question is, should I just replace the ext. HD with a 1.5 TB model, and do a fresh install on the internal HD, or should I install a 1.5 TB HD into the iMac, and move the old (but reformatted 320GB HD) internal drive to the ext. case?

If I installed a new 1.5TB drive into the iMac, would I be able to restore from my Time Capsule? I've had my TC for over 2 years and I've never had to use it or back-up from it (knock on wood).

 

[applebrown]

I want to know too!

Apple store wants me to put everything on an external (my HD is full), but that mean to back it up I can't use Carbonite and I need another external to back up my primary external. So I wanted a new internal, but Apple Store said they don't do them and that I'm stuck with what I got. SO - long story short, I want to know what you found out and decided. Good luck!

 

[gumbymac72]

I ended up doing a clean install on the internal HD and migrated most of my settings/apps/docs back from Time Machine. I then bought a 1TB FW800 external HD and moved iTunes to that. You can tell Time Machine to back up external drives, but I don't think Carbonite is going to recognize and backup ext drives.

This seemed like the easiest thing to do (esp. since no one offered suggestions otherwise). So far it's been working like a champ. I have had some hiccups with iTunes management. There were a few times where songs that were on my iPhone couldn't be synced from the computer because iTunes couldn't find them. I used Senuti to bring them back from my iPhone and onto the ext. HD. Same thing with a few apps. iTunes knew they should be in my library, but there was a little gray circle with an exclamation point inside. I had to repoint to the apps on the ext. HD and all was good.