Upgrading to SSD on Catalina

[Marc Tuano]

When restoring from disk utility do I restore from macintosh hd or macintosh hd data?

Trying to upgrade my macbook pro mid 2012 with a new ssd.

 

[Taz Mangus]

Probably would be better to use something like Carbon Copy Cloner or Super Duper.

 

[mikzn]

Another option is to put the new SSD into an enclosure (like this) and then 1) use disc utilities to format the new SSD to APFS / 2) then install Catalina - 3) then boot from the external drive and use migration assistant to migrate all the apps and settings etc from the internal drive

this should give a perfect copy on the external SSD in the enclosure that you can easily swap with the HDD inside the MBP2012 after you test it

Always good to do a separate back up with CCC (or similar) "back up software" like Taz mentions above

 

[Marc Tuano]

Probably would be better to use something like Carbon Copy Cloner or Super Duper.

Trying super duper now

 

[Honza1]

Actually, you need both - one is system and one is data. SuperDuper or CCC are way to go, they will handle this properly. It is becoming rather complicated.