Replacing MBP HDD


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I've just ordered a 500gb HDD to replace the 320gb one in my aluminum mbp. I was just wondering what the best way to transfer my data is, so everything is exactly the same as it is now but on a new HDD? Also, what type of screwdriver do i need to take out the current HDD?

Thanks

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Norton Ghost (I use this one)

Acronis True Image (most users like this one, images and backup incrementally)

Acronis Migrate Easy (Just disk clone - quite good!)

Drive Image (Basically an alternative)

DriveImage XML (This one is free!)

MaxBlast (I haven't used this, but it's free)

pc-disk-clone(Home Edition: Up to 2GB/min, Pro Edition: Up to 7GB/min)

Imaging: Backs up your entire system, including Windows and data, plus your partition as well. The image can be stored on removable media, such as DVD. And usually takes under an hour (depending on size of image) to fully recover to a blank HardDrive.

You need a phylips screwdriver ;)

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Norton Ghost (I use this one)

Acronis True Image (most users like this one, images and backup incrementally)

Acronis Migrate Easy (Just disk clone - quite good!)

Drive Image (Basically an alternative)

DriveImage XML (This one is free!)

MaxBlast (I haven't used this, but it's free)

pc-disk-clone(Home Edition: Up to 2GB/min, Pro Edition: Up to 7GB/min)

Imaging: Backs up your entire system, including Windows and data, plus your partition as well. The image can be stored on removable media, such as DVD. And usually takes under an hour (depending on size of image) to fully recover to a blank HardDrive.

You need a phylips screwdriver ;)

He uses a mac, you recommended only Windows software.

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MBP's don't come with Windows but with MacOS X which has a builtin backup functionality called Time Machine. Macs also use EFI and GPT which most of the Windows hdd software do not support, so they are useless anyway. Time Machine is great for backing up an entire drive and restoring it to a new (un)formatted hard drive. Same thing can be done with carbon copy cloner and several other Mac tools that can even copy the entire disk to another in such a way it can be used to boot from (like SuperDuper). Since I already use Time Machine, I'd use that to move everything from one disk to another (that would be a full Time Machine restore using the installation dvd to start Time Machine). After the restore has completed I can boot the machine as if nothing happened :)

If you want to know how to physically replace the hard drive in your MBP, check out the manual because that'll tell you what to do and what tools you need.

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You can use the restore function in disk utillity, or my favourite is Carbon Copy Cloner which you can get at www.bombich.com for free.

I have backed up 100's of machines whith this and never had an issue.

Best way to do it is put the new drive in an external caddy, clone the drive over, remove the drive from the caddy and fit it in the MBP. (You can clone with Carbon Copy Cloner whilst booted from the Hard drive.)

Fitting the new drive is not hard but be careful you donot damage the cables around the drive as they also carry data for Bluetooth.

I'd google for a take apart guide first and have a read through, just to make sure you are comfortable with what you need to do.

The take apart will tell you what tools you need, but I think all you need is a small Phillips and a Torx 8 screwdriver

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  • 2 weeks later...

I need to format the drive first right? so will all my apps work without needing to reinstall anything?

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Grab yourself a 2.5" USB adapter, put the new hard drive in the MBP, and put the old one into the USB enclosure and connect it.

Boot up from the Leopard DVD and go into Disk Utility, format the new drive, and use the "Restore" function to "restore" the old drive to the new one. Nothing will have changed when you reboot other than the amount of free space you have :p.

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Grab yourself a 2.5" USB adapter, put the new hard drive in the MBP, and put the old one into the USB enclosure and connect it.

Boot up from the Leopard DVD and go into Disk Utility, format the new drive, and use the "Restore" function to "restore" the old drive to the new one. Nothing will have changed when you reboot other than the amount of free space you have :p.

I can vouch for this method, it works quite well.

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