Safest way to replace a laptop hard drive?

[The Tasmanian]

Its getting time I need to upgrade my Macbook Pro's hardrive to something more substantial - like 500g or if possible 1TB, and for safety's sake too as it must be about 3 years old now.
Whats the safest (and cheapest) way to mirror the hardrive?
Do I buy a USB drive and copy/mirror the mac drive and then take the drive out of the USB case and put it in the laptop? Or does this not work?
What software is foolproof and 100% accurate in copying all my OS and crap properly?
Any help would be much appreciated.

[Ben M]

Chris...Backup your drive using Time machine. This will mirror exactly.
The drives in macbooks are about half the physical size of a standard drive so you'll need to get one that fits your drive space. As far as installation, there's a mountain of info on the web. Remember to do the anti static thang.

[Text_Edifice]

Before Time Machine for osx carbon copy cloner was probably the most complete / reliable backup + data transfer tool.

http://www.bombich.com/

[wez]

+1 on CCC

[The Tasmanian]

So I could use my existing external firewire drive (with other data on it) to back onto with time machine?
Then get a new blank drive and put it in the mac etc etc...

[Chris H]

If the existing data is irreplaceable then i think it would be a good idea to give the firewire drive a miss and back up your hard drive on a machine that has a raid setup that stores your data on separate drives. My G5 work machine is set up to record the complete data on three separate drives ie If one drive goes down you still have two copies in existence. As a safety option if you don't know anyone with this setup, go to a mac repair center and ask them to back up the data for you, then do the job yourself with the firewire drive. That way if something goes bad you have the data. I have had a fire wire drive go bad during a recording and both the FW drive and my macbook ended up with corrupt files that took a lot of work to retrieve.

[mylesgm]

Time machine backs up all files EXCEPT the OS so if you do a back up with Time Machine you must also have your system disks to reload the OS. Find this out the hard way. If you have the discs then this method will work flawlessly and I have done it a couple of times. In regards to actually changing the HD I just pay someone to do it, I dont want to miss a simple step and stuff the logic board or something and paying someone to do it is not expensive.

[Ben M]

If your worried about your drive Chris, buy a separate 1TB HD and time machine backup your drive straight away. Then you can relax.
The next step would be best dealt with by the mac centre if your not 100% confident of knowing how to....

You can use your current HD external but at this stage I'd recommend just getting a second and starting fresh for time machine. It's amazing how cheap HD's are these days.

[The Tasmanian]

This is good info thanks
I want the OS - the whole thing done 100% accurately so I don't miss a beat/ and have laptop downtime - so your suggestion Myles seems like the most headache and drama free approach.
Thank you gentlemen - as always the technical crew here are second to none!

[jkhuri44]

if your HD is getting old, not sure why you'd want to keep the OS as is...from my experience, a computer running for 3 years would need a format after years of fragmentation....

if it's so u dont have to re install anything i understand, but i'd prob still go the fresh route...

[The Tasmanian]

The apple centre charge $150 an hour labour to install and mirror a drive?
Dreamers! - what do they think they have - law degree's ?
There are 2 smaller independent mac shops that I'm sure need the business....

[mylesgm]

I had to change my laptop drive whilst I was at MONA FOMA Chris. I found a little mac service shop around the corner from the hotel (sorry can't remember which) who sold me a drive to back up my data, I went back to my hotel room backed it all up and then took the laptop back to the shop where they changed the drive and installed the os. I then took the laptop back to the hotel room got time machine going and then went off to check out a gig. Came back and everything was solved. The chaps were fast, efficient, eager to help and minimise the cost and had everything right there. Think it cost me around 300 for a new 500g laptop drive, a new 1TB 800 firewire drive (for the back up), new OS and all their service. I was pretty happy.

[The Tasmanian]

Jamil - one thing I have experienced is keep an OS as long as humanly possible - or fork out for all of the plug-ins update this/update that bla bla - all of which cost money and is generally a waste of time for very little gain.
All I want to do is make music on my laptop - and the system works rock solid now - and I don't need all the new wiz bang extra new crapola to (supposedly) make my life easier.
Like my G5 - I'm staying put with old OS system with neanderthal HD protools 8 - with 48 i/o at 96k - what more could I want?
I'm over chasing new OS systems - Its my 2012 resolution - don't update - downdate!

[The Tasmanian]

Thanks Myles - there are 2 small macshops that I should give my business too anyway - support the little guys.

[Text_Edifice]

Chris, carbon copy cloned does what you want (100% exact bootable copy of your HD) . In Brisbane the apple store outsource their repairs to an independent contractor and I've found it's easier and cheaper to cut out the middle man.

As Myles suggests depending on your setup time machine and is reinstall will prob work great but make sure you have the right os discs and updates if running an older version of osx.

[The Tasmanian]

Dave I think I should get Carbon Copy anyway for my G5 Protools drive - but I'll let the shop do the lappy this time as i am upgrading to a 500g drive.
I've backed it up on timemachine just in case...
And carbon copy would be a safe tool to have around in future.
I'll see if I can keep both of these systems going until 2020 without upgrading!

[Text_Edifice]

Probably wise.

Please excuse typos in my preceding post - phone keyboard is horrible.

[gigpiglet]

CCC all the way
have used it numerous times (lost laptop - boot of the clone on a new machine) and so one
can't fault it...
all our macs at gigpiglet (11 at last count) are time machined, and periodically CCC'd
i feel safe

[The Tasmanian]

I got CCC - thanks guys for all the tips.
I feel invincible now - only a nuclear war will give me a headache (...or two)

[reddirt]

A slightly curved ball guys....... apart from cost, what reasons would there be these day for Chris not to put in a SSD, especially considering speed, lack of heat , quietness.
If cost is a worry, does he really need a pricey 500 gigs; could he not transfer unimportant stuff to the b/up drive and run a lean machine with a 125 gig SSD on board .
Thinking out loud here,
Cheers, Ross


Ross Muir
Alice Springs

[jkhuri44]

depends on whether his laptop will take those HDs or not.

[The Tasmanian]

That's a good point Ross - and I have looked into it, and also the way I can add a SS drive plus the existing hard drive with a caddy.
But basically this laptop is now being dedicated to NI Maschine/sample playback - its basically being relegated to a sampler with a screen - I'm keeping Pootools 9 and Cubase on it for out of the studio writing/production and editing.
Its going to be a playback machine that will go digital out to record into my HD rig .
So it really does not need any more grunt - I just want future reliability from the drive and more space as I'm going to invest a lot of time into Maschine - and my personal sample library that will be mainly made from my personal sounds/performances - not some shitty generic sample library's.
So thats the need for the drive - and the full story.
NI Maschine arrives today - I hate learning new gear but I'm gonna throw myself at this one and get the best out of it.
And my lappy will be the brains trust
And I will not upgrade any Mac OS/Pootools etc until the absolute extreme need arises - once its all working like a charm it will stay that way for many years to come - another reason why CCC will be invaluable to me.

[jkhuri44]

the geniuses @ mac will work out a way to f@#$ you, dw

[Alistair]

Was looking at these the other day, a good solution for extra drives for the laptop I think-

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Samsung/DIYSAM1TBUF8/

USB powered, small etc. I think without the drive (just the bay) they are around $40.

[Thirteen]

SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner will make you a bootable clone. Personally I think that SuperDuper is superior to CCC, but both will do a far better job than Time Machine. TM can be used to restore a damaged volume wheras SD and CCC allow you to boot any machine with your system so you can keep working right away.

[The Tasmanian]

Hi Steve -
why/how does SuperDuper work better than Carbon Copy Cloner?

[Thirteen]

I haven't used CCC for a couple of years, I switched to SD from memory I think I preferred it because it's user interface was more foolproof and because the developers are quick to have software updates ready when new OS versions appear. Both of them do a great job though, I think that it is essential to use both Time Machine (to be able to quickly find lost or deleted files) and CCC or SD for actual backup purposes.