How do i upgrade my hard drive and get it to boot in Mountain Lion?

Question

I have a Late 2009 Macbook 6,1 and want to install a new, larger capacity hard drive. Currently I am running Mountain Lion and don't have any install disks, so the question is, what is the process to change out the drive and get the Mac to boot after the new drive is installed. Since it is a new drive it won't have a recovery partition or any operating system files. My plan is to migrate my data using my Time Machine backup, but I worry that when I try to boot after the new drive is installed, all I will be greeted with will be a flashing question mark. I'm really having a hard time finding a step-by-step set of instructions for someone attempting what I'm trying to do. I do have an external enclosure I could put the new drive into before I put it into the Mac. Would I try using something like Migration Assistant to transfer all of the files to the new drive and then just swap out drives afterward? Would the OS migrate as well, or would I still not have a bootable drive? Or is there some kind of minimal boot disk I could burn onto a CD or flash drive and then once the machine boots go with a restore from Time Machine Backup? I'm open to any ideas anyone may have on the least painful way to go about this process. Maybe use some (hopefully free) software of some sort to clone the current drive onto the new drive while it's still in the external enclosure? Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated!

Answer 1

How to replace or upgrade a drive in a laptop
Step One: Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Repair
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list.  In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive.  If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported then click on the Repair Permissions button. When the process is completed, then quit DU and return to the main menu. Select Restart from the Apple menu.
Step Two: Remove the old drive and install the new drive.  Place the old drive in an external USB enclosure.  You can buy one at OWC who is also a good vendor for drives.
Step Three: Boot from the external drive.  Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager appears.  Select the icon for the external drive then click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Step Four: New Hard Drive Preparation
  1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
  2. After DU loads select your new hard drive (this is the entry with the
      mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of
      the drive in DU's status area.  If it does not say "Verified" then the drive
      is failing or has failed and will need replacing.  Otherwise, click on the
      Partition tab in the DU main window.
  3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from
      the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended
      (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to
      GUID  then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and
      wait until the process has completed.
  4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the
      drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main
      window.
  5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the
      Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to
      return to the Erase window.
  6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several
      hours depending upon the drive size.
Step Five: Clone the old drive to the new drive
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
     1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu then press the Continue
         button.
     2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
     3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
     4. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it
         to the Destination entry field.
     5. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to
         the Source entry field.
     6. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the external backup drive. Source means the internal startup drive.
Step Six: Open the Startup Disk preferences and select the new internal volume.  Click on the Restart button.  You should boot from the new drive.  Eject the external drive and disconnect it from the computer.