Installing Leopard and new internal hard drive at same time, best plan?

Ok so basically the title explains what I need to do. I am currently travelling in Europe, and returning home to New York on Tuesday night. I have a new hitachi 250gb HD and will have Leopard waiting for me at home when I arrive, and will get right to doing this installation. I am writing on the discussion boards here because I am hoping the users here can give me their opinions on what is the best plan of action to do this whole install?
So what I was thinking was, I should remove the hard drive that's already inside, put it into an external enclosure. Then, put my new blank 250gb hard drive into the macbook pro, close up the computer, then put the Leopard OSX install disk, and do a completely fresh install of Leopard. Then, after installing (or during installing?) I should run the migration assistant program to get all my files and settings etc. transferred over to the new internal hard drive with Leopard on it, from the old hard drive that will be plugged in from an enclosure as an external drive.
Will this plan have any problems that I am not aware of? Is there a better process for doing this task? Any advice will be greatly appreciated! I am anxious to get my new hard drive into the computer because my 160gb is filling up, and dying so badly to use the new Leopard!!

You could also put the new disk in the external enclosure, partition it using disk utility. Then make a clone of your current hard disk to the new external one using the restore feature in disk utility. Boot from the external disk and Install Leopard as an upgrade keeping all your files and setting. check everything is all running how I should and swap drives over. That's another option for you.

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Help - upgrading from Tiger to Snow Leopard AND new larger hard drive, MBP

Howdy!
My iPhone has finally demanded that I upgrade my MBP from Tiger. And as if by coincidence, my now puny 100GB internal drive is packed full with less than a gig free most of the time. (10% free is the MINIMUM free allowance, I know!!) I run old copies of Adobe CS2, Quark, Quickbooks, Microsoft Office... would love to keep them working without purchasing upgrades, but probably isn't a realistic hope. None of it is mission critical at this point.
So I've purchased the $29 Snow Leopard DVD (from a reseller - it says CPU Drop-In DVD Version 10.6 on the disk), and a new 750GB internal drive (same reseller - The drive is a 2.5" SATA 5400RPM 8MB-Buffer Hard Drive (9MM Slim) (RoHS Green Friendly)), to get with the times.
My other resources include:
- two 1TB LaCie external drives with FW and USB2 ports
- one other LaCie external drive - I think 360GB?
- Retrospect 5.0 (most of my backups are encrypted Retrospect files on those three LaCie external drives, but there's some room on them)
- a $22 USB 2.0 to SATA/IDE adapter with AC power, to access whatever laptop drive might be without an enclosure temporarily
- a copy of Carbon Copy Cloner software
- I just ordered an upgrade to my ancient (OS9) copy of DiskWarrior
- A monster UPS battery backup and line conditioner that everything plugs into for this process
It has been a long time since I've DIY'd any undertaking this complex, and I'm looking for advice on what to do first, how to go about this.
Here's my setup:
Model Name: MacBook Pro 15"
Model Identifier: MacBookPro1,1
Processor Name: Intel Core Duo
Processor Speed: 2.16 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache (per processor): 2 MB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 667 MHz
Boot ROM Version: MBP11.0055.B08
SMC Version: 1.2f10
I'm guessing I should do it like this, PLEASE EDIT or make suggestions or tell me what I forgot to do before I do it!!
1. Back up everything to at least two external locations! Also, make a bootable copy of my current internal drive in its own volume, to at least one external drive that is formatted in HFS+ GUID partition style, with Carbon Copy Cloner (would Retrospect work well for this instead?).
2. Free up at least 20GB on the current internal drive (100GB). Hopefully 30GB.
3. Run Disk Utility on the current internal drive. Fix any problems. (Should I hit it with DiskWarrior instead?)
4. Format the new 750GB drive to HFS+, GUID partitions. (How long will that take? Can I do it with the USB-SATA cable adapter, sitting on my desk, or does it have to be in an enclosure? The adapter has AC power)
5. Run Disk Utility (or DiskWarrior?) on the new internal drive in its temporarily external position. Fix any problems.
6. Boot off the Snow Leopard CPU Drop-In DVD and install onto both drives. (Will this version of the DVD I have wipe all files when it installs to a disk???)
7. See how they run. Boot off the old 100GB internal drive, boot off the new to-be-internal 750GB drive. Panic if it's not going well.
8. If the current internal 100GB drive is rocking Snow Leopard and my familiar files and apps seem somewhat functional, use Carbon Copy Cloner to recreate the volume on the new larger drive. Then swap the drives physically. (Links to good step-by-step instructions on this part would be much appreciated here!!)
9. If the Snow Leopard DVD overwrote or snuffed out my familiar files and apps on the old internal drive, sigh deeply, then swap the drives physically. Use CCC (or Retrospect? or Migration Assistant?) to fetch my junk from the old internal drive's backup and plunk it on the new bigger internal drive (now installed).
10. See how it runs. Shake my fist at the sky over the planned obsolescence of technology paired with the seductive power of my iPhone. Grumpily upgrade the software that I actually create income with.
Please help! I am just faking it here based on a few message boards I've read. Will this actually work properly?
Thanks!

Howdy slowpoke43, and a warm welcome to the forums!
Please help! I am just faking it here based on a few message boards I've read. Will this actually work properly?
LOL, if your faking it you're the best!
1. Yes, absolutely... no CCC would be best in my experience/opinion.
2. Yes, the more he better... Free Space is no longer our Free Space, but OSX's.
3. Indeed, & if you have the correct version of DW, do that.
4. Yes, not long, A/C power is great.
How to format your disks...
http://www.kenstone.net/fcphomepage/partitioningtiger.html
(To Install OSX on an IntelMac the Drive it needs the GUID Partitioning scheme mentioned at the bottom.)
Thanks to Pondini, Formatting, Partitioning, Verifying, and Repairing Disks...
http://web.me.com/pondini/AppleTips/DU.html
6. Yes, boot off the 10.6 DVD, & no Snow Leopard does by default what we used to call an Archive & Install, saves & updates all your info, APPs, Music, etc., it may quarantine a few things or not but will tell you.
7. Absolutely, but Panic won't be needed with your great preparation & Bootable Backups!
8. Not quite sure I understand, but run SL for a few days before you do anything.
9. Yeah, but again with you doing everything right from the gitgo, I can't picture that happening.
10. Yes indeed, the hangup with yours is that it only holds 2GB of RAM... a pain in 10.5 & up IME.
Again let me say... GONGRATS, I've never ever seen anybody so well prepared & informed despite your diffidence!

How do I move my iTunes media/install to a new internal hard drive?

The Seagate hard drive that stores my Windows 7 OS and my iTunes media library is dying a slow death. I list the hard drive manufacturer because of my frustration with that company right now. (Buy WD !).
Anyway, I fresh installed iTunes and Windows 7 on another hard drive. Since I can sometimes get to the Seagate drive, I copied my existing iTunes media library from the dying Seagate drive to the new WD drive. I went in to iTunes preferences->advanced and changed the location of the iTunes media folder location (C:\iTunes\iTunes Media) to where I copied the original iTunes media folder. Everything is fine so far.
My two problems are these:
1. iTunes doesn't show me ANY of the audiobooks that I have purchased. Although, I haven't gone through all the music to verify, it does seem as though all purchased movies and music is accounted for. (movies and tv shows are available for streaming anyway).
2. When I check to sync my iPhone 4S with the iTunes library I get the nasty message that says "are you sure you want to remove your existing music, etc...fro this iPhone"? Even though I have reinstalled iTunes, it is still the same PC. How can I get iTunes to recognize that my iPhone syncs to the iTunes library "normally". Am I the only one who thinks iTunes shouldn't be so troublesome (like Windows is) ?
Thanks in advance for helping me with these issues!

Does anyone know how / if I can get an Apple support person to help with this problem? Do I need to go to the Apple store?

HT4718 I want to install a new internal hard drive for my Macbook (13in, Late 2009) and restore to factory settings. However, I want to keep my Mac OS X Snow Leopard.

I want to install a new internal hard drive for my Macbook (13in, Late 2009) and restore to factory settings. However, I want to keep my Mac OS X Snow Leopard., which I downloaded from the app store. How can I restore computer with the updated OS?

What I did on our two computers was partition the hard drive so that both Snow Leopard and Mountain Lion can be used on the computers. This allowed me to be able to retain/use older applications and games on the Snow Leopard partition. This will allow you to do a clean install of Mountain Lion on the newly created partition. The Mountain Lion installer has a button that allows you to select another drive so you don't install it over Snow Leopard. I cleverly name one partition Snow Leopard and the other one Mountain Lion so I wouldn't confuse the two (I never claimed to be smart).
To partition, you need to have sufficient free hard drive space (I suggest 50 GB minimum). Boot off the Snow Leopard DVD or the disks that came with the computer and use Disk Utility to partition your hard drive into two partitions. If you plan to make Mountain Lion your primary OS, then you can reduce the size of the Snow Leopard partition so most of the free hard drive space is available for Mountain Lion. While booted off the disk, you can install Snow Leopard on the partition you want it on.
Restart and download Mountain Lion, remembering to select the correct partition before installing. I would make a copy of the installer and move it out of the Applications folder because the installer self destructs.
After getting all that sorted out, I found that while booted in Mountain Lion I could access the Snow Leopard partition. That allowed me to drag files and applications from Snow Leopard to Mountain Lion. Applications that won't work with Mountain Lion will be grayed out with a slash through them.

Can I reformat and partition a new internal hard drive with the Snow Leopard disk?

I'm planning on installing a new internal hard drive in my 15'' Macbook Pro. Can I format and partition the new drive with the Snow Leopard disk or is it just an upgrade from Leopard? Thanks much.

You should be able to do that.
If you want to change the sizes of existing partitions this may help:
Enlarging a partition

How do I reboot my Macbook pro 2011 to a new internal hard drive?

I had to get a new internal hard drive and I can't afford to pay some one to do it for me. So I was wondering how do I install the operating system on to the hard drive?
Thanks

Since we don't know which MBP you have or what OS was initially installed on it, try this. Start up the Mac and hold down the Command and "R" keys. If you have an internet connection and if the MBP came with Lion installed, you should be able to boot into Internet Recovery. From there, you can download Lion from Apple's servers and install it. That's assuming the new HD has already been installed and formatted (you can format it yourself using the Disk Utility that's available in Internet Recovery).

Need to buy new internal hard drive ~ suggestions of where to buy online?

My 3 year old Mac Mini needs a new internal hard drive. I'm trying to find one online, but when I go to macsales.com for instance, I can't figure out the item I should be buying that will work. I'm clueless.
Is there any online place anyone would suggest in particular?
And what do I look for? Will it say 'mac mini internal hard drive' and will I know it will work in my old mini? (not intel).
Does anyone know of a good place to take to have it installed in the Seattle area?
Help! Thanks!

With a little experience, replacing the drive on a Mac mini would take a little less than an hour, so I suspect you're being quoted the standard minimum for the job by those two sources. Whether you take that up or do it yourself really depends on your level of confidence. Opening the mini is a daunting proposition since there's no clear way to do it, and the plastic creaks and clicks as it's being levered apart with the putty knives, but it's actually very simple to do. Once the top is off, it is a fairly simply process to get to the drive, remove it, fit a new one and then reassemble. The only common issue from doing this work is failing to reconnect the fan control cable (symptom of having forgotten it is that the fan runs continuously on start up).
I would suggest that if you have a flat, clear table, an hour to spare, two putty knives and a suitable screwdriver, you would likely find it a fairly easy job once you get started. Indeed, you might even think about increasing the system memory at the same time!
One thing I would suggest is that if you have a digital camera, once you have the top open, start taking pictures as you progress through the job. That will help overcome the 'where does this go?' syndrome, should it strike!
In terms of sources of drive, the reason Boece suggested OWC in the first reply is that they have already done the work of figuring out which drives are compatible and which are not. If you are in any doubt about which drive will work and which won't, it would make sense to source the drive from them, knowing it is suitable, than through another vendor where you may be less sure!

Can I install CS6 on 2 internal hard drives (running different Mac OS's) as well as my laptop?

Hey- I am installing another hard drive in my Mac Pro (late 2012). I will be installing Yosemite on that drive while retaining Mountain Lion on the original drive. I have CS6 installed on the original drive as well as my MacBook Pro. Will Adobe allow me to install CS6 on the new internal hard drive? I won't be running them at the same time. This would be a great question for the 24/7 chat line but they are "closed" (??). Anybody know the answer?

You have 2 activations and that is that. You cannot add a third.
Mylenium

Best way to transfer data to new internal hard drive

Hi,
I just got a new internal hard drive for my macbook and I'm trying to figure out the best way to transfer all the data from my old hd to the new one. Basically, I would just like to make an exact copy of my old hd and put it on the new larger one. Thanks for the help.

Will I simply be able to do a firewire transfer on the new internal HD is installed
Yes. Use Carbon Copy Cloner with the sopurce and destination volumes reversed after installing the new drive.
Additionally do I need a bootable copy of OSX on my external HD to do the transfer?
Yes; the clone can act as this copy. If you copy everything with Carbon Copy Cloner, you will be told whether the drive will be bootable or not prior to the clone.
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Importing FROM external hard drive to new internal hard drive

How can I move my backed up Itunes library from my external hard drive to my new internal hard drive? I went through the steps listed on the support page, and imported the .xml playlist that I moved to the desktop. Now all my playlists (names only) are on Itunes, but there is no content. Help?

lksj wrote:
How can I move my backed up Itunes library from my external hard drive to my new internal hard drive? I went through the steps listed on the support page, and imported the .xml playlist that I moved to the desktop. Now all my playlists (names only) are on Itunes, but there is no content. Help?
assuming you moved the whole iTunes folder to your new internal HD, try this:
launch iTunes with the options key pressed. this window will appear
click +choose library+ and navigate to the _iTunes library file_ on your internal HD.
any luck ?

How do I transfer all data from my old internal hard drive to a new internal hard drive

How do I transfer all data from my old internal hard drive to a new internal hard drive? I have an iMac with a 320gb internal HD that is full and I am replacing it with a 2tb internal drive. I have several external drives; 1 tb, 2tb and 3 tb. The 2 tb is being used for Time Machine. Do I have to buy an enclosure? If so, where would I get an inexpensive one?
I also want to partition the new internal drive for Windows, and I'm not sure how much space to use for that. I plan to use Windows to check my work in PowerPoint created on my Mac for clients on PCs.

Do you already have Time Machine making backups onto the 2TB drive? If so, after you get the internal drive replaced, boot up into the recovery partition (hold down ⌘R) and restore the latest Time Machine backup that you have onto the new internal drive.
I recommend always having two backups. I'd use SuperDuper to make a complete clone of your internal drive onto an external drive in addition to having the Time Machine backup.
Boot Camp is what is used to make partitions for Windows. How much space to allocate depends on how much space you expect Windows to use up based on how you plan to use it.

Installed Samsung F3 1TB internal Hard drive configuration partition

Hi,
Have just installed a Samsung 1tb internal hard drive and now it comes to formatting and partitioning it not sure what amount of gb and how many partitions to do. I have all my itunes music and films stored on an external 1tb hard drive for information, and also have an external 320 gb drive for back ups. So any ideas what to do with the partitions and gb on the internal drive.

There will be a lot of views on how the drive should be partitioned, so I will offer my opinion, and state it is only one opinion.
Take a look at the amount of space you have been using for your operating system, are you planning on upgrading the OS, and then set a partition for only the OS. Make it large enough to allow for future upgrades, maybe 30-40 GB larger than needed so there is enough space for doing installs.
Keep a partition large enough for all of your software, maybe have that be most of the remainder of the drive after the OS partition.
Since you keep music, etc., on an external drive it should be easy to keep the internal drive in good shape and unfragmented.
You could set a partition for temporary files, the /tmp file system, but it is easy to fill that up with a lot of web surfing and get yourself in trouble on space.
Anyway, my view is a good size partition to allow for OS and future OS installs, and the rest for software.
Ralph

New internal hard drives, seems slow with Logic 8, how can i test

Hi,
I just bought a new internal hard drive, but it seems subtley too slow!,
On a Logic 8 song i'm working on the tracks timing seems slightly off, it's kind of driving me crazy because at times it is subtle, and other times obvious.
and 2 other things, one is an iTunes playback stalled twice, and that's never happened before,
also, when working on a Word doc, the screen was not re-drawing properly. i had to repeatedly reisze the doc window to get it re-draw itself. this has never happened before either.
is there a way to test this new hard drive?,
thanks

There are though all the ones I've used, TechTool Pro, Disk Utility, Intech Speedtools, none were 'perfect' or as good as the vendor's own utility which runs on Windows.
But you might do something for us - include the drive make/model version, and, do a look up with Google and see if you get any helpful hits.
How you have your system setup, number of drives and organization of files, can also have an impact.
Off hand, WD Caviar 640GB is cheap and fast, or there are some 1TB drives that look good, too.
Drives do break in over a period of days or first week, and it can help to break in and torture, zero the entire drive, run media scan, use a benchmark utility to graph I/O over the full drive.
Check out Barefeats, they do a bit of drive testing benchnmarks and see what they use and results. Or Tom's Hardware.

How do I install lion and format the hard drive?

How do I install lion and format the hard drive, as though this was a new mac.

If your Mac is a 2011 model and originally came with Lion Pre-Installed by Apple then you can use the Internet Recovery HD system to Wipe/Erase the Complete drive and Re-Install Lion.
If it is an older model, even and early 2011 model, that did NOT come with Lion Pre-Installed by Apple you can not sell or give it away with Lion installed on it. You have to install the original version of OS X on it.

How do I backup to time machine with a new internal hard drive?

My Macbook Pro's hard drive got corrupted about a year ago so I had to get the hard drive completely replaced. However, I wanted to start backing up my data to time machine so if the same situation were to reoccur, I would be better prepared. For some reason Time Machine does not recognize the new internal hard drive of the computer as it is supposed to. Could someone please help? thank you in advanced
Current OS: OS X 10.8.4

That error message is saying that it is attempting to setup a Time Capsule for Time Machine to backup your data on.
Do you have a Time Capsule?
Do you have an external Disk Drive?
You can do a backup to the internal disk drive. It is worthless to do that.
Allan

Installing Leopard and new internal hard drive at same time, best plan?

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