When installing a new hard drive?

I'm considering buying a SDD hard drive for my Macbook Pro. But I'm not sure what to do after inserting the drive, or before for that matter. I know how to physically put it in, but beyond that I'm not sure.
I have Mavericks, and I don't have a disc with Mavericks, but I'm told I can make a boot disc with DiskMaker X. So, that's what I'm planning to do.
I also have a lot on my drive and I don't want to lose it. If I use TimeMachine take copy of the complete hard drive, can I simply just install Mavericks from the boot disc I made and then drag the content from my TimeMachine drive to my new SDD and I have the exact same content on my new SDD which was on my old drive?
I have plugins for Elements, FCPX and Logic Pro I don't want to lose. Do I have to install all these plugins once more after installing a new hard drive.
How about Office? With the version I have, I'm only allowed to register one Office. Will my product key be removed when installing a new HDD so I'm able to register it once more?

Neguah wrote:
I also have a lot on my drive and I don't want to lose it. If I use TimeMachine take copy of the complete hard drive, can I simply just install Mavericks from the boot disc I made and then drag the content from my TimeMachine drive to my new SDD and I have the exact same content on my new SDD which was on my old drive?
One does not simply drag content from Time Machine to a new drive. Unlike a cloning utility, Time Machine doesn't store files exactly like they are on the desktop, partly because it tracks multiple versions of each file. While you could restore your system to the SSD from your Time Machine backup, you will need to start up off the OS X boot disc and there will be a utility command on it that will let you Restore from Time Machine. Choose that command and select the new, blank SSD as the target and select your last Time Machine backup date as the source, and run it. It will take a while (possibly a couple hours) for Time Machine to reassemble the last backup from the pile of file versions in Time Machine.
If you wanted to do a straight copy from a backup to the new blank SSD, that is why you will get advice to use a cloning utility instead. If you clone your system to another drive, not only can it be bootable from that disk, you can clone it back to any other drive (like a new one), and it works right away because it really is an exact copy of your files and folders (no waiting to reassemble the system like Time Machine).
Whether you do it with Time Machine or a cloning utility, one way you can never do this is to restore an entire system disk simply by dragging files over. There are too many hidden files, too many files with special permissions and attributes that will not be preserved if you just drag them.
Also, it may not be necessary to have an external enclosure to make a clone. You can also use a drive dock or universal drive cable. But you'll probably want an enclosure anyway, as a place to keep the old drive.
Neguah wrote:
I have plugins for Elements, FCPX and Logic Pro I don't want to lose. Do I have to install all these plugins once more after installing a new hard drive.
How about Office? With the version I have, I'm only allowed to register one Office. Will my product key be removed when installing a new HDD so I'm able to register it once more?
There is no clear answer on the plug-ins. It depends on the mechanism each plugin company uses to register/authorize their plugin. If a company uses hidden files buried in the system to verify a license, that hidden file might not be present in the new system. Or they might invalidate a license if new hardware is detected. You can just bring the plugins to the new system and see, and if they work the don't worry about it, but there is a possibility that at least some may need to be restored.
I have heard of stories that Microsoft Office may be a problem, but maybe they've improved it. When the current version of Office came out apparently some people had trouble getting it authorized on a new machine or disk due to the way activation limits were implemented. There is a possibility that you may have to get on the phone with Microsoft and sort it out.

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i.e you had all your music in the iTunes media folder inside your iTunes folder.
If your iTunes folder is so small compared to the amount of music you have, you must have a different arrangement.
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iTunes can cope with moving around as long as all the music is in the iTunes media folder, not not if it isn't.
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Message was edited by: polydorus

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