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Posted By: elf macbook hard drive - 11/13/09 04:38 PM
Ok so im wanting to upgrade the hard drive in my macbook (unibody aluminum).I no how to unistall it and replace it.My question is the drive that was in my macbook I would like to use to back up my itunes and photos.How do i blank that drive?Also thinking about memory upgrade is owc memory reliable?
Posted By: joemikeb Re: macbook hard drive - 11/13/09 05:54 PM
Since you are considering upgrading the drive OWC sells drive upgrade "kits" that contain the new drive plus an external Firewire and/or USB enclosure to put the old drive from your MacBook in.
  1. You remove the old drive from the MacBook
  2. install it in the external enclosure
  3. install the new larger drive in your MacBook
  4. Boot from the old drive in the externall enclosure then either…
    1. Use Carbon Copy Cloner or Super Duper to clone your system from the external drive to the internal drive or
    2. Install a clean copy of your OS on the new internal drive and use Migration Assistant to migrate your data and applications from the old drive in the external enclosure to the new drive.
  5. When you are sure everything is working correctly, erase the external drive and use it as a backup or even an emergency boot drive for your system.
As to the OWC memory I have used and I am currently using it in all my Macs with absolutely no problems. I have enjoyed similar results with OWC external enclosures and right now have two that I use all the time.
Posted By: Virtual1 Re: macbook hard drive - 11/16/09 12:08 AM
Oddly enough, I've never tried to use DU to clone a hard drive to another hard drive directly. (by booting off the restore disk) Does it let you just clone from one HD to another or does it have to "go through" a disk image?
Posted By: joemikeb Re: macbook hard drive - 11/16/09 12:57 AM
I've never attempted to use DU to clone a drive either, but I suppose it could be done as you suggest via the mechanism of a disk image file. I have used DU to recover a system from a Time Machine backup and that was pretty straight forward.
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