upgrading Macbook hard drive

[GGD]

I've got to come to Disk Utility's defense in this situation.

Given all of the options for this specific task, Disk Utility would be the only thing I would use.

Boot from the 10.6 install DVD, run Disk Utility from the Utilities Menu.
Initialize the new drive if needed.
Click on the Restore tab in Disk utility.
Drag the old drive's volume icon to the Source field
Drag the new drive's volume icon to the Destination field.
Leave the Erase Destination option checked.
Click on the Restore button.

Disk Utility will do it's "Block Level" copy, and will also do a verify afterward. This is a very fast mode, as fast as the drives can go, and faster than any utility that does file-at-a-time copying.

The other advantage is that you're copying the drive from it's Shutdown state, so no files are open or in-use. Copying from a running system gives you a copy that is more like restarting from a system crash, which is OK if that's your only backup, but not my first choice if it can be avoided.

I use Disk Utility, SuperDuper and Carbon Copy Cloner, but each one for different reasons.

Disk Utility - Stand Alone cloning to a new drive, or for creating a compressed .dmg archive of an entire drive that can be restored later, and for restoring that archive (I keep an archive of a 10.6 system with all apps installed but no user data that I can quickly restore onto a scratch drive for testing).

SuperDuper - Automated scheduled "Smart-Update" backups of entire drives to sparse disk images on my home server. I've purchased this app.

CCC - Copying selected files/folders, simple to use user interface for selecting just what you want to copy.

[Black]

GGD wrote:
I've got to come to Disk Utility's defense in this situation.

Given all of the options for this specific task, Disk Utility would be the only thing I would use.

Boot from the 10.6 install DVD, run Disk Utility from the Utilities Menu.
Initialize the new drive if needed.
Click on the Restore tab in Disk utility.
Drag the old drive's volume icon to the Source field
Drag the new drive's volume icon to the Destination field.
Leave the Erase Destination option checked.
Click on the Restore button.

Disk Utility will do it's "Block Level" copy, and will also do a verify afterward. This is a very fast mode, as fast as the drives can go, and faster than any utility that does file-at-a-time copying.

The other advantage is that you're copying the drive from it's Shutdown state, so no files are open or in-use. Copying from a running system gives you a copy that is more like restarting from a system crash, which is OK if that's your only backup, but not my first choice if it can be avoided.

I use Disk Utility, SuperDuper and Carbon Copy Cloner, but each one for different reasons.

Disk Utility - Stand Alone cloning to a new drive, or for creating a compressed .dmg archive of an entire drive that can be restored later, and for restoring that archive (I keep an archive of a 10.6 system with all apps installed but no user data that I can quickly restore onto a scratch drive for testing).

SuperDuper - Automated scheduled "Smart-Update" backups of entire drives to sparse disk images on my home server. I've purchased this app.

CCC - Copying selected files/folders, simple to use user interface for selecting just what you want to copy.

Good info, thanks.

[wurm]

Well, I used GCD's advice to prep the drive. Everything went extremely well. I only wish I had started a couple of hours earlier. The transfer took about an hour and 40 minutes.

Once it was done, I waited until I knew she wouldn't need the computer for a while because I wasn't sure how quick the actual installation would take. I needn't have worried. I didn't even have the right size torx head for the screwdriver, but a small flat-head did the trick. We were back up and running flawlessly in about 10 minutes.

Thanks for the advice. Let's hope this serves her purposes for the next several years.