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Replacing Hard Drive on new Macbook

post #1 of 8
12/11/08 at 9:28am
Thread Starter 
I have a new 2.4Ghz Mac Book never turned on. My question can I replace the stock hard drive with a new faster 7200 drive then use the included install disk to install the operating system and programs that Apple includes with the new computer. Will the install disk format the new hard drive?
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post #2 of 8
12/11/08 at 10:56am
Yeah but I would buy a compatible USB-powered 2.5" drive enclosure, put the original drive in it. Boot from it and use superduper to clone the system back exactly as you had it. Plus you can then use the drive as a backup or portable drive or even sell it.

If you're not bothered about that, the installer disk has disk utility on it. Launch it and selectt the drive, go to partition > options and choose GUID partition table, hit ok. Then hit the partition button. Then make sure it is formatted HFS+ journalled.

Then proceed with the installation.
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post #3 of 8
12/12/08 at 8:37am
Thread Starter 
Thanks. I will take your advice and buy a drive enclosure and install a new hard drive.
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post #4 of 8
12/27/08 at 9:18am
Thread Starter 
Marvin,
Thanks again for your help.
Installed 4 Ghz of Ram from Crucial and a Western Digital 320Ghz @7200 Hard drive before into the new Macbook before I turned it on for the first time.

Formated the new hard drive and installed the OS and the Apple Apps that came with the new computer and did not have one single problem.

THANKS
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post #5 of 8
12/29/08 at 3:53pm
I have a related question but didn't want to start a whole new thread. I received a new hard drive for christmas (yay!), and wanted to do the upgrade myself. I just had a couple of questions:

- I can't find my Leopard disks anywhere (I've moved twice recently... they're probably somewhere); if I use SuperDuper, do I need any of these disks during the entire process? If so, I'll start looking...

- I'm using an external USB hard drive to back up my old hard drive. Is USB okay? I'm sure it will be slower than a Firewire hard drive, but will it work, albeit slowly?
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post #6 of 8
12/29/08 at 4:17pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by daveamos@gmail.com View Post

I can't find my Leopard disks anywhere (I've moved twice recently... they're probably somewhere); if I use SuperDuper, do I need any of these disks during the entire process?

No you don't need the discs during a clone, it just copies directly between drives.

Quote:
I'm using an external USB hard drive to back up my old hard drive. Is USB okay? I'm sure it will be slower than a Firewire hard drive, but will it work, albeit slowly?

USB will be fine. FireWire does have higher sustained transfer and this is one of those cases you should see a performance difference but mainly if you have a lot of stuff. It's about 1 minute per GB for FW400. Add 30% for USB2.

Cloning goes slow at some points as it takes longer to backup small files. It normally speeds up during the procedure.
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post #7 of 8
12/30/08 at 6:05am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Marvin View Post

No you don't need the discs during a clone, it just copies directly between drives.



USB will be fine. FireWire does have higher sustained transfer and this is one of those cases you should see a performance difference but mainly if you have a lot of stuff. It's about 1 minute per GB for FW400. Add 30% for USB2.

Cloning goes slow at some points as it takes longer to backup small files. It normally speeds up during the procedure.


Thanks for the help! I'm going to give it a go tonight if I can find one of those TorX screwdrivers.
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post #8 of 8
12/30/08 at 10:17am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Marvin View Post

Boot from it and use superduper to clone the system back exactly as you had it.

My copy of updated SuperDuper won't make a clone. When I contacted SuperDuper to find out why, I was told not to use the clone function. No explanation. I have a G4 and Tiger. What is you take on the problem?
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