Upgrading the HD in my 2006 mini
I am beyond fed up with only having 60 gb as most of it is full, actually we get the start up disk is full message so I sprung for the 320 Travelstar in 7200 rpm from macsales.com
I am going to do a fresh Snow leopard load and the only data on the mac currently that I car about is iTunes music downloads.... not the stuff we put in but the stuff we bought from apple. How can I ensure we get it back? I have a 500GB external drive if we need to move it.
Also I want to be sure that I can just put in the new drive and turn the mini on and load SNow Leopard, am I correct? The drive should be here today or tomorrow at the latest.
I am going to do a fresh Snow leopard load and the only data on the mac currently that I car about is iTunes music downloads.... not the stuff we put in but the stuff we bought from apple. How can I ensure we get it back? I have a 500GB external drive if we need to move it.
Also I want to be sure that I can just put in the new drive and turn the mini on and load SNow Leopard, am I correct? The drive should be here today or tomorrow at the latest.
Comments
Also I want to be sure that I can just put in the new drive and turn the mini on and load SNow Leopard, am I correct? The drive should be here today or tomorrow at the latest.
Yes... boot from the Optical Drive (using the SL install DVD.)
I'm pretty sure the installer automatically formats the drive if needed... but if it does NOT see a valid drive to install on: (in other words, if the HDD was pre-formatted for Windows.)
You can run "Disk Utility" from the install DVD and reformat the new HDD to "Mac OS Extended" with a GUID Partition Table.
Then re-run the installer and it should work fine.
Anyone have advice on the iTunes question?
You should be able to sort the iTunes library by "purchased" ... then copy that stuff to the external ... When you get i tup and running with the new drive, just import it back.
Alternatively... you could use the external drive to make a clone of your CURRENT drive... then after you put the new drive in ... clone it back onto the Mini. Then just do an UPGRADE to Snow Leopard and everything will be intact, just the way it was before, but with the new OS.
How do I clone the hard drive? I never thought of this, I know they just did it at work but I am not an IT guy.
Search for and download "Carbon Copy Cloner" ... I believe their website has some help files that will explain the (easy) process of cloning...
<soapbox>
It works for free (honor system payment)... but those of us who find this to be a valuable tool would appreciate it if you'd join us in supporting the developer that helped you (and us) out by paying at least a LITTLE for the product!
</soapbox>
... is there a better disassembly guide somewhere than above.
I don't know what you're looking at ... but http://www.ifixit.com has great video and pictorial disassembly guides for stuff.