Cloning a Hard Disk

J

jcan

Registered
Hello,

I have a 250 GB disk in my MacBook Pro, and I would like to buy a bigger one (500 GB, probably). In my previous experience from the Windows environment, there was an application called Norton Ghost, in which you could easily clone the disk, and when the cloned one was inserted into your PC, the OS could not tell the difference. Is there something similar for the Mac OS X, so that I can replicate my hard drive and thus install the new one in my Macbook without any hassle?

I know that Time Machine is a possibility, but after restoring my system through TM once, I found out that after the restore there were some minor additional steps that had to be taken; however, the cloning technique means that you plug your disk and you are ready to go, so this is what I am looking for.

Thanks

P.S. I have one more additional question: I currently use a 500 GB external firewire disk for Time Machine. Will its size be sufficient for backing up the new 500 GB drive?
 
Your external drive will only be insufficient if you think you're likely to fill up your new internal hard disk.
 
Utilites/disk utility -> Select the new image button at the top or file->new>image from folder. Save to an external HD. After installing new HD, load OS, go through setup assistant to create dummy user account just for data transfer purposes. Mount the external HD and the disk image saved inside the external HD. Go to Utilities/migration assistant and follow promps. Before or after migration assistant will need to download and install all software updates.

Or boot to installer, hook up drive to an external enclosure. Utilities/disk utility ->highlight volume, select the restore button. Then drag and drop source volume (old HD with data) into source box and destination volume (i.e. new HD) into destination box. click restore and wait.
 
Uh, yeah, djackmac. Methinks that process is more involved for a new Mac user than jcan would like. Carbon Copy Cloner is a great solution.
 
Thank you all for your kind advice! I think I'll give Carbon Copy a try, as it looks the most suitable to my needs.
 
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