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    Brand new MacBook hard drive upgrade...

    Discussion in 'Apple and Mac OS X' started by joshuaLX, Jul 15, 2007.

  1. joshuaLX

    joshuaLX Notebook Evangelist

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    I plan on upgrading the hard drive in my MacBook as soon as I get it. Do I really need to mess around with buying an enclosure and cloning the factory HD to the new HD? Since the notebook is brand new there will be no "joshuaLX" specific files on the factory hard drive that I would be worried about losing. Can I just swap in the new hard drive and and install OSX from the restore disk? If this is possible how would I go about formatting the new hard drive?

    Thanks, Josh
     
    joshuaLX, Jul 15, 2007
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  2. Bog

    Bog Losing it...

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    If you have no personal files or extensively tweaked settings then by all means, swap the HDs and install OS X on the new one. Buying an enclosure is recommended if you don't want the storage space in your original HDD wasted.
     
    Bog, Jul 15, 2007
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  3. joshuaLX

    joshuaLX Notebook Evangelist

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    Shouldn't I be able to install OSX to the new HD from the restore disk? What formatting the new hard drive?

    Josh
     
    joshuaLX, Jul 15, 2007
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  4. Xander

    Xander Paranoid Android

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    Xander, Jul 15, 2007
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  5. StormEffect

    StormEffect Lazer. *pew pew*

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    The restore disk is just a standard OSX install disk, isn't it?

    So yes, if I'm thinking right, just stick your restore disk in the computer with the new drive and reinstall OSX. It SHOULD take care of formatting itself in HFS+ filesystem, although honestly I have yet to do this myself, so I don't know for sure.
     
    StormEffect, Jul 15, 2007
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  6. joshuaLX

    joshuaLX Notebook Evangelist

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    Awesome...thanks for the help.

    Josh
     
    joshuaLX, Jul 15, 2007
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  7. circa86

    circa86 Notebook Virtuoso NBR Reviewer

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    yeah you shouldn't have any trouble just starting from scratch with the new drive.
     
    circa86, Jul 15, 2007
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  8. joshuaLX

    joshuaLX Notebook Evangelist

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    thanks for the help :D
     
    joshuaLX, Jul 15, 2007
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  9. jjfcpa

    jjfcpa Notebook Evangelist

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    joshuaLX

    I've upgraded the hard disk on two MBP's and although they are more complicated (to access the hard disk), once you have the hard disk installed, the procedure for installing OS X is the same.

    When you insert the OS X disk (I think it's disk #1), the first thing you will need to do is setup the partition for installing the OS. If you try to do the install before you do that, it will fail.

    There is a menu that is loaded with a Disk Utilities option that you need to run in order to partition the disk. After the disk is partitioned, which only takes a minute, then you can run the install for the OS.

    My experience is that it will get to a point where it does a reboot and sort of hangs... that's usually the place where I insert disk #2 (with the iLife apps) and it will finish up the installation.

    Takes about 30 minutes or less and much faster than Windows XP.

    After installation and rebooting, be sure to run the Software Update in the Apple menu to get the lastest patches.
     
    jjfcpa, Jul 15, 2007
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  10. joshuaLX

    joshuaLX Notebook Evangelist

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    Very informative. Thank you!

    Josh
     
    joshuaLX, Jul 15, 2007
    #10