Mac Daniel's Advice

I Have a New Hard Drive, but How Do I Move Everything from the Old One?

Low End Mac Reader Specials

Memory To Go Special: MacPro 8 Core Memory 4GB kit $192 / 2GB kit $109. MacBook Pro / MacMini / iMac Intel Core2 DUO 2GB $44 1GB $23--Free shipping available.

Download Typestyler, still the Ultimate Styling Tool for Internet, Print and Video Graphics. Works great in Classic with a Native OS X Version on the way. Free Tryout: www.typestyler.com

LA Computer Company: LA Computer Company: Specials on AppleCare, Apple Displays, MacBooks, iMac's, MacBook Pros, Laptop and iPod accessories and more. Apple A/C Adapters for laptops starting at $25.00 Call 1-800-941-7654 or Click Here.

Other World Computing: OWC Mercury Elite FW800/FW400/USB2/eSATA TOP-RATED Solutions offer High Performance, Reliable storage for all your data storage needs. Industry leading 2yr limited + up to 5yr HD Mechanism Warranty too! Up to 2.0TB(2000GB), 500GB specials from $199.99

Mac users can finally play Party Poker for Mac. Not only that, they can also learn how to play PokerStars for Mac.

Laptop Hardware Provided by TechRestore - Overnight Mac & iPod Repairs.

Compare products like desktop computers, laptops, and LCD TVs side by side! All the information and reviews to make the best purchasing decision for a new cell phone GPS products or MP3 players. The Ciao network makes searching products easy for you.

MacPro Memory 667Mhz With Apple Spec Heat Sink 2GB Kit $ 90 / 4GB Kit $140 / 8GB Kit $278 Click to Maximize your Macs...

Dan Knight - 2005.02.07

Ken Sonenclar writes: "I enjoyed your 9/10/04 piece about the utility of a slot-loading Mac for running OS X [Why the Slot Loading iMac Is a Good Choice for OS X]. Purchasing a new eMac freed up this old buzzard (a graphite DV special), and I want to upgrade it along the lines you suggest: 512 MB RAM, an AirPort card, and an 80 GB hard drive.

"One question, perhaps silly, but this will be my first attempt at swapping memory and a drive. Though it looks easy enough, how does one go about transferring the contents of the 13 GB drive that I'll be removing to the new drive? Or is that not possible?

"And do I leave the existing 128 MB while adding the 512 MB, or is there there only room for one or the other?"

Second question first. The iMac DV SE shipped with 128 MB of RAM. That's a single memory module, and the slot-loading iMacs have two memory module slots. Updrading is as easy as snapping the RAM into place - once you have the computer open.

By adding 512 MB, you'll have 640 MB total RAM, a very nice setup indeed.

Swapping out hard drives isn't difficult - again, once you've found your way into the iMac's guts. Moving the data is another story, since the iMac only has one hard drive bay.

Triumph Venus 3.5" enclosureI'd recommend picking up an inexpensive FireWire (or combo FireWire and USB 2.0) drive enclosure. I've used several different ones over the years, and my current choice is the Triumph Venus 3.5" enclosure (top two drives in photo on right), which is available in FireWire-only and FireWire/USB 2.0 versions from the PC Micro Store. (Check with dealmac for specials on these. I've seen them listed quite frequently, sometimes for $30-35 including hookup cables.)

I'm sure there are lots of other good enclosures out there, but these are compact, quiet, and solid. There's no cooling fan, and the aluminum enclosure is just big enough to hold a 3.5" IDE drive and the bridge electronics that let it work with USB and/or FireWire. Theodore W. Lee of OS X Factor also gives this enclosure raves.

Regardless of which enclosure you buy, it's usually a pretty easy process to drop in your old drive, close things up, wire it up, turn it on, and have your Mac see it. You might not even need to change any jumpers - or you might. Check the documentation that comes with the enclosure and the jumper settings on your drive before you put it inside the new case.

Once it's connected, I suggest you boot from the external drive and download Carbon Copy Cloner (donationware, see our review) or SuperDuper (shareware, see our review). Either program can duplicate the complete file structure from your old drive to your new one, making whatever changes are necessary so the new drive will be bootable.

I used to use CCC for duplicating hard drives, but I've found SuperDuper does a whole lot more than clone one drive to another, so I've paid my shareware fee and now use it as my backup software.

Once you're finished duping your drive, set your new drive as your startup disk, restart, and enjoy the additional speed and storage space on the new drive.

As for the old drive, you might want to turn it into an emergency drive by leaving all the System files and utility programs on it. In the unlikely event your iMac or eMac should have a hard drive problem, you could boot from the external drive - a lot faster than CD-ROM - to run diagnostics and attempt repairs.

With SuperDuper, my external drives are bootable mirrors of the drives in my two eMacs and my PowerBook G4, which gives me both an emergency disk and a full backup in a rugged, compact package. LEM

Not sure if you should upgrade your old Mac or replace it? Check the Mac Daniel index to see if we've already addressed your problem.

Recent Mac Daniel columns

Recent Content on Low End Mac

About LEM | Support | Usage | Privacy | Contacts

Entire Low End Mac website copyright ©1997-2008 by Cobweb Publishing, Inc., unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Advice presented in good faith, but what works for one may not work for all. Please report errors to .
  LINKS: We allow and encourage links to any public page as long as the linked page does not appear within a frame that prevents bookmarking it.
  Access our RSS news feed at http://lowendmac.com/feed.xml.
  Email may be published at our discretion; email addresses will not be published without permission, and we will encrypt them in hopes of avoiding spammers. If you prefer your message not be published, mark it "not for publication." Letters may be edited for length, context, and to match house style.
  PRIVACY: We don't collect personal information unless you explicitly provide it. For more details, see our Terms of Use.
  Low End Mac is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, iBook, iMac, eMac, iPod, PowerBook, MacBook, Mac Pro, Apple TV, and AirPort are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks and are hereby acknowledged.


Have a question?
Ask an expert!

Low End Living

Amazon.com

Navigation

Used Mac Dealers
Apple History
Best Used Macs
Video Cards
Email Lists
InfoMac's Low
End Mac Forum

Favorite Sites

MacSurfer
MacMinute
MacInTouch
MyAppleMenu
InfoMac
Macs Only!
The Mac Observer
Accelerate Your Mac
RetroMacCast
PB Central
MacWindows
The Vintage Mac
   Museum
DealMac
DealsOnTheWeb
Mac2Sell
ramseeker
Mac Driver Museum
JAG's House
System 6 Heaven
System 7 Today
the pickle's Low-End
   Mac FAQ
Abandonware
   Petition
Mac vs. PC Info

Affiliates

The Apple Store
Mac Connection
MacMall
TechRestore
MacResQ
ExperCom
Crucial Memory
batteries.com

Advertise

All of our advertising is handled by BackBeat Media. For price quotes and advertising information, please contact at BackBeat Media (646-546-5194). This number is for advertising only.

Open Link

Problems viewing this page with Internet Explorer 5.5 or 6? It works fine in other browsers, including IE 7. We recommend Firefox for those using Windows, as it is standards based and more secure than IE 6 (and earlier). More LEM visitors use Firefox than any other browser.