Upgrade MacBookPro internal hard drive - best way to install osx
I have a macbook pro mid 2009 w/8gigs of ram. Works great but the hard drive has only 20 gigs of free space out of 160 and starting to run slow. (I already ran disk utilities).
I have a new hard drive I want to replace it with. The question is how to get osx on there. I don't want to use mavericks. My original os disk is 10.5 and I also have the disk for snow leopard. To get to 10.8, I have to use the app store.
Should I start from scratch and insert the new drive, let it format and start with snow leopard or using disk utility, create an image of my current drive. Then when I replace the drive, use the image? I can't use time machine because my external drive is FAT and time machine will want to remove everything that is on that drive. I do have a 2nd mac but I don't have enough disk space to partition for a time machine drive.
I am thinking the best thing is to start with snow leopard.
I have a new hard drive I want to replace it with. The question is how to get osx on there. I don't want to use mavericks. My original os disk is 10.5 and I also have the disk for snow leopard. To get to 10.8, I have to use the app store.
Should I start from scratch and insert the new drive, let it format and start with snow leopard or using disk utility, create an image of my current drive. Then when I replace the drive, use the image? I can't use time machine because my external drive is FAT and time machine will want to remove everything that is on that drive. I do have a 2nd mac but I don't have enough disk space to partition for a time machine drive.
I am thinking the best thing is to start with snow leopard.
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I ended up taking the short cut. I bought this connector for $25 bucks 
, cloned my drive. Made the connect to the new hard drive via usb, used Disk Utility to format then clone. Took off the back cover http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook+Pro+13-Inch+Unibody+Mid+2009+Hard+Drive+Replacement/1337 and replaced. Works great.
I started to back everything up and it was going ver slow because my external hard drive is connected via usb2 and formatted FAT. The majority of the files I really need the most are on dropbox and drive. I just didn't want to spend the time backing up everything at once.
This should give me another year or two+ before I have to break down and buy another.
, cloned my drive. Made the connect to the new hard drive via usb, used Disk Utility to format then clone. Took off the back cover http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook+Pro+13-Inch+Unibody+Mid+2009+Hard+Drive+Replacement/1337 and replaced. Works great. I started to back everything up and it was going ver slow because my external hard drive is connected via usb2 and formatted FAT. The majority of the files I really need the most are on dropbox and drive. I just didn't want to spend the time backing up everything at once.
This should give me another year or two+ before I have to break down and buy another.
I'm glad to hear the Apricorn drive adapter worked for you.
I bought their metal enclosure for hard drives and connected it to the USB port on a Netgear WiFi router. I found that only certain external hard drives were supported by Netgear--and Apricorn wasn't one of them.
I bought their metal enclosure for hard drives and connected it to the USB port on a Netgear WiFi router. I found that only certain external hard drives were supported by Netgear--and Apricorn wasn't one of them.
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