Restoring a mac from an HDD? No time machine...

DJ Life & Community General Discussion
1

Restoring a mac from an HDD? No time machine…

Hai people! Since my old MB died I got another MB 5,1 2.0GHz (1st aluminum unibody) for $550. The thing is that I just have the old MB HDD without time machine. So is there a way to take that hdd into an enclosure to restore from there? It was never time machined so I dunno if that could be done… How would it behave if I just simply insert the old hdd in the new MB? Would it simply start from there and maybe patch what is needed? Tried googling the thing but it always say about time machine… Any leads thanks bunchs!! :thumbsup:

2

Cloning software and a SATA/IDE cable.

I had to do the same thing, because while I was restoring my hard drive from a TM backup, my idiot friend decided to pick up my hard drive.

Carbon Copy Cloner was the software I used, but there are plenty of other competent ones out there.

3

Just run migration assistant on your fresh install, plug in your USB disk and choose “from another mac pc time machine backup or other disk”.

You’ll be able to choose the USB Disk to restore all the info and files to your fresh install including apps and registration etc should remain intact too on most software.

This method works even if you have installed Lion for example and are restoring from an older version of OSX e.g Leopard/snow leopard without needing to re-upgrade.

Ideal if you want a fresh OS install of system files but keep your apps/files and acc info intact.

OR if you want an exact image of the old disk.

  1. Boot from the USB drive you have the OS on (hold alt on power on until you get the disk selection screen).
  2. Install Carbon Copy Clone (free)
  3. Use Carbon copy clone to copy to the new drive and you’ll have an exact copied install on that hard disk.

Oh and yes you can just throw the old disk into the machine, run software update and you’re good to go :smiley:

4

Ah you already have a drive with OSX on it. Migration Assistant is definitely the way to go.

5

DJTT <3!!!

Will try that. Thx!

6

+1 with migration asst or CCC

7

Aight, Migration Assistant did exactly what I needed!

In case someone goes thru the same thing this is what happened:

I bought a used MB with some other ppl stuff. Booted with SL disk in holding ‘C’ and “7 zeroed” the HDD. After a couple trys installing SL from disk it would get different errors so I followed this tutorial and everything went smoothly. After install it asks you if you want to import setting from another Mac so I ejected the external hdd with SL, removed the hdd and swapped it with the old Mac HDD and choose the option that was not time machine (can remember exactly which option but it is the most obvious one) checked to import everything and 1 hour later I was back up :slight_smile:

I’ll check tomorrow if licensed software gives any errors, specially NI registered software.

I have been almost a month without mixing and I feel like that withdrawal Trainspotting scene :rage: