LostInTechnology

How To Upgrade Your MacBook Hard Drive – Part 1

Posted on 28. Jul, 2009 by Douglas Reynolds in How To

Advertisements

Just the other day, I was working away on my MacBook when all of the sudden a popup launched that said something to the effect that host drive was out of space, cannot complete operation.  I was caught totally by surprise, launched Finder, and behold I had just a bit over 200 Mb left on my drive.  Time for a drive upgrade.

Over the next few days, I’m going to show you step by step how to upgrade your Mac hard drive.  This guide is completely comprehensive.  I will cover every step from backup to installation.  Let’s get started.

Backup

Backup is the first thing you need to do when upgrading a hard drive.  You may also want to do a little house cleaning.  I went through and removed all of my un-needed files and emptied my trash bin, ending up with 2.3 Gb of free space – room to breathe.  The next and most important step of all is to ensure that all of my data was backed up.

I like to define the worst-case scenario.  That being that I have a catastrophic drive failure prior to a successful transfer of data.  Other potential issues could result from external drive failure, corrupted disk image, bad transfer, and who knows how many unforeseeable problems that could arise during the drive upgrade process.  The goal is to be able to recover my data in as many ways as are realistic.

My Backup Strategy

I have one backup locally, held on an external drive.  For this, I use Mac’s backup utility, Time Machine, which does an excellent job of creating incremental backups that backup any files that have changed since the last time Time Machine ran.  Time Machine is also automatic, so as long as I have my external drive plugged into my machine, backups are occurring.

I have one off-site backup, for this I use Mozy.  Mozy rocks, I have over 20GB of my data backed up there.  The initial push of my data took a couple of days, following incremental backups take only a few minutes each day to backup any changed files.  Restoring files from Mozy is very simple and done via their secure connection. In a catastrophic situation, they will send a DVD of your backup to you for a minimal fee.

I use remote version control systems in order to backup my important projects, which include code for applications and content for books.  If I were to lose all of my projects, I could easily restore them from the remote version control repositories that I use.  With that said and done, I feel that my data is securely and safely backed up and can be restored in the event of loss.

What You Will Need

1. A new drive (be sure to determine the type (SATA, SATA II,  IDE) and size drive you will need).
2. An external drive enclosure that matches your drive type and available USB and/or FireWire ports.
3. The appropriate USB or FireWire cable to connect your Mac to your external drive enclosure.
4. SuperDuper (See Luis Sandoval’s article Backup Your Mac with SuperDuper) Be sure to read the documentation that accompanies the SuperDuper installation files download!
5. A small Phillips screw driver (#1)

Getting Started

The first thing to do is to download SuperDuper.  Install your new drive into the external drive enclosure while downloading and installing SuperDuper.

Once your new external drive enclosure is setup, SuperDuper is downloaded, and you have fully read the SuperDuper documentation (do it – I know you don’t want to, but trust me on this one), you can now connect your external drive to the power supply provided and then to the appropriate port on your computer.

In my case, I am using an external drive with a USB interface for both power and data.  I recommend that if you are performing this on a notebook computer that you leave your notebook plugged into its power supply during this entire process.  Be sure that once plugged in that any led power indicators on your external enclosure are indeed lit up, confirming that your external drive has power and is ready.

Formatting Your External Drive

At this point, it is a safe practice to not rely on manufacturer’s formatting of the drive and run Disk Utility’s Erase in order to format your new drive.  I am going to be formatting into Mac OS Extended (Journaled).  Find Disk Utility in /Applications/Utilities/, or by using Spotlight – entering Disk Utility in the search input, and lauch the application.  Disk Utility will open up and a list of available drives will be located on the left, select your new drive from the list.  In the main window of Disk Utility, choose Erase from the available tabs.  Choose what format you would like your volume to be and name your volume, if desired.  If you are removing existing data from the drive, use the security options button to select the appropriate erase configuration for your needs.

Formatting Using Disk Utility

Warning!

Yes, RED, Bold, and Big.  It is at this point that anything that exists on the drive you are about to partition will be erased.  That is erased as in gone, cant get it back (not entirely true but the time and potential expense of recovery can be prohibitive).  Be sure that if there is any doubt that you simply close Disk Utility and go triple check this disk, backup any data as needed.

Continuing On

Confirm all of your erase settings are as you wish, your format is chosen correctly, your volume is named, YOU HAVE SELECTED THE CORRECT VOLUME.  If all is good and you wish to proceed, click on the Erase button.  You will be presented with a confirmation alert popup asking you to confirm the erase.  If you are unsure at this point, cancel and stop the erase until you are certain this is what you wish to do.  If you are sure, press the Erase button to begin erasing the volume.

Erasing a Volume

Partitioning Your External Drive

It is now time to partition your new drive.  Find Disk Utility in /Applications/Utilities/, or by using Spotlight – entering Disk Utility in the search input, and lauch the application.  Disk Utility will open up and a list of available drives will be located on the left, select your new drive from the list.

Partition Using Disk Utility

Once selected, the Partition tab will become available at the top of Disk Utilitie’s main window.  Select the Partition tab and choose the number of partitions you would like from the drop-down list under “Volume Sheme”.  There are different strategies for partitioning based upon specific needs.  In my case, I use a Virtual Machine to run other operating systems and dont really feel the need to partition off my operating system separate from my directories and files for applications and documents.

Therefore, I use a single partition.  Choose the number of partitions accordingly to your needs.  In the Volume Information section, define the volume name, the format (I’m using Mac OS Extended (Journaled).  Just in case I would ever like/need to use this drive on an older machine using OS 9, I am leaving the Install OS 9 Disk Drivers checkbox selected.  Here is what my configuration looks like at this point.

Configuring Partition(s)

I am going to be installing this drive into my MacBook, once i’m completed with the imaging process, discussed in an accompanying article.  For this reason, I need to select the correct partition scheme from within the menu located from the Options button.  There are three choices available, GUID Partition Table – creates startup volume for Intel-based Macs, Apple Partition Map, creates startup volume for Power PC-based Macs, and Master Boot Record, creates startup volume for DOS and Windows computers.  My MacBook is an Intel-based Mac and I do want to boot from this drive, so I choose GUID.

Choosing the Partition Scheme

After choosing your partition scheme, click on OK and then review all of your partition’s settings.  If you are creating more than one partition, repeat this process for each partition you wish to create.

Warning!

Again – Yes, RED, Bold, and Big.  It is at this point that anything that exists on the drive you are about to partition will be erased.  That is erased as in gone, cant get it back (not entirely true but the time and potential expense of recovery can be prohibitive).  Be sure that if there is any doubt that you simply close Disk Utility and go tripple check this disk, backup any data as needed.

Creating The Partition

Click on the Apply button, some versions have a Partition button to creat the partition, a confirmation alert will popup giving you one last chance to change your mind.

Partitioning the Disk

If you are sure you’d like to proceed, press the Partition button to begin partitioning your new disk.  This process only takes a few seconds normally.  At this point, go into Finder, your new volume should be availabe in the Devices section.  Select your new drive and then press Apple+I to open information, all of your partition information should be displayed.  If everything looks good then Congrats!

Moving On

In the next article, I’m going to get into the process of migrating my existing disk image over to the new drive using SuperDuper.  I will then replace my old drive with the new one and test that the new drive is booting properly and that everything is in order.

(By) Douglas Reynolds is an application developer, holds a degree in Software Engineering, and owns an independent Flex application development consulting company.  He maintains a personal and technology blog located at dougrdotnet.  Find him on Twitter @dougrdotnet and LinkedIn.

Related Posts

• How To Upgrade Your MacBook Hard Drive – Part 2
• How To Upgrade Your MacBook Hard Drive – Part 3
• How To Set Up An External Drive Enclosure
• HDClone Review – Cloning A Windows Virtual Drive
• Secure Your USB Drive with TrueCrypt

Tags: hard drive, Partition, upgrade