Upgrading macbook pro HDD: Time Machine or clean install?

[Wadeski]

Since the release of Yosemite, Apple's policy of forced redundancy has finally caught up with my mid-2010 Macbook Pro. Safari is slow to respond to tabs, iTunes crawls etc.

Rather than throwing another wedge of cash at our Cupertino overlords, I"m going to try upgrading to a solid state drive and doubling the RAM.

The hardware upgrade process seems straightforwards, but I am less sure about the software reinstall.

Most of the guides say to just use a time machine image of your OS...but bringing five years worth of accumulated temporary files and junk with me seems counterproductive.

A clean install of OS X (the full installer is available on the App Store) seems a better way to go, but what is the best way to transfer essential files to the new drive? I'm thinking iTunes library, iPhoto, keychain, bookmarks, emails in the mail app etc?

[Troubleatmill]

I bought a SATA-USB cable then I used Diskmaker X and Carbon Copy cloner.

Cloned the entire drive in a few hours.

Lots of info on this if you google.


Edit.. Otherwise - Just use time machine.

Edited by Troubleatmill on Sunday 17th May 20:25

Double edit: Do you know that you can remove the DVD drive. Get a cradle - and use your old hard disk as a second HDD.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B005K7KYF4?psc=...

Edited by Troubleatmill on Sunday 17th May 20:43

[Wadeski]

Is cloning the drive really going to work as well as a clean install?

I know time machine and similar tech is all modern but my 90s-trained brain says a clean install is always fastest / least problematic?

(despite using Time Machine to backup for a while I've never actually restored one!)

[Durzel]

I'm a bit of a luddite when it comes to stuff like this also. I'd rather end up spending a day reconfiguring a virginal system to the way I like it than risk copying across cruft from a "we know best about what you want to restore" backup like Time Machine. That said it obviously makes sense to do backups.

I don't think there is an easy way of just restoring your keychain, bookmarks and other settings though. iTunes Library is an easy enough thing to restore - copy across to new drive, load iTunes and hold down Option and select the library file you copied across. I would suspect iPhoto would be similar.

[dictys]

Restoring your keychain, bookmarks and other settings, this can be done through iCloud after a clean install.

I just added a SSD and a 7200 HDD to create a DIY fusion drive on my Mac, put a clean install on, downloaded my purchased apps from App store and restored keychain, bookmarks and other settings from iCloud.

[Wadeski]

Transfer assistant seems pretty good for programs.

Whats even cleverer is apparently being able to just plug in the empty, formatted drive with no OS, boot up and hold command+R and the Mac asks your for your network password in firmware, then takes you to an online virtual mac OS to install or recover. Spooky!

[Wadeski]

Well it took a couple of days of fiddling (mainly due Amazon sending me the wrong RAM, then the right RAM but it was corrupt) but even without the memory upgrade the SSD is incredible! 100% recommend to anyone with an older laptop.

Feels like a brand new one (sans Retina and mirroring sadly).

Edited by Wadeski on Friday 22 May 14:33