New Internal HD coming
 

OK Dave, I know this has been answered before, but just make me feel good.

I have a new 320 gig internal HD coming next week. I'm going to put it in my 17" G5 iMac (and replace the 80 that it came with).

I'm fully backed up to a smaller (than 320) partition on my external (a 250, in 2 partitions).

SO, after it's in,
1. I boot from the external
2. I name the new internal the same as the backup.
3. I run Disk Utility on the new drive and use Mac OS Extended (Journaled) to format.
4. Then, I run an erase-and-replace from the external to the new internal.
5. Finally, when I'm happy the new drive is working right, I reboot from the new and erase the TWO partitions on my backup to make a new 250 1-partition backup. If I eventually get close to 200 gig of use, of course I'll buy a new external for my backups, you betcha.


Is there any issue if the backup is smaller than the internal? I'm only using about 60 gigs now. (I guess not, because I've done full restores from the backup to the smaller internal several times already with no problem.)

Remember, I'll still have the old boot volume set aside, so I WILL have a backup set aside if need be, even though I'd have to reinstall it in the iMac.

After I format the new drive, is it necessary to "zero the drive (both the data and free space under Tiger): this tests the drive surface, remaps any bad or weak spots"? I assume that I'll find that option in Disk Utility when I run it.

I am running Leopard10.5.6.


Well, thanks for your help.

Actually, no. You name the new internal the same as the original internal drive. And if you've already erased the internal, you can smart update it rather than re-re-erasing.

I always zero new drives.

You didn't address this in your response, but I notice that today you answered another question with "* In general, the backup volume should be the same size as the original."

Is this, or is this not, an issue? My new internal drive (scheduled to arrive tomorrow) will be 320; my external is a 250. Today, I am only using about 50, and I really can't see that number even doubling in the foreseeable future. (In the past, my backup was about 120 and the original was 74, and I moved freely between the two)

We don't really care as long as the data fits. But data always grows to fit its container -- it's the way of storage!

Completely off topic, and feel free to delete this post, but...
when I got started in this business, I had a Lisa. I was one of the lucky ones, and had an external hard drive. it was 5 MB! and no internal hard drive at all. The system files and the app files were stored on a single-sided 450 floppy -- AND it was state-of-the-art!!!:D:D:D

Yep, I had that Lisa, too. And an original IBM PC - one mono, one color, at the first company I started out of college.

That 5MB ProFile took about 10 minutes to turn on and cost a king's ransom.

OK. The new drive is in and running; my external has been repartitioned to one partition, and the backup is complete, So far, so good.

The next question is (and I KNOW you've covered this before -- I just can't find it -- I'll probably buy a new Intel iMac this Summer. Will it boot from the PPC external? If not, how will I move my data to the new Mac? Transfer mode?

You'll migrate from the PPC backup when FIRST prompted to "copy from another Mac".