Replacing the main drive in my Mac Pro

[mzupan]

I am going to replace the original 250GB drive in my Mac Pro with a 750GB drive.

I don't want to have to reinstall all of my software. What steps do I need to take with SuperDuper to do this? I have a 500GB external drive which I have used SuperDuper to make a backup of the 250GB drive using the default 'Backup - all files' option in SuperDuper.

Since my computer will be down during this process, and I am pretty new to using SuperDuper, I want to make sure I have everything straight before I start.

-Mike

[dnanian]

Well, what I'd do is install the 750GB drive into the MacPro. Use Disk Utility to properly partition it as "GUID", with one (or more) Mac OS Extended (Journaled) partitions. Then, use SD! to copy -- using "Backup - all files" and "Smart Update" -- from the 250 to the 750.

When the copy is done, rename the destination drive to the same name as the old drive (e.g. Macintosh HD). Open the Startup Disk Preference pane and select it as the startup volume, but don't click restart.

Shut down your Mac, remove the old drive, and start it up again: that should do it.

[mzupan]

Thanks Dave! That was extremely helpful and I appreciate not just being told to search the forums to piece together my answer. I hadn't purchased SuperDuper yet, but your excellent support has just solidified my decision. I will be purchasing the full version this week.

Great product! Superior support!

-Mike

[dnanian]

Thanks, Mike. Stop by when you get it done and let us know how it went.

[mzupan]

Following the steps you provided worked perfectly. I am now moved over to my new 750GB drive. It seemed to boot a little bit slower than normal on the first boot, but subsequent boots are back to normal speeds. All of my applications work just as they did before.

I think I learned in these forums about Seagate's jumper pin that limits 3GB drives to 1.5GB speed. The actual hard drive states that on the label too (go figure... who reads documentation?) I removed the jumper and everything is running smooth.

What a painless process!

[dnanian]

Glad it worked well for you!