External Drive For Macbook

h364

New Member
Hi guys,

Recently bought my 2.4GHz Macbook, and i'm thinking of getting an external drive for use with TimeMachine. It's currently got an internal HDD @ 250GB 5,400 RPM.

So my plan was to buy a new 7,200 RPM HDD, put that in the Mac, and use the 250 with an enclosure to make an external drive. Is this possible?

Also, since all my OS, files, music etc is on the 250, could i get them back off the external drive to transfer onto my new internal one?
 
that's possible, but to do that, you'd need to know what you're doing... you need to remove the currently installed hard-drive, put it in the external enclosure, install the new hard-drive (MUST be 2.5", NOT 3.5"), close it all up and boot from the OS X install disk, with the old HD in the external enclosure plugged in. From there you need to go into Disk Utility (before the install) and reformat it as Mac Extended (Journaled) and give the drive a GUID Partition table so it can boot from an intel mac (such as your macbook). Then install, and it will give you an option to get your files/setting from a time machine backup or external drive. Choose external drive, and select the Old HD in the external enclosure. It'll do its thing.
 
So i have to format the newly installed HDD in the laptop, install etc, and then use whats on the now external drive to import onto the new HDD.

From there, should i format the external, and set up TimeMachine.

Does TimeMachine back up your entire system, or just some files, etc?
 
1) Exactly, plus, there are plenty of step-by-step guides online
2) Yes
3) It's your choice- you can tell it how much or how little you want it to backup.
 
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