I need a larger system drive, can this be done?

[Killahurts]

I've been trying for a year to manage my 250GB system/startup drive by archiving what I can, and keeping it as clean as possible. But really, I need to get a bigger drive. I'm down to 60GB left, and I don't want to fill it up too much, or I'm afraid it will start giving me performance problems. I was thinking a 500GB drive would fix me up nicely- but how do I do this?

I've heard that Time Machine can copy a system drive bit for bit, but I don't know if that's true, and I've never used it anyway. I have authorization codes for plugins and software on this drive, and frankly it is beyond my ability to remember them all. Also all my mail, etc.

So I want exactly what I have, but on a larger drive- is this even possible?

Thanks!

Mac Quadcore 3GHz. with with Snow Leopard.

[billf]

I've been trying for a year to manage my 250GB system/startup drive by archiving what I can, and keeping it as clean as possible. But really, I need to get a bigger drive. I'm down to 60GB left, and I don't want to fill it up too much, or I'm afraid it will start giving me performance problems. I was thinking a 500GB drive would fix me up nicely- but how do I do this?

I've heard that Time Machine can copy a system drive bit for bit, but I don't know if that's true, and I've never used it anyway. I have authorization codes for plugins and software on this drive, and frankly it is beyond my ability to remember them all. Also all my mail, etc.

So I want exactly what I have, but on a larger drive- is this even possible?

Thanks!

Mac Quadcore 3GHz. with with Snow Leopard.

You can use SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner and copy the entire contents of the existing drive to the new one. I do this all the time with my installs of OSX. You will need to reauthorize DP on the new drive, so make sure you have the codes and install DVD handy when you go to launch it.

[mikehalloran]

Of course it is possible. It is not possible to do it without having to re-authorize DP. Depending on the protections used by other software, you may have to re-authorize that as well.

If you are using iLok for anything, that will port over just fine.

Time Machine, CCC or SuperDuper all work - but don't work equally well.

[Killahurts]

Of course it is possible. It is not possible to do it without having to re-authorize DP. Depending on the protections used by other software, you may have to re-authorize that as well.

Yeah, that's what I was afraid of. Before I do such a thing, I have to go through and make sure I have serial numbers, etc. ready to go for everything that is important. I know that my iLoks are my friends with all this. But I still have a lot of plugins that are not iLok protected, and some that used to not be, but are now.

Then there are the other things like Microsoft Office, Final cut Studio, and probably others I'm not even thinking of. What a hassle. I buy all my software, but that doesn't necessarily mean I can find everything without a lot of searching

I think what I might be better off doing is to transfer my iTunes library to a network drive. That would buy me something like 40GB, which would get me through till I get a new computer, probably.

[daniel.sneed]

+1 on Super Duper. Works like a charm.

Each time I'm into a real step above in my DAW setup, before changing anything, I first update a prior safety clone. Takes less than 5 minutes, with the full registered Super Duper.

You'll have to authorize some software and others won't require anything done.
For authorizations may be hard disk dependent (such as DP), or motherboard dependent (such as Reason), or, of course, iLock dependent.

[Dwetmaster]

You could move your home folder only to another drive. I have a 60GB SSD for system drive and my home folder is on a separate 500 GB HD.

[David Polich]

Installing a new system drive is really easy, once you do a backup of
your existing drive.

Make sure you install the OS fresh onto your new drive. Don't copy
the OS from your backup. Just copy your important files. Don' copy over any apps - re-install those fresh.

[monkey man]

The image-handling features of Disk Utility have always worked fine for me.