How to Clone Mac Drive to SSD for free in about 5 minutes

Author: Chris Adams
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8m 22s Lenght
579 Rating

I upgraded to an SSD drive. This is how to clone a Mac Drive to SSD for free using the mac software "Disk Utilities" and changing the Startup Disk. It takes a few minutes to set up the actions but the entire process takes about 4 hours because of the amount of time needed to backup the original drive. I am now booting from this drive through the USB2.0 port. It is quiet and this is much easier than opening the computer to re-install it. This breathes new life and speed into an old mac! The machine is faster without the constant grinding of the old hard drive.

Comments

  1. Thanks for the video! I found it helpful.
  2. Very useful, thx a lot
  3. Hi Chris!I have a Macbook Pro 13-inch mid-2012, running Sierra, and I'm looking to upgrade my hard drive to an SSD for better performance. Will what you are suggesting in your video work with Sierra? Thanks!
  4. Can I do this process on a macbook that has 0SX 10.5.8 and will the new SSD work with OSX 10.5.8? , also do you when you boot up with the SSD will it ask you to install OSX again or will it pick up where you left off?
  5. it's working with El Capitan?
  6. I have perform a HD to SSD for El Captino 11.10.5

    Post the data transfer is complete, can I just shutdown, swap the HD with SSD and boot from it? Or do I need to mount it?

    (I didnt understand why the mounting is supposed to be done, if at all it has to be done)
  7. Thank you so much.
  8. * FIX. After restarting and holding COMMAND + R to enter recovery mode -> Disk Utility, I could not drag my main hard drive to the source field. I had to click UNLOCK at the top of Disk Utility, and enter my login password. Now it let me drag my main hard drive to the source field. Hope this helps people with the same issue.
  9. This worked great for me! 2012 MBP on Yosemite. Thanks! Just had to boot into disk utility with cmd+R and reactivate Microsoft office. 😎
  10. Hey what brand of ssd did you buy for this?
  11. Than so for the info. If I wanted to install the drive internally. Can I do that after I cloned it EXTernallly. Or do I have to have it inside to begin.
  12. Is there any way to do this on Yosemite? Disk Utility says you can't use the internal drive as the source
  13. The disk clonning start at: 3:01


    Thanks for the video
  14. * WARNING * I did this upgrade last weekend and it works really well. The SSD is super fast. I also installed more memory and my old Macbook Pro is now like a new one. It really was very easy to do. HOWEVER, be aware that if you are using Microsoft Office for Mac, you will need to enter the Product key again. So make sure you have the original Office DVD's or CD's before you start. (Unless you don't need Office anymore) - (I purchased a newer version of Office because I couldn't find the original discs that I installed 5 years ago)
  15. Awesome, thank you simple, clear and fast!
  16. 480 Mbps should read as 480 Mega-bits-per second, a factor of 8!
  17. Thanks a lot! Will try later today! Just bought a Samsung SSD 850 EVO
  18. A fine alternative of Disk Utility for cloning Mac hard drive is Drive Clone utility by Stellar Data Recovery that fully clones Macintosh HD, Recovery HD and BootCamp partition. For partition cloning, the utility gives option of disk cloning to another volume, a network volume or a SSD.
  19. To clone in el capitan: press cmd shift R in the utility and youll be fine
  20. Will I be able to move the OS from one hard drive to the next? I'm switching from a Sata disc drive to a SSHD