Question : Cloning my Mac

I need to clone my Mac in preparation for installing a new hard drive and operating system. I downloaded "SuperDuper" and was hesitant to continue because I had planned on simply dumping the cloned data on to my USB external drive. It said that couldn't do that, or at least that's what I understood. CarbonCopy Cloner looked a little bit more approachable in that it said I could use a USB drive, but I wouldn't be able to boot up from it.

I've not done this before. I don't know if I NEED to be able to boot up if I'm just creating a mirror image of my hard drive. In the end, here's what I want to do:

Install Leopard - I'm running Boot Camp. I'm under the impression that I won't be able to save that part of the hard drive, which is fine. But, the sales person that I spoke with said that Boot Camp is no longer free and I have to buy the Leopard operating system which has Boot Camp on it.

Create a clone of my computer with the new Leopard OS - I need to do this because I want to install my new hard drive

Install my new hard drive and then bring the cloned image back on to my new hard drive.

That's what I need to do. Could someone walk me through this and then let me know if I can use the USB hard drive.

Thanks!

Answer : Cloning my Mac

Hi

Kind of, what I was suggesting was to physically move the hard drive to a hard drive enclosure not just copy the info. This way you can also use your old drive as a handy external hard drive once everything is done. This would involve purchasing the enclosure first obviously if you don't already have one.

The migration assistant will run automatically if you do a fresh install of Tiger or Leopard on the NEW hard drive once you have installed it in the powerbook. Then simply connect the enclosure containing the OLD drive and you're ready to migrate, it's really simple to use and does all of the work for you. It can also be run afterwards from /Applications/Utilities/Migration Assistant.app.

If you don't have the enclosure and want to get one you're looking for an enclosure for a 2.5" ide drive, they're not expensive.

I would also suggest looking for the service manual for the powerbook if it's your first time opening it up - it's not difficult but you can never be too careful

Hope this helps