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Cloning my hard drive

I have a Western Digital 320GB drive in my mid-2007 iMac intel 20" and need to clone it to my new Western Digital 2TB Black Caviar hard drive. I have the Kingwin EZ-Dock EZD-2535 docking station and will use this with my 2007 15" Macbook Pro Laptop as the device to perform this task. I also have (3) different cloning programs:

1) Mac Disk Utilities

2) Micromat Tool Tech Pro 7

3) Super Duper

Which is the best to use for cloning the entire disk with permissions, passwords, etc. to be exactly like the old one once I install it?

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But you forgot the best tool of all of them Apples Migration Assistant and its free!

OK, here's how you can do this as you have two macs you'll need to connect the two via Ethernet or FireWire. You can even go directly back to back (no hub required). Then use your HD docking station to hold your new HD and connect into your MacBook Pro. I would recommend getting a FireWire case as it will be much quicker than the slow USB2 ports it has unless you have a PC-Card with USB3 ports. Then setup your system in Target Disk mode and then run the app.

As for your other cloning utilities:

You may want to make sure you have the newest versions and double check to see if they are multi-threaded so they can leverage the dual cores of your systems CPU's. I've had problems with Super Duper so I won't use it the other two are both OK. I use Drive Genus personally and have had good success with it.

In any case you really don't need the docking station as you can use your iMac in Target Disk mode in order for the clone software to clone the files (the cloning software can't copy opened files) to your other drive but this time using a Firewire cable between the two systems (much quicker than the USB dock with either USB2 or USB3).

Basically you have Apples migration assistant and the cloning software which all do the same thing here. The ease and speed of each is different. As to the hardware side of things by leveraging your systems built-in abilities (Target Disk mode) and a FireWire case you don't really need the slow USB docking station. If you are going to do it that way I would recommend getting a USB3 PC-Card that fits into your MacBook Pro (thats the hatch on the left side) which will speed things up.

As to your last question: Yes you will need to clone the entire disk so all of the permissions are carried over. If you use Migration assistant your in-fact Copying Vs Cloning but Apples tool also brings across the permissions like the cloning software. So if you have some stuff you have already on your disk you might what to use it instead.

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First off thanks for your help.

In the beginning you said to use my EZ-Dock station and then towards the end you said I don't need it, but my question is how do I migrate all the info to this new drive if its not in the loop?

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Yes, it can be confusing here. Thats why I added the epilog "Basically..." If you put aside the software you have three different setups in hardware. You'll need to think out how much time Vs cost given the options here. A FireWire cable and then use the systems them selves to do the work, using a FireWire case & cable to host the drive and then using Ethernet to connect the two systems, Using your drive dock which still moves the data across the USB port between the two SATA ports. Here I gave you two options the slower USB2 your system has and then using a PC-Card which offers USB3. These are listed in order of speed the dock solution the slowest.

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Don't forget you still end up with a usable HD. So, getting a case for it allows you to recycle it of other tasks. I still have my old 500GB drive in a FireWire/USB combo case. I use it as a maintenance drive with a bootable OS on it and my disk tools to diagnose, repair and defrag my HD drives. I also use it to hold my OS and app images and updates so I can quickly setup new systems or update them as needed.

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Is there anyway you can be reached via phone? I'm super determined to do this myself, but I'm getting confused in translation here. My info is located here if you will:

www.montageone.com/contact

Look forward to hearing from you!

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Where are you confused? The software or hardware side? Or, how to connect your systems together?

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Ok so I had to put the cloning situation to the back burner for a minute, but I am ready to proceed now. I have changed docking devices since we last talked to this since you recommend transfer via firewire: Voyager Q (see specs)

http://www.newertech.com/products/voyage...

Now with this can I dock the new drive in it and plug it into my laptop and also plug my imac with the drive I want to clone in it to my laptop, hold down "T" to get it to show up as a hard drive and then use only migration assistant to do the total transfer between the two externally plugged docking device and imac?

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Maybe these Apple TN's will help explain things Mac OS X v10.6: How to use Migration Assistant to transfer files from another Mac and this one OS X: How to migrate data from another Mac using Mountain Lion and earlier. Apple has also updated the app and you may want to make sure you are using the newer one if you are running Mavericks. Here's a link to an article on them and the links to the newer versions on Apples site Mac Observer - Apple Releases Updates for Migration Assistant and Workgroup Manager Oct22'13. Give these a read and let me know if you still have Q's

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