Reformatting SSD after moving it to a different Mac
I just successfully completed an upgrade to my 2011 mini, adding an SSD drive on top of the existing drive. The SSD, a Corsair Force GT 240 gb, was previously in my MBP, and has on it all the formatting for the MBP, and somewhat different software and files than I keep on the mini. I want the SSD in the mini to have everything the HD in it currently has; the question is how to best go about this. Here are some options I thought of:
(1) wipe the SSD with Disk Utility, reinstall Lion from scratch and then migrate apps and settings from the mini HD.
(2) wipe the SSD with Disk Utility and clone the mini HD onto it (I have Carbon Copy Cloner)
(3) don't wipe, just clone
(4) use Carbon Copy Cloner to just clone my home folder and apps, since both already have the current version of Lion on them.
(5) something else?
Note that when I first got the SSD, I installed Lion from scratch, migrated my MBP stuff with Migration Assistant and then updated the system, so the version of Lion on my SSD is fresh and current and there is an emergency disk on it. Option #4 looks to be the quickest way to get on the SSD what I want, but I worry about settings that might not carry over because they aren't in my home folder. Option #1 looks like the best from the perpective of having a fresh install with everything on it that I need, but is it a good idea to just wipe the whole SSD?
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G4/1.3 ghz Cube, 20" iMac 2.16 ghz Core 2 duo, 1.42 mhz Mini, G4/1.33 15" AI PowerBook, G3/400 Pismo
Carbon Copy Cloner does everything you need to setup the SSD and transfer everything for you.
__________________ Apple Certified Macintosh Technician (ACMT) / Support Professional (ACSP) MacBook Air (13-inch, Mid 2012) 8GB RAM, 256GB Flash Storage Mac mini (Late 2012) 16GB RAM, Fusion Drive (128GB SSD/750GB 7200RPM) iPad mini 16GB, iPhone 4S 16GB
Thanks for all of your suggestions. I knew CCC would work, but I wanted a clean install of the OS before transferring my apps and settings. For that reason, I ended up reformatting the drive with Disk Utility. Then to do a clean install, I had to boot into the Recovery Partition because the Lion installer refused to work from a disk that already had 10.7.4 on it. Once the Recovery Partition was finished the clean install of Lion, a dialogue box came up asking me about transfer of programs and settings. I was able to select the mechanical drive already in the mini, so now I have a clean install with all my old programs and settings on the new SSD. So far it seems to be working well, and the SSD really speeds things up.
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G4/1.3 ghz Cube, 20" iMac 2.16 ghz Core 2 duo, 1.42 mhz Mini, G4/1.33 15" AI PowerBook, G3/400 Pismo
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