It happens eventually. With all the files your digital lifestyle includes – applications, movies, music, pictures, documents and more - the hard drive in your computer will eventually fill up and you'll need more space. Sure, you can burn some of those files to CD or DVD, but then you have a pile of discs laying around and finding which file is where is more hassle than most of us need.

Fortunately, there's an easier solution – upgrade to a bigger hard drive. It's a fairly straightforward process, that given a little time, a little patience and the correct tools, anybody can do.

So let's get to it!

Step 1: Select the correct hard drive for your computer.

There's a lot of different hard drives out there, but OWC makes it easy for you to select the right one for you. Simply go to MyOWC, select your computer model and the type of upgrade you want (Hard Drive). You will be presented with a list of drives that will work with your computer.

While advanced users have a number of things that they may want to consider, in order to "tweak" their systems, the average user doesn't really need to go too deeply into that. Simply select the largest drive you can reasonably afford. Nobody was ever disappointed because they bought too big a hard drive.

Step 2: Make sure you have a way to connect your new drive.

When transferring your data, especially when doing so from a laptop or other single-drive computer (like iMacs, eMacs, etc.), you'll need a device to connect the new drive to your computer while your old hard drive is still installed.

The easiest way to do this is with the Newer Technology Universal Drive Adapter. It provides everything you need to connect your new drive to your computer, no matter what kind of drive it is. Simply connect the drive to the adapter according to NewerTech's instruction sheet, and plug the USB cable into an empty port on your computer.

Alternatively, if you plan on using your old drive for ongoing external storage when you're done, you can use the enclosure you will eventualy put your old drive into. We discuss choosing the right enclosure later in this help guide, but if this is the route you're going to take, then you will want to choose your enclosure now.

Moments after you do that, your computer will see your drive and ask you what you want to do with it.

You can click the "Ignore" button for the time being - we will format the drive in a moment.

Step 3: Boot to your OS X Install Disk.

When transferring user data from one drive to another, Apple generally recommends installing a fresh copy of OS X, then using Migration Assistant to bring over your user data.

This allows for a clean base to start from. As we use our computers, they tend to collect "leftover" files from installers, old applications we've erased, various logs and the like. By doing a fresh installation, then bringing over our data, we can easily clear out these "old" files and start anew – without all the leftovers – for maximum system performance and stability.

Step 4: Format the new drive.

Once you boot to the Installer Disc, you will be asked which language you want to use. Select the language of your choice and click the right arrow at the bottom of the screen.

You will get a screen welcoming you to the Installer. However, we need to format that new drive first, so the Installer will see it.

Go to the "Utilities" menu at the top of the screen and select "Disk Utility." Once Disk Utility is open, select the new drive from the list on the left (it will have an orange icon with the USB logo on it). Once you have the disk selected, click on the "Erase" tab on the right.

Set the Volume Format to "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)". This is the recommended format for all drives that have OS X installed on it. The name can be anything you want. Once you have set those two items, you can click the "Erase…" button. You will likely be asked if you're sure you want to erase the drive. Click the second "Erase" button (it's a new drive, there's nothing on it to erase).

Once the drive has finished initializing, you can close the Disk Utility window.

Step 5: Install Mac OS X.

Closing the Disk Utility window will bring you back to the Installer. Follow the steps as they are presented to you, making sure to select your new drive (the one you just initialized in Step 4) as the install location. The installers for Mac OS X are very straightforward to use, all you need to do is follow the on-screen instructions. Once you have filled in the required information, the actual install will begin. This can take quite awhile – often upwards of an hour or two, depending on your system. Fortunately, the process at this point is automated, so you can do something else while waiting for the install to complete.

Step 6: Import your User data and Applications.

After Mac OS X has finished installing and your computer restarts, you will be walked through the setup screens. As part of this process, you will be asked if you want to import User data from another system. Select the option to transfer your User information from another volume and click the "Continue" button.

The next screen will list the things you can transfer. Select any Users you want to bring over to your new drive, as well as your Applications folder and network settings. There is an option for "Files and Folders," which you will likely want to bring over as well, since some applications seem to like to install some settings in non-standard places; this option helps cover those instances.

Once you have selected the items you would like to bring over, click the "Transfer" button, and Migration Assistant will begin to run. This is another convenient time to find something else to do for a bit as, depending on the amount of data being brought over, it can take awhile.

Once Migration Assistant finishes, you may continue the rest of the setup, and continue booting to your new drive.

Step 7: Run Software Update.

Most likely, there are several updates available for the OS version you just installed. Once your computer has reached the Desktop of your chosen account, but before running anything else, go to the Apple menu and select "Software Update…" Run all the updaters that are available. Once it has finished, you will likely need to restart.

Once you have restarted, run Software Update again. There is a good chance that there are more items to install. Repeat the process. Once no more items show in Software Update, your system software is up to date.

Step 8: Check your files.

Now that everything is up to date and you don't have to worry about having system software that's too old for your favorite applications, go through your files and make sure nothing is missing. You may have to re-authorize some licensing agreements in some cases. In other instances, you may need to reinstall the application altogether (Adobe CS3 often requires this). Once you have checked that all is as it should be, you can finally swap the drives out.

Step 9: Remove your old drive and install the new one.

This is a big step. The process for this, of course, varies from computer to computer. Fortunately, OWC has some very nice instructional videos that walk you through hard drive installation for most user-upgradable Mac models. You can find them in the Tech Center or by clicking this link.

Step 10: Enjoy your fresh system… with more room!

Now, you can restart your computer, and it will start up from your new disk. You've got all the programs you use and all your existing data, but now you have more storage capacity. It's a win-win!

What do you do with your old drive?

Now that you are running your system off that new, spacious hard drive, the dilemma of what to do with that "old" drive comes into question. When upgrading an internal drive on an Apple PowerBook, iBook, iMac, eMac and other single drive bay system, you have two options for what to do with the old drive:

1. Use it As-Is.
   The drive is a snapshot of your computer right up to the point of copying over the contents to the new drive. All your applications, documents, pictures and everything else are on it. If you need to, you can still access it via the Newer Technology Universal Drive Adapter you used to transfer the data. Otherwise, it can sit in storage (we recommend encasing it in a Newer Technology ProtectaDrive, to be extra safe) until you need it.
   
   
2. Use it as an external drive.
   Having an external drive can be handy. Whether you use it for transferring larger files back and forth, as a "scratch disk" while working with large files, or as a "deep storage" unit for older files you'd like to keep around, the possible uses for an external drive are almost limitless. The only thing you need to do with your old internal drive in order to use it as an external one would be to put it into an external hard drive enclosure.

If you've decided to place the drive in an external enclosure and use it as a desktop or portable drive, then here's what you need to do:

Step 1: Choose the right enclosure.

The first thing you will need to do is select an external drive enclosure. There are only two things you will need to know: whether the drive is a 2.5" or 3.5" size and whether it is a Serial ATA (SATA) drive or an IDE/ATA (PATA) drive.

If you took the drive out of a notebook/laptop, odds are that it is a 2.5" drive. Desktops generally use 3.5" drives.

Determining whether your drive has a SATA or IDE/ATA connection is simple. Just look at the connection on the drive and compare it to the chart below. Once you have determined what kind of drive you have, simply click on the corresponding drive's picture below for a list of enclosures that will work with it.

	IDE/ATA Hard Drive (note the pins)	SATA Hard Drive
2.5" Hard Drive
3.5" Hard Drive

Step 2: Install the drive in the enclosure.

Now that you have the correct enclosure, installing the drive is a fairly easy matter. You only need three things to install a drive in an enclosure:

1. The ability to plug in a cable.
   
   
2. The ability to use a screwdriver.
   
   
3. The proper screwdriver. Many enclosures have specially sized or shaped screw heads. Fortunately, the NewerTech 11-Piece Portable Toolkit includes the most common screws found on external hard drive enclosures.

	In some enclosures, the connections consist of two cables that connect to the matching connections on the drive. You plug the cables into the drive, then anchor the drive to the case using mounting screws. This is most common with enclosures for 3.5" hard drives, such as with the OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro.
In other enclosures, the connectors are directly mounted to a circuit board. With these, the drives slide right onto the connector and are anchored in place with their own mounting screws. This style is much more common for small, portable enclosures such as the OWC Mercury On-The-Go Pro series.

Once you've installed the drive, all you need to do is reassemble the enclosure and your external hard drive is ready to be used.

Step 3: Use your new hard drive.

Using a self-assembled external drive is just like using any off-the-shelf, preconfigured external hard drive. All you need to do is attach the external enclosure to your computer (and a power source, in the case of 3.5" drives), then turn it on. After a moment, your drive should mount on the Desktop.

It is up to you whether or not you want to erase the hard drive. If you do, simply open up Disk Utility and use the Erase tab, like you did when formatting your other drive. If not, then you're good to go!

Special Notes

Though as accurate and detailed as possible, this is a very generalized description. It may not cover your exact setup. For example, drives used solely for data (such as a second drive in a multi-drive Mac Pro) will not be copied using the Install/Migrate method and should be cloned instead.

Under most circumstances, however, using these instructions as a guideline will enable you to upgrade to a newer, larger hard drive and get new life from the old one!