Help HDD failing on Mac book pro

[JamesMellor]

Hoping some one can help me , over the last few days my MacBook has been crashing while ripping cd's , Disk utility recovered errors on the HDD but it's still showing up Red and warning the disk is about to fail , copying all my music and word / excel doc's to a usb HDD as I type.

I figure I can go buy another 512 gig HDD , or larger ? and fit it but what I'm not sure about is how I will reinstall osx ( 10.9.2 ) .

If I buy a usb drive big enuff to do a time machine back up will it restore that to a new HDD ? or can I create a reboot disk that will reinstall osx .

I query the time machine because in disk utility it says only restore to the same machine

Thanks in advance

James

 

[emperor's new clothes]

Could back up to iCloud and tick box "back to my Mac" Good luck.

 

[John Duncan]

I would recommend not using Time machine, because it won't create a bootable backup. Use something like CarbonCopyCloner to create a bootable backup, boot from it and copy it over to the new HD.

EDIT - Chebby uses SuperDuper! iirc. Also creates bootable backups.

 

[chebby]

I would recommend not using Time machine, because it won't create a bootable backup. Use something like CarbonCopyCloner to create a bootable backup, boot from it and copy it over to the new HD.

EDIT - Chebby uses SuperDuper! iirc. Also creates bootable backups.

Yep and my weekly (bootable) backup paid off handsomely the only time I ever had to use it 'in anger'.

Our iMac's HDD failed (3 weeks before it's 3 year Apple Care was due to expire) and Apple had an approved repairer courier it away, replace the HDD (with a larger one which was nice), then courier it back. All free of charge and it took 5 days in total.

Once it was back from the repairer, I plugged in the external backup drive and booted from it then 'backed up' to the new internal HDD. It didn't miss a beat.

I still back up all three of our systems to external HDs regularly (still using SuperDuper! for the iMac). I can't understand why some people don't. It takes no effort.

I also have all of my photos (and music and some other important stuff) duplicated on two different systems (and their backups obviously).

 

[JamesMellor]

Thanks guys , I'll try that once I figure out why my internet went down :help:

not having the best of days

James

 

[JamesMellor]

Backed everything up using superduber , had to buy it to do the smartback up as the old HDD kept crashing it , had to delete some files that wouldn't copy , fitted the new HDD and restored it .

Everything appears fine and running faster than before , no spinning globe I used to get alot over the last few months .

So Thanks for all the help guys .

One thing , while looking on the internet found out that 2011 macs onwards will download xos over the wifi if rebooted holding down the R key and will then restore from a time machine back up , I'd already bought the new ext HDD and super so I didnt try it.

James