No clue how to go about this...

[r00]

"Once I get the laptop drive up and running perfectly... what is the process to turn my old 10.7.4 disk into the newly working 10.8 disk? I don't want to continue to run my OS off a 120gb 5400 rpm drive."

Disk Utility will allow you to Restore from another disk. It should be a direct clone of what you have.

but what happens to all of my existing files on the 1TB drive? will it only overwrite the OS?

 

[UrbanBard]

"but what happens to all of my existing files on the 1TB drive? will it only overwrite the OS?"

If you are running fine in ML on the laptop drive, and you have all your files transferred or in backups, so you can't lose them, then you can afford to overwrite your 1 T drive.

Let's get you secure on the laptop drive first. How is that going?

 

[r00]

works great... wiped it again, did a full reinstall... updated to 10.8.4, audio works, ethernet works... turned it off and installed my 6850 and it recognized right away.

So I should just clone it over to the 1tb and then "restore" from my backup? does that copy keychain and all of that stuff? I seem to remember last time I restored from a TM backup I was pissed for weeks as I reset settings and passwords, etc...

 

[UrbanBard]

Give it a week or so to find any hidden problems. Use Migration Assistant to transfer your files from the 1TB.

Even so, it may time to renew all your settings, because you are upgrading to Mountain Lion.


Don't be too hasty to wipe out the 1 TB drive, because there is no going back. The one advantage is that going to the 1 Tb drive will be squeaky clean.