"Clone" a working Yosemite Hard Disk to another, not losing settings, serial, etc.

[NuttyBunny]

First of all, after checking all the forum names I couldn't find anyone that would fit my problem, so I'm posting it here (please move it to the appropiate area if necessary).

The issue is the following:

I have a fully working HackBook Pro installation on a HP 8460p (this time the machine is mine, I bought one just for this purpose), I even went the extra mile and got a working WiFi Card. Few quirks remain, like slow speed on the eSATA port, but that's not the issue at hand here.

I have it running on a 120GB Hard Disk. I just acquired a 1TB Hard Disk and I'd like to switch disks as transparent as possible. I know I can use Time Machine, or even the old hard disk to "transfer" my information, but it doesn't copy everything. Last time I had issues with my Office 2011 installation, and Android Studio was missing several GB of downloaded files. Perhaps the Office installation issues were due to a different serial number (I migrated from a VMWare installation to a barebones one).

Now, I use Clover UEFI here, but it's installed on the internal hard disk. I know I need to download the Yosemite installer and use Unibeast on it, and then use PBI, as I've done it several times, but I really want to just copy partitions here and there and boot off the new hard disk, with all my files intact.

Is this possible?

I'm thinking that I could reuse the info.plist on the EFI partition to have all the settings back (serial and stuff) so I wouldn't need to re-register Office and RoboVM?

Any advice on how to proceed?

Thanks!

 

[Adrian B]

I'm thinking that I could reuse the info.plist on the EFI partition to have all the settings back (serial and stuff) so I wouldn't need to re-register Office and RoboVM?

You will need to input your product key or product ID for any Microsoft apps that you use on a different HDD or SSD - the same applies on a real Mac. You can clone your installation using apps like Carbon Copy Cloner & Super Duper.

http://www.tonymacx86.com/general-help/70173-backup-solutions-your-mac-customac.html

 

[RehabMan]

First of all, after checking all the forum names I couldn't find anyone that would fit my problem, so I'm posting it here (please move it to the appropiate area if necessary).

The issue is the following:

I have a fully working HackBook Pro installation on a HP 8460p (this time the machine is mine, I bought one just for this purpose), I even went the extra mile and got a working WiFi Card. Few quirks remain, like slow speed on the eSATA port, but that's not the issue at hand here.

I have it running on a 120GB Hard Disk. I just acquired a 1TB Hard Disk and I'd like to switch disks as transparent as possible. I know I can use Time Machine, or even the old hard disk to "transfer" my information, but it doesn't copy everything. Last time I had issues with my Office 2011 installation, and Android Studio was missing several GB of downloaded files. Perhaps the Office installation issues were due to a different serial number (I migrated from a VMWare installation to a barebones one).

Now, I use Clover UEFI here, but it's installed on the internal hard disk. I know I need to download the Yosemite installer and use Unibeast on it, and then use PBI, as I've done it several times, but I really want to just copy partitions here and there and boot off the new hard disk, with all my files intact.

Is this possible?

I'm thinking that I could reuse the info.plist on the EFI partition to have all the settings back (serial and stuff) so I wouldn't need to re-register Office and RoboVM?

Any advice on how to proceed?

Thanks!

You can clone HFS+J partitions with Disk Utility. As far as EFI, it is just a folder... so you can simply copy it from the old EFI to the new one.

Keep in mind PBI is not being maintained, therefore not supported anymore.

New guide: http://www.tonymacx86.com/el-capita...zbook-using-clover-uefi-hotpatch-10-11-a.html

 

[NuttyBunny]

You can clone HFS+J partitions with Disk Utility. As far as EFI, it is just a folder... so you can simply copy it from the old EFI to the new one.

Keep in mind PBI is not being maintained, therefore not supported anymore.

New guide: http://www.tonymacx86.com/el-capita...zbook-using-clover-uefi-hotpatch-10-11-a.html

So, can I clone a 100GB partition with Disk Utility and restore it on a 900GB one and retain my free space on that partition? Or the restored partition will be 100GB and I'll still need to fiddle with that? That could be handy, but I'd still need to store a 100+GB file on a third hard drive

I still need Yosemite until a working USB 3 solution is found (last time I read it wasn't working on El Capitán), and the last PBI works fine for me.

BTW, thanks for the fast response!

 

[NuttyBunny]

You will need to input your product key or product ID for any Microsoft apps that you use on a different HDD or SSD - the same applies on a real Mac. You can clone your installation using apps like Carbon Copy Cloner & Super Duper.

http://www.tonymacx86.com/general-help/70173-backup-solutions-your-mac-customac.html

Oh, Stupid Microsoft. Well, thanks anyway. I wanted to skip that, I hoped that Microsoft checked the Mac serial number, not the HD serial :

 

[RehabMan]

So, can I clone a 100GB partition with Disk Utility and restore it on a 900GB one and retain my free space on that partition? Or the restored partition will be 100GB and I'll still need to fiddle with that? That could be handy, but I'd still need to store a 100+GB file on a third hard drive

It depends on exactly how you restore. Assuming there is no partition following the target partition, it is easy to increase the size of a partition.

I still need Yosemite until a working USB 3 solution is found (last time I read it wasn't working on El Capitán), and the last PBI works fine for me.

GenericUSBXHCI.kext can work if you plug the device in before booting.

Don't forget to fill out your profile...

Please provide complete details in your profile/signature
(Profile/Settings link in upper right corner of this site)

Mobo: manufacturer/model + bootloader(Clover/Chameleon/Chimera)
CPU: detailed CPU model + motherboard chipset
Graphics: all graphics devices + laptop internal screen resolution

For example, typical Ivy laptop:
Mobo: HP ProBook 4540s (Clover)
CPU: i5-3320m/HM76
Graphics: HD4000, 1366x768

Use CPU-Z on Windows to find CPU (Core iX-xxx) and motherboard chipset (HMxx), and graphics capabilities. For a laptop, these details are important and affect critical installation procedures.

Note: When specifying your bootloader, if using Clover legacy, please be sure to specify "Clover legacy"). Specifying "Clover" will be assumed as "Clover UEFI"

 

[Adrian B]

Oh, Stupid Microsoft. Well, thanks anyway. I wanted to skip that, I hoped that Microsoft checked the Mac serial number, not the HD serial :

It is much the same with Adobe and other third party app companies.
This forum might help:
http://www.office.mvps.org/version/#keys

 

[NuttyBunny]

Thanks guys for the help.

I ended using my old Yosemite USB (3 months old), copied my current config.plist file from the old HD EFI partition to the USB one, installed Mac OS, used PBI to install clover and the other Probook stuff, rebuilt permissions, rebooted a couple of times (to fix Audio), installed Rehabman's USB 3 kext and confirmed it worked.

Then I used the Apple Migration Assistant tool to copy all the info from the old HD to the new one. It did copy almost everything (even Java and Android Studio). It failed to copy some XCode stuff that got reinstalled once I ran it again (but preserved my certificates), and the Office Activation (which I just activated again).

In the end it was a smooth ride, and I got everything up and running in less than 3 hours.

Thanks for the help guys!