How can I copy the OS X system image from primary HDD to new SSD?

Solution 1:

So you can keep using your old 500GB HDD I would buy a cheap enclosure for it. They can be had with USB 2.0 for as little as $10.

Concerning the Software-Side, neither SuperDuper nor Carbon Copy Cloner are bad. Personally I, however, prefer Apple's own Disk Utility.

Simply boot from your Install DVD or Restore Partition (if you use Lion), holding down the ALT key while you power on your machine.

Both the Install DVD and the Restore Partition give you access to Disk Utility. There simply hit the Restore tab and drag and drop your Source an Destination volume accordingly.

If you do not want to buy a new HDD enclosure simply clone your internal HDD to your spare external using the aforementioned way. Then replace your Book's HDD with the SSD. And clone everything back to it.

Solution 2:

I would try to open the enclosure of your external USB drive and replace it with the SSD to clone your data.

Simple hard drive cloning using Carbon Copy Cloner

1. Format the target drive with Disk Utiliy.app to Mac OS Extendend (Journaled) using the option Erase. This erases the drive and creates one partition across the entire disk.

2. Download and install Carbon Copy Cloner. BTW: Developers need to eat! Therefore, I suggest making a small donation to Mike Bombich via Paypal.

3. In CCC configure Source Disk: Macintosh HD and Target Disk: your_formatted_disk. For cloning options choose Backup everything in order to make the target bootable. The time for cloning varies. It took me 105min to clone a 250GB Hitachi to a 500GB Seagate.

   

4. Swap the hard drives and boot into your new hard drive. Repair your disk using Disk Utility.

Source: credit to Mark West @ mac101.net