Hard Disk Transfer to SSD - 2007 MacBook and Lion

I've recently asked a question regarding fitting a Crucial 256GB SSD (Part No : CT1742109) into my 2007 MacBook (model MB061LL/A), however when researching the transfer process something isn't too clear.

I have had to replace my hard drive a couple of times since I purchased the MacBook so I know I used to boot from the DVD and re-install. With Snow Leopard, I used to insert the disk and select 're-install from a Time Machine Backup' or something similar and it would go through the process. Why couldn't I do this using my most recent (albeit 'Lion') backup? I wouldn't be re-installing Snow Leopard, just merely using the DVD to access the option to re-install from backup.

A follow up question is should I stump up the extra for the data transfer kit offered or is this a waste? Note that I do not want to replace my optical bay and I also don't want to run two HD's at once. I would preferably like to clone the drive onto the new one.

Solution 1:

My favorite method is to install a Recovery HD onto an external USB drive and then do a final backup to Time Machine. You can use any USB flash drive that has 1G of space and can be erased or partitioned for your Recovery HD storage.

Now you can place the new drive in your mac and install a fresh copy of Lion and play around a bit to make sure it works. Once you are happy, erase Lion and re-install a fresh copy but instead of making a new account, just migrate over from the Time Machine backup.

For advanced users, using Disk Utility or SuperDuper/CarbonCopyCloner can be fun, but even knowing how to do all that, I prefer the opportunity to test my backup since being able to restore a backup is so overlooked and catastrophic when it fails on you should you need it.

I'd say save your money on the transfer kit unless you want that anyhow. No need to move things over and in fact, it's sometimes better to let the system lay out the files in order rather than block copying the old structure on to a pristine new drive. With an SSD, access times are so fast, you may not notice, but I'd rather have one process that works either way - SSD to HD or back, larger drive to smaller, etc...

Solution 2:

Your question is not 100% clear to me. Under Lion you don't have a "bootable media DVD" (unless you have a USB-Key which you don't mention). If your current drive has Lion, probably the fastest way to deal with all this is to use Carbon Copy Cloner and any external ssd case, clone the drive (CCC can recognize Lion's recovery partition and clone that too), when the clone is finished and you're sure it boots (by pressing ⌥ upon power on and selecting the external drive), you can then proceed to swap the drives and put the SSD you just cloned/tested in the internal bay, with luck, if you've gotten a flexible enough disc enclosure, you can even use the internal drive as a backup ;)

UPDATE: Since you find stupid the fact that you are trying to boot an older operating system to restore a newer one, then why don't you just go ahead and create a bootable drive of your newer operating system so you can restore your backup they way it should be? Any USB dongle will do.

Go ahead an use Lion Recovery Disk Assistant.