New Larger Hard Drive on MacBook Pro
You can make an exact copy of your internal HD via Carbon Copy Cloner (edit: former freeware, now commercial but with a fully functional 30-day Demo). I recommend that you first check your MacBook Pro Model if you can use a standard 2,5" SATA HD. Then you just have to:
- Buy an external 2,5" drive case in which you install the 1 TB HD first. (Or some other way to connect an internal drive to your computer's external ports, i.e. a USB to SATA adapter.)
- Then connect it, start up Carbon Copy Cloner and transfer all the files (this will be slow - about 5 hours for 200 GB).
- Physically switch the internal 500 GB Drive with the external 1 TB.
- Start your MacBook Pro as usual.
For disassembling your MacBook Pro you should check out several model-specific Guides you can find f.e. at iFixit.com.
Yes, it is possible!
Word of warning if you are using Adobe products: do remember to deactivate them before moving to the new disk and running their software; you may need to do this with other software that has stringent licensing requirements.
Otherwise, all you need to do is:
- External 2.5" USB, FireWire, etc. to SATA enclosure (or the equivalent adapter).
- Disk imaging software such as Carbon Copy Cloner.
- Connect new drive externally.
- Copy from your current drive to the new one.
- Remove the old drive and replace it with the new one with a copy of all your data.
- Boot up and enjoy!