The below video shows how to clone the data from your old hard drive or SSD to a new 2.5-inch SSD, and applies to just about all Mac's running MacOS Snow Leopard or later. It uses the free version of Super Duper to do the cloning. On very few occasions, we find that customers have some issue with cloning with Super Duper. In that case we recommend trying Carbon Copy Cloner, which has worked for a new number of clients where Super Duper would not.
This guide is just about cloning the data only. If you need to learn how to install the SSD hardware in your Mac laptop, then watch this video.
Note, before installing your SSD, it must be initialised, partitioned, and formatted. You can do this before you install the SSD in your system by connecting it to your computer with a cloning cable, then follow these steps (applicable to MacOS El Capitan or newer (version 10.11 or higher)).
How to Format your SSD
- Press command and space to open spotlight, then start typing Disk Utility, then choose the Disk Utility app.
- Once Disk Utility is open, you will see a message telling you that the SSD cannot be read by the computer.
- Click on the Initialise button that appears in the message and your SSD will be visible in Disk Utility.
- Highlight your SSD and click the Erase button.
- Type in a name for the new partition (this where you’ll save data on the drive and it’ll be the name for your SSD).
- On the menu settings, verify that the partition is set to GUID Partition Table.
- Verify that the selected format defaults to Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
- Select Erase. The drive will now be partitioned, formatted, and ready for use.