New Mac Mini

[Blown F-150]

Hey all, I know there are a couple of Mac guys on here that might be able to help. I just bought a new Mac Mini (i5, intel graphics, 2gb RAM and 500GB of storage). I also went and picked up 8GB or RAM and a 256GB SSD hard drive for it.

The RAM swap is covered, doesn't get much easier with this thing.

If anyone can help out, I would just like to know what to back-up to install the new Hard Drive, considering I only have my tunes and a couple of programs on it at this point, it's not a life or death situation if I just end up installing a new OS.

I was thinking about using the OS X Recovery App and the Time Machine App to see if I could back up as much as possible.

Thanks! I am new to the Mac world, so I just don't want to mess s@#t up.

[gipraw]

You can use time machine or other back up software.  OS X also has a drive duplication feature, but I have never used it


I was thinking about putting a larger drive in my macbook pro, and found this article useful while I was contemplating it.

http://www.macinstruct.com/node/130

[Rollingrock]

I use Time Machine and both my wifes and mine back up every 2 hours or so. 

I've had to use Time Machine, I dumped my entire photo library by accident...went "back in time" 2 hours and restored.  Priceless if you ask me.


I run two Time Capsules, 1 TB version and 1 500G version, I now use the 500G as an additional "hot spot" in my house.   I have it in the Kitchen hidden behind the molding at the top of a cabinet....it's great  From time to time I dump some files there if I need to get to them later using "file browser" 

Everyone but Rockpick knows that Mac's are far superior to PC's     

[Blown F-150]

Thanks guys, I have a few external drives, so I used one to clone the OS X and Hard Drive and used a partition to set up a Lion recovery Back up. With another I just used a cloning software to clone the whole drive.

I I guess we will see how it goes. I found out that I can run two drive in the Mac Mini, so I will get the ribbon cable and run the original HDD as the second one.

So far I am liking Mac, really bought it for media stuff and to easily chop up the bike vids.

[Rollingrock]

iMovie will change your life bratha.

[Blown F-150]

Well that was easy. I used Time Machine to create a Back up. Installed the SSD and turned it on in boot up mode. Selected the back up I wanted and let it load. Done.

That would have taken hours with a PC...

I get to start messing around with it this evening. I was focused on getting my iTunes library installed and cleaned up yesterday.

[gipraw]

did you have to format the SSD first ?

[Blown F-150]

Yeah, I have a little Enclosure for 2.5 Sata drives. I hooked it up as an external first, and then formatted it to Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Very happy with the boot up and operation, it takes less than 4 seconds to boot!

I am not sure if you have to or not, but I did it anyway.