Putting a bigger HDD in Maggie's computer

My wife, Maggie, has run out of disk space - mainly from having over 12,000 picture in iPhoto!

So I plan to install a spare 500GB HDD that I have lying around. The problem is that I don't have the original OS X installation disk that came with the computer. But Apple to the rescue, as the computer, an old 13" white Macbook, has been upgraded to OS X Lion (10.7) and this can be installed over the internet from Apple.

How?

IMPORTANT!!!

BACK UP TO TIME MACHINE EXTERNAL DRIVE!!!

Then first you need a copy of a program called Recovery Data Assistant. This has to be down-loaded from the Apple web site.

You then need a USB stick which has to be (*) formatted using Disk Utility, as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and selected and partitioned as one partition with the Option of GUID. This makes it suitable for a bootable drive. The Recovery Data Assistant app is copied onto this USB drive - needs above 1GB, I have an 8GB drive so that's OK.

HARDWARE

Next you replace the physical HDD in the computer - this is fairly easy and there are instructions on the Apple web site.

INSTALL

Now restart the computer an hold down the Alt key.This will bring up a picture of all the drives on the machine, one of which will be the USB "Recovery" stick. Chose it.

Now you must erase the new HDD and format it correctly, from the Recovery Data Assistant chose the menu option of Disk Utility. Then, as above for the USB stick (*), format and partition the drive as bootable.

Nearly there.

Now quit Disk Utility and still in the Recovery Assistant select to Install OS X from the internet. Join your local WiFi network and follow the on screen instructions - you will need the Apple ID you used to purchase the original OS X Lion and the password.

After about an hour you will have a brand new computer, running OS X Lion. You can transfer the old HDD files back from the External Backup Drive using the Utility Migration Assistant.