Chosen Solution
Looking to install the above hard drive in my old MacBook Pro. I need some guidance in copying my old drive to the new one and installing OSX. Probably formatting guidance as well. I’m confident in the physical install. The computer is currently functioning and I have the new drive plugged in as an external. The old one is currently running El Capitan Version 10.11.6 and is too old to go any higher.
Install the new HDD as usual and boot to your El Capitan install USB. Enter Disk Utility and click your hard drive located on the left hand side to highlight it and then choose Erase Enter a name for your hard drive (default is “Macintosh HD” but you can name it whatever you want.) and choose your format (usually “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)”) and GUID partitioning table. Exit Disk Utility. Proceed to install macOS. Once installed, you will be asked if you wish to transfer data. Connect your old hard drive to the MacBook Pro and then choose “From a Mac, Time Machine backup, or another startup disk”. and click continue. Select the data you wish to transfer (typically everything), assign a password to the migrated user account, and then allow it to complete. Once complete, disconnect the external hard drive and you should be good to go.
