Boot MacBook hard drive(Snow Leopard) via USB on MacBook Pro(Leopard)

Recently my old MacBook's (2.0 Core Duo) logic board failed. It was running Snow Leopard and is either on 10.6.3 or 10.6.4 (not sure when I last updated). I would like to remove the 500GB hard drive and use a SATA to USB connector to connect the hard drive to my work MacBook Pro (2.2 Core 2 Duo) running 10.5.8 and use the work laptop to boot the failed MacBook's drive. Before I try this setup, I was hoping to find out if this will work at all or if it could potentially mess up my work computer.
Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

You want to boot your MBP with the MB's HD? Won't hurt to try, but it might not work. Trying won't muck up the MBP. Alternatively, if you're trying to recover stuff from it, you don't have to boot with it, just mount it and transfer stuff, assuming the username & password combo matches. Otherwise, use the Migration Assistant to do the transfer.

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My Mac Pro 1,1 today failed to display anything on the monitors when I woke it from sleep mode, even though it sounded like it was running.
Upon restarting the computer, it chimed as usual, made fan and hard drive spinning sounds, and went to the boot screen, where the little grey, dashed circle went around for a little while, but then it froze.
The hard drives kept making noises, so I waited, but nothing happened.
So I tried the following things;
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• Zapped PRAM
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• Disconnected power cable for over 15 seconds
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Even when I tried to boot from the Snow Leopard DVD, it did the exact same thing; showed the boot screen, spun a little, froze.
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This computer has been running slowly for awhile, which I attributed to running out of disk space and having lots of browser windows open, and I think it had a couple of kernel panics recently. Also the monitors went haywire a couple of weeks ago after I shut the computer down while it was running on UPS power, but I was able to fix one by doing a factory reset. I don't know if any of that is related to this problem.
Also, I currently have both the factory graphics card and a more powerful graphics card for GPGPU simultaneously installed (forget the model number, but it's the one that dies and you have to bake it to make it work again). It's not glitching up at all though; just spinning a little on the boot screen and freezing. I tried unplugging one of the monitors from the graphics card I had it connected to and plugging it into the other one, but it didn't make any difference.
I also recently ran disk first aid on all my hard drives and it said they were fine.
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Anyone have any ideas?

The Boot screens use a very simple mode of display, typically shared by Safe Mode, Alt/Option boot, Recovery mode and stand-alone Installer. Once you get to the login screen, the Driver loads and the most complex interrupt-driven parts of your graphics card must be working to display a picture.
The cards in older Mac Pros do not have a history of long, trouble-free life. There are many, many threads here that are solved by replacing the card, especially with a more modern one.
User Tip: Mac Pro silver tower (2006-2012) Replacement Graphics cards

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Hi i bought a new 500gb hard drive on my 2011 macbook pro, it is a blank hardrive and i forgot to save my other files on an external hard drive , i have a usb stick with mavericks installed on it. can i just go ahead and do a straight install by using it?

hi i have a macbook pro 2011 model, i decided to upgrade my hardrive and bought a 500gb blank hardrive, my query is because i wasnt able to save most of my files and my operating system to an external hard drive, i have a usb stick with a mavericks os installed on it. will i be able to do a straight install by just doing this method? i will be grateful for any tips or help u might offer, thanks.

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http://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-2-5-Inch-Aluminum-Enclosure-EC-TB4P/dp/B005EIGUD4/ ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1396656137&sr=8-3&keywords=2.5+enclosure

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about a month ago my macbook stopped booting up. all that came up was a folder with a flashing question mark. i could hear that the hard disk was spinning but i thought that it may be dead so i removed it from the mac. it is a 500 gig drive.
i had an older 60 gig hard drive that i removed from the macbook about six months ago before copying with super duper. this also did not work so i put the 500 gig drive in to a cms enclosure and plugged it in to the macbook with a usb cable externally.
this time the folder with the flashing question mark and the external drive came up so i clicked on the external drive and it booted up ok. has done since but when i put either drive back in to the mac i get the folder with the question mark.
how can i get the mac to boot from the internal hard drive? i am fairly new to macs so would i have to access the bios as i would have with my old vaio windows based system.

Since you were able to read at least some of the files, I'm thinking you may have an issue with the SATA cable, which is fairly common. The easy test is to pull the hard drive and put it in an external enclosure. If it works, the SATA cable is probably the issue.
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I just tried this, no luck...
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Hi everyone,
My Macbook pro(2010) is not reading the internal Hard Drive. At first I thought it to be a hard drive gone bad, so i bought a new hard drive. My macbook is still not reading the Hard Drive. I am able to use the original hard drive through a external(USB) connection. Also, when the macbook turns, there is a redelling sound. Can anyone offer me any suggestions to what the problem might be?

It sounds like the internal cable connecting the HDD to the logic board is improperly connected or faulty. An appointment at an Apple genius bar might be a good option. The repair should not be too expensive.
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Need to purchase a serial ATA drive, but I keep reading that trying to format and/or partition the drive for use with the original Tiger install disk is unsuccessful and that I would have to update to a newer OS before I can do that.
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All Intel Macs have always use SATA drives, so all Intel versions of OS X support them including Tiger. I don't know what you've been reading. However, since you have Leopard I don't see what the problem would be because you don't need to install Tiger unless your Leopard disk is strictly an updater disc.
How to replace or upgrade a drive in a laptop
Step One: Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger, Leopard or Snow Leopard.) After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
Step Two: Remove the old drive and install the new drive. Place the old drive in an external USB enclosure. You can buy one at OWC who is also a good vendor for drives.
Step Three: Boot from the external drive. Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager appears. Select the icon for the external drive then click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Step Four: New Hard Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your new hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
Step Five: Clone the old drive to the new drive
1. Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
4. Check the box labeled Erase destination.
5. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
6. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
7. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the new internal drive. Source means the old external drive.
Step Six: Open the Startup Disk preferences and select the new internal volume. Click on the Restart button. You should boot from the new drive. Eject the external drive and disconnect it from the computer.

My WD 2tb external hard drive will not unmount from my MacBook Pro.

My WD 2tb external hard drive will not unmount from my MacBook Pro. It no longer even shows up in finder, however it does show up in Disk Utility. I have tired so many of the suggestions on the internet all to a fail.
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Have you trie using another USB port? Can you test the USB ports with other USB devices to assure they are working? You may want to reinstall OS X in case there has been a driver glitch.
Reinstall OS X without erasing the drive
1. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
2. Reinstall Snow Leopard
If the drive is OK then quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed with reinstalling OS X. Note that the Snow Leopard installer will not erase your drive or disturb your files. After installing a fresh copy of OS X the installer will move your Home folder, third-party applications, support items, and network preferences into the newly installed system.
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I am having a similar problem. I use a Lacie external hard drive connected to an Airport Time Capsule via USB to store my itunes library. Yesterday I disconnected the external drive from the ATC and connected it to my macbook pro via fire wire to transfer 40 gigabytes of media files from my laptop to the external drive directly rather than over wifi. When I reattached the external drive to the ATC the Lacie drive didn't show up even after rebooting everything. I then disconnected from the ATC and reconnected to the laptop and now I get an error message saying the Lacie disk is unrecognizable and needs to be reformated. The Lacie drive was being included in the time machine backups so the files should be available through time machine but I don't see anyway to access them because the Lacie disk icon doesn't appear in the time machine backups. Is there another way to browse the files?
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Message was edited by: ryansteawrt
Message was edited by: ryansteawrt

Thanks nerowolfe,
I don't have a DVD on me (I'm on vacation right now) but I do have an image of the DVD on a bootable external hard drive as well as a clean install of Leopard on the hard drive (on a different partition). Any time I try to boot from one of those, the computer looks like it's going to start to boot and then restarts right away.
I've also got my wife's MacBook Pro here. Is there any way I can connect my other machine to hers, mount it as an external hard drive, and run Disk Warrior from her machine?
Thanks again,
=Ryan

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Hi all,
I want to boot a hard drive that was in my mother's dead laptop from 10 years ago via a ATA/IDE to USB enclosure with my 2011 Macbook Pro 13''.
The hard drive has Windows XP on it and I am running Mountain Lion. I want to know if this is possible, and if so, how can I do it?
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You can't boot from the XP drive, nor can your Mac run XP, but you can read it's files from the drive and copy them with the right adapter.
Mac's can read NTFS formatted drives, but can't write to them without additional paid software installed.
If there are files that can't be opened on the Mac, even with the free LibreOffice and VLC player, then you could install Windows 7 Pro + either into a virtual machine program or into Apple's BootCamp.
Windows in BootCamp or Virtual Machine?
Windows 7 Pro and above will run most XP programs, else they provide a XP download to virtualize XP in Win 7 that will run the files provided you have a compatible program installed.
http://windows.microsoft.com/is-IS/windows7/install-and-use-windows-xp-mode-in-w indows-7
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hey guys.
i've tried reading up a little but i was hoping someone (or a few people) could give me some straight up answers.
if i want to upgrade my macbook hard drive what all do i need? just the hard drive? or are there other pieces?
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I got a 320GB sata 2.5" hard drive and installed it myself, its easy. I also got a caddy so I can use my old 120GB drive as a back up. Make sure u have everything backed up! Seagate and western digital drives are most popular. I asked similar q and got this answer"
Extended Hard Drive Preparation
1. Boot from your OS X Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger or Leopard.)
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (only required for Intel Macs) then click on the OK button. Set the number of partitions from the dropdown menu (use 1 partition unless you wish to make more.) Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the volume(s) mount on the Desktop.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
Steps 4-6 are optional but should be used on a drive that has never been formatted before, if the format type is not Mac OS Extended, if the partition scheme has been changed, or if a different operating system (not OS X) has been installed on the drive.
If your backup is bootable, then boot from the external drive and use SuperDuper to clone it back to the newly installed drive.
Mac Pro 2.66 Ghz; MacBook Pro C2D 2.33 Ghz; MacBook Pro 2.16 Ghz Mac OS X (10.5.4) Intel iMac C2D 17 "; MacBook 2.0 Ghz.
And
Now, to install the hard drive, follow http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Mac/MacBook-Core-Duo/Hard-Drive-Replacement/86/5/

Boot MacBook hard drive(Snow Leopard) via USB on MacBook Pro(Leopard)

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