Can I swap old iMac (white) HARD DRIVE into iMac (alu) w/ OS installed

I have the older iMac 20" intel with a 500GB hard drive and wanted to swap it into my newer iMac 20" aluminum, which currently has the 320GB hard drive. I was wondering if the disks were physically swapped, would the OS still run considering the newer hardware?
Would Leopard be able to recognize the hardware changes or would a backup, reinstall and restore be in order? I am trying to avoid having to move all my data to an external only to put it back on again the same drive. Thank you!

Physically the drive is swappable but not without voiding your warranty. As for the system goes theoretically it would work however since the ALU iMacs are newer than your current white iMac, your current system lacks all of the hardware drivers for the new iMac and the system would need to be reinstalled. Probably the easiest way would be to use the migration assistant to migrate your files from your old computer. However if you still plan on swapping the drives what you could do is swap the 500G into your new iMac then immediately boot up to the install disk that comes with the ALU iMac and perform an Archive install of the system. It would be a good idea to backup all of your data before physically moving the drive just in case.
George

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Aaron Michalczuk wrote:
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http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8682222&type=product&id=1197679249 375

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Hi
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Badunit wrote:
Csound1 wrote:
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Can I swap old iMac (white) HARD DRIVE into iMac (alu) w/ OS installed

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