Hard drive swapping procedure?

Hello fellow macaholics,
I've been a mac user for about 6 years now, I've had a few systems. Recently I sold a Powermac G4 733mhz. I had two hardrives installed in it. A 40gb and a 160gb partitioned into two with SpeedTools ATA Hi-Cap Support Driver (128/22). The operating system (10.3.9) and all my applications were installed on the 128gb partition. I just recently purchased a 400mhz slot loading G3 iMac. My question is can I swap out the 10gb (running 9.2.2)drive with the partitioned 160gb drive and boot up in panther?. If so is there a special procedure or would I be better off buying an external case and running my programs from the external. I sold my copies of panther with the g4. I have a set of imac 10.1.2 install disk from a previously owned iMac, so if I can't install the 160gb I will have to use the 10.1.2 OS untill I get tiger. Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

Derek Robinson1...
I will spare you the legalities of possession of Panther without any software (on CD/DVD form) as it is likely to open the "Pandoras Box".
The more real issue involve basic recovery should the worse happen. In essense I would not use the 160GB drive under any software dependent situations. SpeedTools is a fix that I question its reliability, even for a short term use.
Suggestions would include a smaller HD for the iMac till you can get some replacement Mac OS of a higher version than Mac OS 10.1.x
BTW... Confirm your firmware version before allowing Mac OS 10.2 of greater on your iMac by any known methods (Other HD, CD/DVD, Utilities etc.) Apple System Profiler should show Boot ROM 4.1.f9. You can fry the machine otherwise.
...Ron

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Bad iBook G4 WiFi reception after hard-drive swap

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Thanks, Ronda!
I just swapped the Apple M8881LL/A AirPort Extreme Card in my Power Mac G5 and my iBook G4. Both cards work perfectly in the G5. The "new" card works a little better in the iBook G4, but not anywhere near its performance in the G5 or the original AirPort card in the iBook before the hard-drive swap.
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Another hard drive swap question - re: 8GB partition for OSX in iMac 266

I have a Tangerine iMac 266 that I am setting up for a neighbor's son. The original 6GB hard drive was toast, so I swapped in an old 10GB drive that had previously been removed from an iMacDV 400. The 10GB "new" drive had OSX 10.3.1 and OS 9.1 on a single partition. I am aware that these early iMacs need OSX in a first partition of less than 8GB, so I expected that I would need to partition the "new" drive. However, while I was loading an install CD after powering up, the iMac booted fine into OSX, despite it NOT being located in a first partition of less than 8GB (and has continued operating well - booting multiple times in OS X and 9, surfing the net, etc...the only weirdness is a refusal of Word X to run).
I thought this was impossible, and in researching this I found that the Apple support site says that, for this computer, "Mac OS X must be installed on a volume that is contained entirely within the first 8 GB of its ATA hard disk." see http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106235
My Questions:
Is the 8GB limit only related to iINSTALLING OSX on these machines (and not RUNNING OSX)?
Will the machine run into problems later if a portion of the OS (i.e., during an update) gets installed outside of the first 8GB of the disk?
One of the log files says that the driver is out of date for the RageproC, and Classic applications that require more than 4MB of VRAM say that I don't have enough VRAM to run, yet the iMac has 6MB of VRAM (2 on MB and 4 in slot as listing by the system profiler) - do I need to (or should I) reinstall the system software (I already tried loading the latest ATI drivers, but it did't help)?
P.S. - to add more data points on the subject of RAM upgrades in these iMacs, my iMac 266 would not accept a 256MB PC-100 SO-DIMM that worked fine in an iBook and in the upper slot of a Rev. A iMac 233. Well, it accepted it, but only recognized the first 128MB.

I believe Duane is correct. Even with Mac OS 9, you can run fine as long as all OS components used during startup are within the first 8GB of space. However, (even with Mac OS 9) as soon as something used during startup ends up beyond that limit, you will get open firmware or a gray screen at startup. The Mac OS X does not allow the installation target to exceed the limit as a preventative measure, not because it won't work at all.
The best "non-technical" explanation I have heard as to why, is this... The IDE hardware (and its driver) can only "see" the first 8GB of space during the initial start up process before the OS is loaded. Once start up completes, control is handed to the OS, which can see the entire drive. Therefore, apps have no problem running from beyond the limit. Only components needed before the hand-off is constrained to the 8GB limit.
FYI - On my iMac and 120GB drive, 7.78 GB (as shown in a Finder window) is the precise point where the Mac OS X Installer allows the volume to be the install target. "Precise" to with a few hundred MB's.

After The Hard Drive Swap?

Hi All
My Hard Disk swap didn’t go as smoothly as I hoped.
My attempts to clone my old drive were unsuccessful because Carbon Copy Cloner froze twice on me almost at the end of the cloning process. I gave up with CCC because cloning 60GB over 400 Mbs Firewire takes hours and hours. I subsequently learned from replies on the Bombich software forums that I could have restarted from where it left off - I'll remember that if I ever have to do it again.
I eventually managed to boot off the DVD drive. Because my disk was partially cloned, the installer thought that OS X was already on there and tried to upgrade the installation. This didn’t work, it wouldn’t boot. Eventually I realised what was going on, erased the drive first and then did a full install. I was then able to start off the new drive.
I’m just doing all the Tiger updates through Software Update. While I wait for that to complete, I have two remaining issues to resolve:
1. I now have no start up chime - although sound works. Can I fix that or is this a symptom that I’ve screwed up the repair?
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I’m sure all this is buried in some threads somewhere but my head is beginning to spin a bit. Hopefully you can help.
Thanks
Ian
iMac 17" Flat Panel (OS X 10.4.7)

Hi Swissfondue
Thanks for responding. I started to use it before I got your post!
I was going to reply after it completed to say if it was successful or not. I didn't see Migration Assistant referred to on the other threads about this issue that I've seen. In fact one or two specifically advise against trying to move users from one drive to another but maybe they were written before MA was available.
My machine is going much faster with these upgrades Don't know whether to attribute it to the extra RAM or the new disk.

Hard Drive Swap and Time Machine

Hello,
Maybe a weird situation here - I couldn't find anything about this exact scenario online.
My wife and I own 2 identical early 2008 Macbook Pros. The body of her computer has recently taken serious cosmetic damage. I plan on upgrading to a new Macbook Pro soon, so I decided to just give her the body of mine, which is in nice shape. I thought the easiest way to do this would be just to open up both computers and swap the hard drives (put her hard drive into my computer, and mine into hers). I accomplished this easily and everything works, however when I tried to do a time machine backup neither external drive was recognized - I cannot backup either machine with this new setup, at least without starting an entirely new backup. If I hook my external drive to her computer (my old computer with her hard drive) time machine is allowing me to access my old backups stored in the external drive. If I hook my external drive to my machine (her computer with my hard drive) I cannot access any old backups. All attempts to backup are failing.
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Thanks for any help!
MacBook Pro early 2008
OS X 10.5.8
Processor Name:          Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed:          2.4 GHz
Memory 2 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM

TimeMachine is specific to each computer. Your serial numbers, etc... are all different. All you did was swap the hard drive, and I believe I read somewhere that if you use encryption on your TimeMachine backup, you need the passcode AND the computer you backed up from originally.
Disclaimer: I believe I read the encryption thing at one point, but I am not 100% certain about that part.

Corrupt hard-drive, swapped for an older drive from another similar MacBook Pro

My original hard drive is corrupt, I swapped to an older drive which has snow lepoard on it, when installing Yosemite it freezes now i cant boot into the old OS and installer freezes extracting.
Disk utility says the disk is fine, with no issues.
The original disk failed and would not boot, disk utility says it was corrupt. I have another MacBook pro so i swapped the HD's, it is 320GB compared to the 500GB (failed drive).
It was working fine on Snow Leopard but when I ran the upgrade in the App Store, it freezes everytime at the same point in the install ( extracting the same .pkg file).
Any ideas?

You apparently have a MBP that came with an OSX newer than Snow Leopard. If that is the case, the Snow Leopard HDD will not boot in the newer MBP. If you erase that HDD and install the OSX that came with your MBP (or a newer one), then it will be compatible.
Ciao.

T400 hard drive swap

I have two T400s.
One unit has continuous issues, the other unit hasn't seen constant use yet.
If I swap hard drives between the two units, will it nullify the warranty?

SpringerITC wrote:
I have two T400s.
One unit has continuous issues, the other unit hasn't seen constant use yet.
If I swap hard drives between the two units, will it nullify the warranty?
you can swap or take out the hdd, ram, wireless card, etc without affecting the warranty on the laptop.
Regards,
Jin Li
May this year, be the year of 'DO'!
I am a volunteer, and not a paid staff of Lenovo or Microsoft

Hard Drive Swaps

Hello!
I have a new hard drive that I want to put into my iMac, only I have a slight dilemma. I bought the iMac off eBay and it didn't come with the installation disks. Is there anyway I can swap the hard drives and get it running without those disks?
Thanks!

Get an external hard drive case empty. Put the new drive in it. Clone the internal drive to external drive (using Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper). Swap the drives. That's about it.
Instead of the external drive case, you can get one of these.
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer%20Technology/U2NV2SPATA/
(EDIT: Actually, I just realized this was being posted in the +iMac (CRT)+ category. Is that the iMac type you have? If so, what's the OS on it? And does it have a FireWire port? Depending on the iMac model, some of what I wrote may not apply... and there may be other considerations.)
Better yet. Get a FireWire external case (FireWire 800 if your iMac has a FireWire 800 port). Use your new drive externally. No need to open up your iMac and do warranty-voiding surgery (if it's still under warranty or AppleCare). Keep using your internal drive for the OS and apps. Off-load most of your data (such as your +iTunes Music+ folder) to the external drive.
That's my setup, plus a really large USB 2.0 external drive to backup my internal drive and FireWire drive using Time Machine. Works exceptionally well.
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Won't power on after Hard Drive swap - torn ribbon beneath battery

While installing a hard drive for a friend in his 2006 black macbook, 13", I may have severed a few of the traces in the wire that seems to run from the trackpad (see image below for the location of the wire)
There is a little exposed section in the battery compartment that sticks up in a way that's begging to get caught in my view.
[IMG]http://i45.tinypic.com/2uic38x.jpg[/IMG]
Anyways now the thing won't start up drive in/out or with old drive. I gather that wire also carries the keyboard signal that has the power button, or else I've shorted something else somehow.
Anyone know if this is fixable with some part short of paying a limb at Apple Store?
Thanks kindly,
Bryan

You might want to check out ifixit.com. They sell parts and they have great pictorial instructions (www.ifixit.com).

Apple TV does not appear in iTunes after hard drive swap. (original ATV)

I recently upgraded the internal hard drive in my mac book pro. I removed the original drive and and put it into an external casing. With the new, larger capacity drive in place, i reinstalled the operating system and the updates, bringing it up to snow leopard, 10.6.4. I then dragged in the user and other important files to the new drive. For the most part, everything worked, except, Apple TV
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Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thx

Are you doing it in this order? (#5 below is a good inicator of whether the micro USB cable is compatible)
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2. Quit iTunes if running.
3. Plug micro USB cable to the back of the Apple TV.
4. Power the Apple TV using the AC cable.
5. iTunes shoud either launch itself (a good indication that the micro USB cable you're using is compatible), or launch iTunes.
6. Click Restore. Software will download and install (big file).

HT3024 iBook G4 WiFi reception after hard-drive swap

I just replaced the hard drive in my iBook G4 with a larger one. Everything works fine except that the WiFi only works in close proximity to our Airport Extreme Router. Our other 2 current Macs and our 2 iPhones continue to have good WiFi connections. The iBook G4 had good WiFi reception before I changed out the hard drive. The stock Airport Extreme antenna connector is well-seated, and the plug and jack look fine. I disassembled the iBook and traced the antenna wiring to see I could spot any anaomolies.

You might want to post this in the iBook discussion at https://discussions.apple.com/community/notebooks/ibook

Late-2008 Macbook Pro Hard Drive Swap Issues

I recently bought a new WD Scorpio 500 mb internal hard drive and I was in the process of restoring things from my external hard drive. At the very end of the restoration, the prompt to restart my macbook pro came up on the screen so I went ahead with the restart. After restarting, however, the apple logo would show but after a few seconds a prompt appears saying that my computer needs to restart. This has occurred ever time after restarting so now I'm confused as to what I did wrong. Please HELP!!!

Kernel Panic:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1392

4 core to 8 core hard drive swap

Can you take your 4 core machine hard drive and place it in a new 8 core machine?
Thanks

Frank Einstein wrote:
what about taking out the bootcamp drive & slapping it into the new 8-Core system.
I think it's worth a try. Be sure to back-up your working HD before attempting this. I have done it on non-Apple machines before without too much problems.
As the new 8-core machine is not significantly different from the 4-core machine on which you have the running config, Windoze should recognize the new hardware and adjust accordingly. Be sure to update your Windoze install to the latest SP & security updates beforehand. You will need the Leopard discs to load recent drivers.
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Tom.

Hard Drive swapping

Hello all. My Dual 450 G4's power supply was fried by a power surge and instead of paying big bucks for a new power supply I bought a used Dual 533 instead. My old computer had two hard drives; the 30g that held OS9 and OSX, and a 120g that kept my audio recordings. Is it possible to take out both harddrives and put them into the "new" computer set up in the same configuration without losing the info? Will it boot up from the old harddrive or will everything have to be redone? I really can't afford to lose my files! I'd really appreciate any help. THanks!
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It should work in your 533 (Digital Audio). The only caution might be to check that the firmware is up to date. See Mac OS X: Available firmware updates
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86117
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Cheers, Tom

R61E HARD DRIVE SWAP

MY R61E 7650 84U 'S MONITOR WENT OUT AND I PURCHASED THIS ONE
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150988472424
WHICH IS IDENTICAL MODEL.
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THANKS
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Welcome to the Forum!
Since Windows XP does not have native SATA support, you will have to switch to compatibility mode. Press <F1> at the Thinkpad splash screen to enter BIOS. Choose Config----> SATA ----> and change settings from "AHCI" to "compatibility."
You had probably never added SATA support to your XP installation, which would allow you to run in AHCI mode. Operating in AHCI mode can speed up disk performance. Some basic explanation of AHCI technology here: http://www.differencebetween.net/technology/difference-between-ahci-and-sata/
If you wish to enable AHCI mode by adding the correct SATA drivers, the basic steps outlined in this post should work for you: http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/R-and-L-Series-ThinkPad-Laptops/Error-during-system-restore-R60/m-p/9763... If you need some further pointers, feel free to ask.
Let us know how you do.
Have a great day. (I do not work for Lenovo)

Hard drive swapping procedure?

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