Swapping hard drives between 2 macbooks?

Hi all,
I have a question. I have a 1st gen macbook (white body) that I got nearly 3 years ago, it's running tiger. A friend has a newer mac (bought last summer) which is running leopard.
Can I swap the hdds in these two machines without having to do crazy stuff? As in if I put the newer hdd into my older machine, will my machine be running leopard, etc? What do I need to do to swap them?
Sorry if it's a silly question, I'm not finding a lot of info on it.
Thanks,
Zo.

I have the same question. I have Leopard on both however. I have two Macbooks, one black, and one white. The black one has better specs; 2.2 GHz core 2 duo with 2 GB RAM, etc while the white one has a 1.83 GHz core duo (NOT 2) with 1 gb ram. The white one I believe belonged to some sort of an advertisement designer or something because there are massive amounts of nice programs like adobe CS3 and office 2008, and not only that, but the hard drive is 250 GB as opposed to mine which is 160 GB. The graphics drivers are both intel, although one is GMA 950 while the other is GMA x3100. Can I still swap the drives and not have to restore?

Similar Messages

  • Swapping hard drive between MacBook and MacBook Pro ?

    Hi
    I'm about to receive a new MBP and would like to spend as little time as possible making the transition from my current MacBook (non-Pro). The MacBook is slightly old (mid-2006) but running the latest Leopard.
    Would swapping the hard drives allow the MBP to boot properly?
    Could it potentially cause any side effects?
    How could I reduce or eliminate these?
    I'm reluctant to use Time Machine restoration since I've already been traumatized once by the incompleteness of the TM backup, causing me to lose many hours to manual, tedious restoration.
    Thanks for any info!

    Hi Guychi;
    As I said earlier, since the hardware is different I would not use the operating system from the old hardware on the new hardware.
    Are you doing the work or have someone else do it?
    If you are taking it in to have it do, I would suggest that you ask them to move the operating system for you.
    If you are doing it yourself get an external enclosure and clone the operating system over then install the larger drive with the new operating system.
    Allan

  • Swapping hard drives between PXI-8115 and PXI-8105 won't boot up

    I have a test system running Windows XP on PXI-8105.  I've upgraded the entire test system for another project and need to upgrade my existing systems; the upgrade runs on Windows 7 and PXI-8115.  I have new hard drives with Windows 7 and the new test software which were loaded/configured/tested on a PXI-8115, but I need to retrofit the PXI-8105 with them.  This doesn't work.  Windows begins to boot but fails and tries over and over again.  In an effort to take the PXI-8105 off-line to troubleshoot, I replaced it with one of the PXI-8115 and the old (WinXP) drive.  This didn't boot up, either.
    Here's a summary of my situation:
    An old system has PXI-8105 running WinXP
    A new system has PXI -8115 running Win7
    A hard drive (with Win7) from the PXI-8115 won't boot on the PXI-8105
    A hard drive (with WinXP) from the PXI-8105 won't boot on the PXI-8115
    What is different between the two PXI controllers that keeps me from swapping hard drives?
    Jim
    You're entirely bonkers. But I'll tell you a secret. All the best people are. ~ Alice
    Solved!
    Go to Solution.

    A couple thoughts:
    1. Windows 7 probably works fine on a PXI-8105. Although NI never officially supported or shipped that configuration, I suspect that the default Windows 7 installation contains enough of the driver support needed to boot up.
    2. In general, Windows is not very tolerant of swapping hard drives between completely different systems, especially with Windows XP and prior. Consider whether just installing fresh and copying over what you need is faster than trying to do this, but if you must, I would suspect that Windows 7 would be more tolerant of the swap.
    3. As a debugging step, try pressing 'F8' during the boot process to launch the Windows boot menu and try safe mode or some of the other options.  More information here.
    4. If all else fails, Google is your friend here as there's nothing particularly specific about this being an NI product that you need to know when attempting this operation. Any information you find online about swapping hard drives between PCs should be relevant to your situation. Searching for 'swap hard drive to new computer windows 7' gave some useful hits on the first page. Beyond that, you can also look into using the 'sysprep' utility to try and clean the system and prepare for swapping to a new PC.

  • Can I swap hard drives between 2007 and 2011 iMacs?

    I have a 2007 iMac that I want to replace with a refurbished 2011 model. I had upgraded my 2007 iMac with a 1.5T hard drive and the 2011 model only comes with a 1T hard drive. And you can't do any upgrade at the Apple store on refurb units. SoI am just wanting to swap hard drives. The 2007 has 10.7 and it appears that the 2011 model has the same. (says elegible for 10.8 upgrade on Apple Store site.) I have replaced the hard drive myself, so I am familiar with the process.
    Thanks.

    The drives themselves are compatible, yes. However, the OS might not be. In any case, if you have a Time Machine backup (or some other backup) of the older iMac, it's best to wipe the drive and reinstall the OS once installed in the new Mac. Then you can just transfer your data, apps, and settings from the backup.
    One important thing to note, though: the 2011 iMacs have temperature sensors built in on the hard drive, so if you use a drive other than one supplied by Apple specifically for that system, the fans will run at full speed all the time. Probably the easiest workaround: use something like smcFanControl to regulate the speed of the fans. Hope this helps!

  • MacBook Pro: Swapping Hard Drives Between Two Identical Macs?

    I have two Macbook Pro notebooks. They are both the June 11th 2012 models both with cd/dvd drives. They both have Mavericks installed on both.
    I want to give my 15 inch to my son who has the 13 inch. They 13 will be mine and the 15 his.
    Can i just swap his 750HD from the 13 and put it into the 15? Can i also remove my 250 Samsung pro SSD from my 15 and put it in his 13?
    What are some ways i can go about this that are easy?
    Thanks in advance,
    PS: Like i said they both run mavericks and they are the same generation MBP from June 2012 release from Apple. Except one is a 2.5 i5 13 inch and the other is a 15 inch 2.3 Quad i7.
    We pretty much just want to trade laptops and swap the hard drives easy.
    Thanks again.

    nn007400,
    are each of your laptops associated with your respective Apple IDs? If so, then that might be a fly in the ointment when it comes to updating apps purchased through the Mac App Store, if the tie-in involves your MacBook Pros’ serial numbers as well as your Apple IDs. (I don’t know whether that’s the case or not.)
    The disks can certainly be exchanged physically between the two portables — you could try it for a while, and if you encounter a problem, you can exchange them back and consider alternative (but unfortunately less convenient) approaches.

  • Can I swap hard drives between working and nonworking MacBooks?

    I'm considering buying an Early '08 MacBook (2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo) w/ an apparently bad hard drive ("drive not recognized"). Obviously I want to test before I buy. In order to determine if the HD is the only issue w/ this MB, can I take the hard drive from my functioning MB (1st gen. Core Duo 2.0 GHz, 160 GHz HD, OS X 10.5.7) and simply install it in the non-working MB to see if it starts up? I have a spare 160 GB Fujitsu HD pulled from a 2nd gen. MB Core 2 Duo, but it's wiped clean. Advice?

    AZherps:
    It should work. If the drive is erased, you won't be able to boot from it, of course. But you could test it by booting from the install disk for the computer and formatting the drive in the "new" computer and see how it works.
    cornelius

  • Swap Hard Drives Between Mac Pro's

    I have a MacBook Pro "Core 2 Duo" 2.53 15" (Unibody - Late 2008) that has been upgraded from the standard 320 GB SATA hard drive, to a Seagate 750 GB SATA 16 MB cache 7200 rpm hard drive.
    I have recently upgraded to a MacBook Pro "Core 2 Duo" 2.66 15" (SD - Mid 2009) that has the standard 320 GB SATA hard drive.
    Both are running Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.8.
    I will be selling my older (2.53GHz) Mac Pro but would like to keep my larger hard drive.
    Question
    Can I simply swap the hard drive out of my older (2.53GHz) Mac Pro and install it into the newer (2.66GHz) Mac Pro, without having to reinstall the Mac OS X software?
    I no longer have any of my OS X install disks.
    Will the 750 GB hard drive still perform the same in the newer Mac Pro, given that they are running the same OS?
    Thanks in advance!

    From what I understand the USB/PCIe interfaces are (somewhat) device specific. But it depends on the particular vendor in question.
    According to barefeats.com, regarding USB devices:
    "...Our only concern was that it {the CalDigit adapter} only worked with CalDigit USB 3.0 enclosures like the AV Drive. They since updated the driver to "unlock it." In fact, all the USB 3.0 results posted above for non-Cadigit enclosures were done with the CalDigit PCIe USB 3.0 host adapter...."
    So, for example, the Lacie PCIe adapters are "specific". Only works with their stuff. Originally the CalDigit PCIe adapter was the same: limited to use with their devices only. But they've altered that so that it is more generic. In fact, it was used to test the other USB 3.0 devices in the barefeats tests.
    So the CalDigit card, at least, is a more flexible choice.

  • Swapping hard drives between two different HP mini towers DC7600 TO DC7900

     I would like to know if it will be possible to take out and re-install the Hard drive  from my HP DC7600 tower running XP Pro over to my HP DC 7900 tower and remove the hard drive running windows 7  with out having to reinstall my Win XP OS . Is it possible ? What problems may i encounter ?? Are the Motherboard drivers similar so as not to have replace them ? i am hoping that this can be a plug and play operation - thanks GGW

    Hello @grant1951,
    I understand that you are looking to swap the hard drive from a HP Compaq dc7600 Convertible Minitower PC to a HP Compaq dc7900 Business PC. As both of these computer as commercial units, I would suggest posting it in the commercial forums, since these are commercial products. You can do this at Business PCs - Compaq, Elite, Pro.
    I hope this helps. Thank you for posting on the HP Forums. Have a great day!
    Please click the "Thumbs Up" on the bottom right of this post to say thank you if you appreciate the support I provide!
    Also be sure to mark my post as “Accept as Solution" if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others who face the same challenge find the same solution.
    Dunidar
    I work on behalf of HP
    Find out a bit more about me by checking out my profile!
    "Customers don’t expect you to be perfect. They do expect you to fix things when they go wrong." ~ Donald Porter

  • Swapping hard drives in MacBook Pro.

    I am planning to put a 1TB hard rive in to my MacBookPro 15". What is the easiest way to duplicate the original drive to the new one?  Could I use Time Machine after I formatted the drive and installed Mountain Lion on it?

    The simplest and easiet way is to clone the new drive from the old one.
    Put the new HDD in an enclosure and connect it to the MBP via USB.
    Open Disk Utility.Erase and format the drive to Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
    Then use Disk Utility>Restore and select the internal HDD as the Source and the new external HDD as the Destination.  Click on Restore.  This may take time to copy the information.  (You may also use Carbon Copy Cloner for this.)
    Test the new HDD via Option key startup.
    If it boots, swap the drives.
    Ciao.

  • Move Hard Drive between MacBooks

    I have a macbook white unibody running mavericks and the display failed. Can I move the hard drive into a macbook a1278 and it work correctly?

    As Shootist states - No and Yes.
    I just actually did that the other day.  My newer MacBook died on me.  So I took that drive out and installed in my older 2009 Macbook Pro and it works.
    I however, can't tell you if moving your older Macbook Pro hard drive to your newer Macbook Pro might work.  If the OS is the same version, it might.  But if the OS in your older Macbook is not the same version, it might not.
    Good luck

  • Swapping Hard Drive (between generations)

    I have a MBPro Duo 2.16 (mid 2007) with an upgraded 7200/320 HD installed 6 months ago.
    Am hoping to purchase the smaller 13" MBP (latest version), swapping my drives (fond of my actual set up), and installing the new clean drive in my actual 15", to sell.
    No need to worry about re-copying, erasing, or setting up.
    Am I being naive or is this feasible?
    Definitely an important factor in my final decision.
    Thank you
    Ralph
    Message was edited by: chidiar
    Message was edited by: chidiar

    Unfortunately, you'll need the right system/drivers to run each machine.
    Here's what I did: migrated the info onto the new computer; cloned to the old drive (through an enclosure); put the old drive into the new machine; put the new drive into the old machine; reinstalled the OS onto the old machine.
    If you don't have enough space on the new drive to migrate everything, you can still do it w/ a backup: install the old drive into the new machine; reinstall the OS; migrate from backup; put the new disk into the old machine; reinstall the OS onto the old machine.

  • Swapped hard drive boot problem

    Swapped hard drives between 6530b and 6535b, neither boots. What did I miss? (Toshiba MK3255GSX and Hitachi HTS543223L9A300)

    Disk Utility - Erase (drive, not volume) and make sure it is now GPT/GUID and not old Apple Partition Table format.
    Even though it is data only, there can and are some problems (the older it was last formatted the more so perhaps).
    Just pull the data off if needed. Handy to have a FW drive case for SATA laying around.
    Migrating OS and apps from G5 to Intel is full of potential pitfalls.
    Depending on the drive age, size, performance, I'd probably go for a WD Caviar 640GB $75 to transfer files onto, and then wipe the Maxtor and use it for an emergency backup drive off which you can run Disk Warrior and such.

  • Transfer Hard Drives Between iMac & MacBook

    Hello! I have an iMac that I was using for personal and a MacBook that I was using for business... I now need to switch my uses and need to transfer all applications, files, documents, photos, etc (basically just switch entire hard drives) between the two computers... I don't even know where to begin?!? There's not a whole lot on either computer... but the files are very important...
    Does anybody know of the easiest and quickest way to go about this?!? Please let me know!
    Also, does anybody know if it's possible to set up an ipod nano on 2 computers? My desktop and laptop??
    Thanks a Bunch!!!

    I'll try the first questions. In some situations you could hook up your MacBook with a firewire cable in Target Disk mode to the iMac and clone or migrate your system directly from one computer to the other. However in your situation you don't want to erase the files from either machine. It's also not a good idea to clone one system directly to the other because they are totally different machines that may have different drivers included in the initial OS install. So this is what I suggest.
    1) Use an external drive to back up one or both of your systems. If the drive is large enough to partition it into 2 partitions then clone the iMac to one partition and clone the MacBook to the other partition. Otherwise you could still do it by just cloning one system. Use Carbon copy cloner or SuperDuper to make the clone.
    2) If you have both imaged cloned to the external connect it to one of the machines and run the Migration assistant to migrate the User files and Applications from the external system that you want. For example, connect the external to the iMac, run migration assistant, and choose to migrate the user files from the MacBook image.
    3) If you are only able to make one backup, lets say you cloned the iMac to the external. Keep the external on standby. Power down your MacBook and connect it to your iMac with a FireWire cable. Hit the power button and hold down the "T" key to boot it into target disk mode. The MacBook's internal drive should now show up on the desktop of your iMac. Run the Migration Assistant from your iMac and choose the MacBook drive to Migrate from.
    4) If the previous step was successful(I would test everything thoroughly) then connect the external drive to your MacBook and run the Migration Assistant to migrate the User files from the external to your MacBook.
    George

  • Swapping hard drives .... how does lightroom handle this ?

    My photography is done on a separate computer to my online machine and the photo system never goes online ( so virus-proof ).
    I use " Laser " brand hard drive racks which allow me to swap hard drives on each machine, and also to swap them between the two computers.
    So I have several HDD's with different photo projects on each drive and some backups on HDD's as well.
    Lightroom is a database system rather than a browser, so how will it be able to handle swapping HDD's in and out like this ? What happens if lightroom points to a file which is on another HDD not currently installed in the machine ? Will it be able to show all the thumbnails and tell me which HDD holds them ( as I believe programs like Imatch can )? Will lightroom be confused by this. Or will it set up its database on each HDD so each disc is a self-contained library with its own lightroom index ?
    I know I can't be the only one with more photos than fit onto just one HDD. Can anyone please tell me how lightroom's library system deals with this situation ?

    Thankyou very much for the responses so far ....
    I see a potential problem because my HDD's are not permanently connected in the computer. Each HDD as it is swapped in and out is assigned the same identifier, say " drive D " or suchlike by windows. So my drive D might be any one of several HDDs .... with very different content to the previous drive D I had in the machine. If Lightroom stores its library for each of my drive D's on drive D itself, then I suspect there will not be problem because each HDD will be its own self-contained libary and Lightroom which resides on drive C will be able to operate on each one in turn. I will then have a series of HDD's dedicated to specific tasks, and can use Lightroom on all of them.
    Windows works this way, where it resides on my drive C and performs operations on each drive D. It has no problem in " picking up " each new drive D at startup. I do not attempt to hot-swap.
    But I do not know if this is how Lightroom operates. If Lightroom stores any of this information on drive C will it be able to differentiate between the different drive D's it is confronted with ?
    Geoff's reply suggests that Lightroom might store some or all of its database/library with itself on drive C. Even this might work if the missing files are shown in red. I would just need to select the right HDD to put into the machine for the project I want to work on. Hopefully this will work like the external drive situation Andrew has described. I am using sticky labels to identify each HDD with the projects it holds at the moment ....
    Sounds encouraging .... Thanks for the help.

  • Swapping Hard Drive problem

    Hello, I have a 2008 model Macbook pro.  I recently pulled the hard drive from a windows pc and replaced that drive with a SSD.  The windows drive was not reformatted, I figured I could do it through Disk Utility.  However, the drive does not show up.  I'm assuming it's currently formatted as ntfs or fat32. 
    The existing drive is bootable, but the machine is put back together and it's a pain to take apart.  Wondering if I can boot into something like terminal and choose to reformat the drive. 
    The only drive that shows up is my bootable flash drive.  I do have the ability to hook up the old drive through a USB to SATA adapter, and possibly boot that way.  If I can get it to boot from that external drive, is there a way to format the newly installed drive without having to rip the whole thing a part?
    I had a hard time with the * shaped screws getting them in and out, so I'm trying to avoid having to remove the drive again....
    Any tips would be appreciated!

    More info:  I think there is something wrong on the motherboard side all of a sudden.  Now when I put the original drive in it doesn't boot up anymore.  I wonder if while removing the old drive, I damaged the Hard Drive Connector?  I just ordered a replacement on ebay (only 9 bucks).  What is odd is I'm pretty careful about removing things, since I have replaced many laptop components over the years, so I don't think I did anything damaging when swapping hard drives.
    The laptop did work fine, but since it is a 5400 RPM drive, I wanted speed, so I wanted to just put a 7200 RPM or SSD.  What I ended up doing this morning was to hook up the SSD externally and choose to install Mavericks to that drive through my bootable USB.  Than, once I booted successfully, I re-took the laptop apart, and put the SSD drive into the laptop.  I didn't put the rail screws on this, I was just testing if it booted, so I just set it in the area it will reside.  I booted and it wouldn't boot up at all, never saw Apple logo, just showed a blinking folder with quesiton mark on the screen. 
    If anyone has any other suggestions, I'd appreciate it, but now the internal drive connections don't seem to work, but I can boot externally for now.  I figured I'd order the Hard Drive connector kit from ebay and see if that fixed it, since that is a 9 dollar part....
    Thanks.

Maybe you are looking for