10.5 Macbook install discs on a Macbook Pro?

[Josh Kahane]

Hi

I have an aluminum Macbook and also a 1st generation Macbook Pro. I was wondering if in anyway whatsoever I could use the 10.5 install disc from the Macbook on the Macbook Pro? Possible to get past the error? I would really appreciate the help.

 

[stridemat]

Not possible Im afraid. Leopard disks are custom for individual type of machines such as a macbook and macbook pro are slightly different. You could phone Apple and get replacement disks for your machine or download a torrent (Not sure on the legality of this as you are downloading a copy of something you have a license of, so technically not doing anything wrong)

 

[Josh Kahane]

The idea was I got my Macbook Pro upgraded to leopard. As it came with 10.4 so I can't really ask Apple for Leopard replacement discs.

As for downloading a torrent, well possible, although whats the likely hood its illegal?

Connecting via firewire, going into Target Disc Mode and doing clean install possible?

Any other possibilities?

 

[stridemat]

lol that would be illegal as you don't have a license for leopard to run on your macbook pro.

Snow leopard is due out in a few months or sooner so if I was you instead of purchasing leopard now, wait and run snow on your macbook pro.

 

[ppc750fx]

Connecting via firewire, going into Target Disc Mode and doing clean install possible?

Yep. It'll work great too.

Put the MacBook Pro into target disk mode. Plug in the MacBook and boot from the Mac OS X Install disk. Select the MBP's drive as the drive to install to and you'll be all set.

 

[Diaresi]

Put simply:

Leopard retail disc configured for all Macs (that it supports through specs) prior to the release of Leopard.

Leopard disc that came with your Mac is specifically created for just that Mac. AFAIK it won't include the right drivers and such for a different machine.

 

[dmmcintyre3]

Put simply:

Leopard retail disc configured for all Macs (that it supports through specs) prior to the release of Leopard.

Leopard disc that came with your Mac is specifically created for just that Mac. AFAIK it won't include the right drivers and such for a different machine.

It probably does it just includes new files for that machine. usually OSX builds are universal

 

[ppc750fx]

Leopard disc that came with your Mac is specifically created for just that Mac. AFAIK it won't include the right drivers and such for a different machine.

That's... well... wrong.

There are essentially three differences between a restore disc and a retail OS X install disc:

1) There will be additional software on the restore disk -- a whole bunch of stuff is bundled with new machines that's not included on retail disks.

2) There may be additional drivers on the restore disk if the restore disk is for hardware that is not supported by the version of OS X that's currently being pressed for retail disks. Example: the Unibody MacBooks weren't supported by the point release of 10.5 that was shipping in retail OS X boxes. Their restore disks had drivers bundled that would not have otherwise been included in an OS X install image.

3) There is an artificial restriction that prevents the use of the disk as a normal OS X install disk -- basically it checks your machine ID to see if it's the same as the model that the disk was made to restore. If not, it refuses the install. (Although it's trivial to work around this even without the target disk trick...)

Other than that, it's a full copy of OS X. No drivers are omitted -- you can take the restore disks shipped with the very latest MacBooks and use them to install OS X on a 2006-era MB; it's not quite as user-friendly a process as a retail install, but it works just fine.