APM to GUID

[eyoungren]

OK, so here's my question before I get deep into this later tonight.

I have my old 120GB HD from my 17" PowerBook. It's formatted APM, PowerPC install of Leopard 10.5.8.

I have a brand new 500GB HD formatted GUID for the new MBP.

So, if I use Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper to clone the 120GB HD (APM) to my 500GB HD (GUID) is the APM partition of the source going to overwrite the GUID partition of the target?

In other words, will I have an APM formatted HD (because the clone app replaced the GUID partition with the APM one) when I am done with the clone?

Does CCC or SuperDuper go down to the block level for that, or is it just a straight copy of files?

My purpose in this is to essentially make the new MBP a duplicate of my old PowerBook. THEN, to update the OS to Snow Leopard. I know this will break quite a bit of my PowerPC only apps, but I have plans around that. Just need to know if this will work.

I understand that it's possible to boot an Intel Mac on an APM formatted drive but you can't update and you can't use boot camp. So, naturally, I'd like to avoid going through all this trouble only to find out I'm stuck on Leopard.

 

[G4fanboy]

I think CCC and Superduper only copy the content on the partition, independently on if you used APM or GUID or MBR to partition the 500 drive.

If you want to use 10.6, is better a clean 10.6 install than a upgrade from 10.5. You can still use Rosetta on 10.6 for your Ppc apps.

If you only have an upgrade to 10.6 disc instead of a full installer, you will have to do as you said. I am not sure on what content you need from 10.5 PPC to work on Intel. But always is better a native version than a translated one. TFF has a intel edition as you mentioned on other post.

 

[eyoungren]

I think CCC and Superduper only copy the content on the partition, independently on if you used APM or GUID or MBR to partition the 500 drive.

Awesome! Thanks!

That's what I thought, but I wanted to confirm before I wasted a few hours.

Unless someone else can deny what G4fanboy has stated I will go ahead then.

 

[G4fanboy]

Awesome! Thanks!

That's what I thought, but I wanted to confirm before I wasted a few hours.

Unless someone else can deny what G4fanboy has stated I will go ahead then.

Wait for someone other confirms or deny, but I think it work in that way.

I have little contact with Intel Macs, but with Hacks, you clone a MBR/GUID partition and install chameleon over and you are (almost) running

 

[weckart]

I think an Intel Mac will still boot from an APM drive with Leopard on it (optical discs use APM format unless I am mistaken) but you won't be able to upgrade on it or use Bootcamp.

CCC and SuperDuper do go down to block level but only at the partition, not the disk. Partition information is kept in the first hidden header volume, which is left untouched.

[edit] I forgot but back in the day iPartition could change APM disks to GPT non-destructively - i.e. retaining all your volumes and data. It is not free to buy and I don't know if the current version still has this capability. I had a copy once but lost the disc in a move so cannot remember what version it was.

 

[eyoungren]

I think an Intel Mac will still boot from an APM drive with Leopard on it (optical discs use APM format unless I am mistaken) but you won't be able to upgrade on it or use Bootcamp.

CCC and SuperDuper do go down to block level but only at the partition, not the disk. Partition information is kept in the first hidden header volume, which is left untouched.

So…cloning the drive from the APM partitioned disk will NOT overwrite the GUID partition on the target drive, then correct?

Just confirming. Thanks for the help!

 

[Intell]

Most cloning with Carbon Copy Cloner is done on the file level. It does not matter what partition scheme it is and it don't really care about the file system type either.

 

[eyoungren]

Thanks guys for the help! Really appreciate it!

 

[RedCroissant]

Thanks guys for the help! Really appreciate it!

The only other real questions is whether or not you used Monolingual to optimize the OS and how that will alter its performance with an Intel Mac.

 

[eyoungren]

I did use Monolingual. And I do expect some things to break. However, most of the things I expect to break are being replaced with newer versions.

Of the rest of it, it will be a case by case basis of what goes and what stays.

The drive I am cloning right now is going to go into the new A1013 when it gets here on Thursday, so none of it's info will be lost. It will continue on as if I never replaced the PB.

The MBP is going forward and will probably take a slightly different tack. Right now, I have a general plan for both and as I hit the bumps in the road with the MBP I'll make decisions then as to which Mac get's which task.

 

[weckart]

I did use Monolingual. And I do expect some things to break. However, most of the things I expect to break are being replaced with newer versions.

Of the rest of it, it will be a case by case basis of what goes and what stays.

Just a thought. Why not do a clean installation into your MBP and use Migration Assistant to copy across your apps and settings from your Powerbook? It would probably be a little quicker and less likely to break things.

 

[eyoungren]

Just a thought. Why not do a clean installation into your MBP and use Migration Assistant to copy across your apps and settings from your Powerbook? It would probably be a little quicker and less likely to break things.

That actually was a serious thought, but I decided against it for a few reasons.

Mainly though, I have too much customization invested over the years to actually remember everything I have done.

For example, I had Location X, which automatically switches my location depending on where I am. At Starbucks that will load up a Fluid app for Starbucks' login page.

I decided that I'd rather fix what breaks versus trying to remember everything I needed to update.

Finder would not load after logging in. So, I just went ahead and updated to 10.6.3. I will finish updating at work today. I'm typing this in Firefox on the MBP right now.