Boot drive transplant from early '08 MBP into '11?

[shreddy]

I'm about to take delivery of a new MBP and am going to transplant my X25-M SSD from my old early '08 model into an Optibay in the new one...

I'm wondering if I can just take the drive and install as it is?

Or should I format & reinstall from the new DVD & my TimeMachine backup?

Curious as if you try to do this kind of thing with Windows and a new mobo/chipset/etc then it just won't work due to different drivers being required yadda yadda.

What's the recommended approach? I believe the new MBPs have a new build of the OS, 10.6.6, no?

 

[Darien Red Sox]

If OSX is up to date it should work fine, A install of Mac OS X should be universal, I have had no problems with my universal boot drive.

 

[shreddy]

Great! Yes, I've the latest 10.6.6 on the old 17". Good to hear from someone with a positive experience of this. I figured I'd just swap them and see what happens. First sign of problems I'll resintall

 

[squeakr]

I just did the same thing. After installing the drive into the MBP, insert the disk that came with your new MBP and restart. Do a reload of the system (can't remember if it is the c or d key held down during startup) to perform this. It takes about 40 min to reload the OS, but it will leave everything in place and just update the kernel to the newer needed one (for these newer MBP's). Let the reinstall complete, and when it restarts you will be back to where you were with the 08 system (everything intact and no loading/ updating should be necesary). Good luck and enjoy.

 

[shreddy]

Thanks for the heads up - will definitely do that!

 

[shreddy]

I just did the same thing. After installing the drive into the MBP, insert the disk that came with your new MBP and restart. Do a reload of the system (can't remember if it is the c or d key held down during startup) to perform this. It takes about 40 min to reload the OS, but it will leave everything in place and just update the kernel to the newer needed one (for these newer MBP's). Let the reinstall complete, and when it restarts you will be back to where you were with the 08 system (everything intact and no loading/ updating should be necesary). Good luck and enjoy.

SSD now installed in the Optibay! So I've booted up off the DVD and held down the C key - it's now showing the "Install Mac OS X".

I'm a bit nervous this will actually wipe the drive and do a clean install? OK I have a TM backup but I don't want to have to restore from that if not necessary as it'll take a while...

So is the "Install Mac OS X" the right thing to do to just reinstall the OS files??

 

[shreddy]

Some more info:

- can't boot directly off the SSD with the OS X from the old laptop - gets to grey boot screen with the Apple logo but the spinner icon never shows, nothing happens

- booting off the DVD, cannot Restore from Time Machine - says "backup was created with an old version of Mac OS X". Have to reinstall OS X and then use the Migration Assistant to get files out of the TM backup it seems.

Trying to install off the DVD and it's gotten as far as telling me there's 43 minutes left but it been like that for about 15-20 minutes now It actually started going up to 44 then 45 mins, but appears to be going down again, now at 42 mins but the DVD isn't spinning... all very strange!

Aha signs of life again - DVD spun up and time remaining jumped to 35 minutes What on earth is it doing?!

 

[dmk1974]

I'm looking to do similar, but just transplant my SSD from my 2010 13" 2.4 C2D MBP into my new 2011 13" i5 MBP. I have the current 2010 all updated with 10.6.7 and so on. But you think I may have to restore it from a TM backup anyhow?

 

[fm2503]

I'm looking to do similar, but just transplant my SSD from my 2010 13" 2.4 C2D MBP into my new 2011 13" i5 MBP. I have the current 2010 all updated with 10.6.7 and so on. But you think I may have to restore it from a TM backup anyhow?

Transplant the SSD. Boot from the Snow Leopard DVD that comes with the i7 and install OS X. This will retain applications and user data. It will also add support for the i7 CPU. System will then boot happily from SSD. Did this last week on a C2D -> i7 transplant.