Can I move my old hard drive to my new Macbook Pro?

[borderless]

Hi All -

Just picked up a new Macbook Pro today.

Last week, I installed a new 320gb, 7200rpm drive in my (now) old Macbook Pro.

The MBP I picked up today has the 5400rpm drive so I don't want to use it.

Can I simply take the drive from my old MBP and put it in the new MBP?

 

[Empyre]

I dont see why not, they are both SATA and as long as they are the same size it should just fit right into the HDD slot I reckon. But im not an expert on mac notebook hardware so dont take my word for it, but it shouldn't be any different...just a straight up swap.

 

[panzer06]

Hi All -

Just picked up a new Macbook Pro today.

Last week, I installed a new 320gb, 7200rpm drive in my (now) old Macbook Pro.

The MBP I picked up today has the 5400rpm drive so I don't want to use it.

Can I simply take the drive from my old MBP and put it in the new MBP?

Yes, it will work. Just clone the drive that is in the new MBP to the 7200 version using SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner (put the old MBP in Target mode or use and external housing for the 7200). Then put the 7200 in the new MBP.

Cheers,

 

[borderless]

Didn't work - keeps "rebooting"

Guys - any help here.

I replaced the drive and when I turned on the new MBP, it made the normal booting sound, light blue blank screen came up for a few seconds. Then the screen went black again and repeated (sound, light blue screen, black).

Any ideas?

 

[panzer06]

Guys - any help here.

I replaced the drive and when I turned on the new MBP, it made the normal booting sound, light blue blank screen came up for a few seconds. Then the screen went black again and repeated (sound, light blue screen, black).

Any ideas?

Did you clone the data from the new 5400 to the 7200 first? You can't boot the new system from the old install.

You need to migrate your data from the old drive (7200) to the 5400 that came with the system (using the migration utility that comes up when you first setup the system) and then clone the drive.

Cheers,

 

[borderless]

Did you clone the data from the new 5400 to the 7200 first? You can't boot the new system from the old install.

You need to migrate your data from the old drive (7200) to the 5400 that came with the system (using the migration utility that comes up when you first setup the system) and then clone the drive.

Cheers,

Nope.. but I am now... the firewire 800 is making a huge difference. I have about 60gigs I chose to migrate and it's only going to take 20 minutes to transfer. Not too bad.

 

[borderless]

Did you clone the data from the new 5400 to the 7200 first? You can't boot the new system from the old install.

You need to migrate your data from the old drive (7200) to the 5400 that came with the system (using the migration utility that comes up when you first setup the system) and then clone the drive.

Cheers,

Ok.. just to be sure I have this straight...

I booted to the new MBP with the 5400rpm drive.
I selected migrate.
I plugged my old MBP 7200rpm drive in and clicked migrate.

Waiting for this to finish now.

Once complete, I use SuperDuper to clone the MBP 5400rpm back to the 7200rpm drive and swap the drives?

Sound right?

 

[Chrysaor]

You can't use your old OS X installation with the new one. New MBPs come with a newer build of OS X including drivers for NVIDIA 9M cards etc.

 

[panzer06]

Ok.. just to be sure I have this straight...

I booted to the new MBP with the 5400rpm drive.
I selected migrate.
I plugged my old MBP 7200rpm drive in and clicked migrate.

Waiting for this to finish now.

Once complete, I use SuperDuper to clone the MBP 5400rpm back to the 7200rpm drive and swap the drives?

Sound right?

Yes, that should do nicely. Good luck!

 

[borderless]

Yes, that should do nicely. Good luck!

Worked flawlessly. Thanks.

 

[Mikebuzzsaw]

Ok.. just to be sure I have this straight...

I booted to the new MBP with the 5400rpm drive.
I selected migrate.
I plugged my old MBP 7200rpm drive in and clicked migrate.

Waiting for this to finish now.

Once complete, I use SuperDuper to clone the MBP 5400rpm back to the 7200rpm drive and swap the drives?

Sound right?

Sounds perfect!

 

[iJimmy]

I'm assuming that I would follow the same steps when installing my hdd from my late 2007 plastic mb to a late 2008 aluminum mb.

 

[panzer06]

I'm assuming that I would follow the same steps when installing my hdd from my late 2007 plastic mb to a late 2008 aluminum mb.

Assuming you want to use the drive from the older MB in the new one (because it's bigger or faster?), then yes you could follow the same steps to get your data on the new system first (via the migration assistant) and then clone the working new drive to your existing drive and finally physically swap the drives.

Of course you may not have a drive capable of booting the old system once this process is complete.

Cheers,