driving cloning swap possible?

[justmealex]

Hello All,

I have a early 2009 24 inch imac and a late 2009 27 inch imac. I was wondering if it would be possible to clone the 24 inch drive some how and transfer it to the 27 inch. Would it still boot up and work?

I am giving the 24 inch to the neice and nephew, but want to fire up the 27 inch and have everything from the 24 running on it.. light room, photoshop etc.

thanks in advance!

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Yes, that will work via Target Disk Mode + CarbonCopyCloner if you have at least Mac OS X 10.6.3 on that 24" iMac or you can use Migration Assistant.

Migration Assistant / Setup Assistant information:

Setting-up a new Mac from an old one, its Backups, or a PC
which includes:

• Using Setup Assistant on Snow Leopard or Leopard
• Using Setup Assistant on Lion
• Using Migration Assistant on Snow Leopard or Leopard
• Using Migration Assistant on Lion
• Transferring files from one User Account to another
• Transferring Home Folders not on a Startup volume
• Transferring Applications
• Problems after using Migration Assistant

more information: Apple OSX and Time Machine Tips
​

 

[justmealex]

Cool, thanks a lot, I'll check out those links!!!

 

[Fishrrman]

"I have a early 2009 24 inch imac and a late 2009 27 inch imac. I was wondering if it would be possible to clone the 24 inch drive some how and transfer it to the 27 inch. Would it still boot up and work?"

The problem with completely "cloning" the contents of the 24" to the 27" is that the system software of the 24" may not be fully compatible with the 27". I'm not saying it won't work -- what I -am- saying is that there -may- be a problem.

It might be better to do this:
1. Do a clean install of the system onto the 27"
2. When the time comes to create your initial account, choose the "migrate" your account and data from the 24" (connected via Firewire target disk mode).
3. You should end up with the 27" having a -clean- system, with your original account/data/applications there, too.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

"I have a early 2009 24 inch imac and a late 2009 27 inch imac. I was wondering if it would be possible to clone the 24 inch drive some how and transfer it to the 27 inch. Would it still boot up and work?"

The problem with completely "cloning" the contents of the 24" to the 27" is that the system software of the 24" may not be fully compatible with the 27". I'm not saying it won't work -- what I -am- saying is that there -may- be a problem.

It might be better to do this:
1. Do a clean install of the system onto the 27"
2. When the time comes to create your initial account, choose the "migrate" your account and data from the 24" (connected via Firewire target disk mode).
3. You should end up with the 27" having a -clean- system, with your original account/data/applications there, too.

It will work, if the 24" iMac has at least Mac OS X 10.6.2, as the 27" iMac came with 10.6.1, thus all the drivers for that hardware will be included in 10.6.2.
Otherwise something like this wouldn't be possible:
[SUCCESS!]Late 2011 Macbook Pro with Snow Leopard

 

[justmealex]

Hi,

yes, the are both running the lastest version of lion with all the updates. Thanks for your help, I'll give it a shot.