My early-2008 MBP was recently damaged beyond repair. My (7200rpm 500gb) hard drive, however, is completely safe & intact. If I purchase a new laptop, can I simply move the old drive to the new Mac as-is, or will data migration be a better solution?
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Hard Drive Migration?
- Thread starter plethon
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You might, but only if you have at least the version of Mac OS X that is coming with the new Mac, otherwise you will have driver issues.
"If I purchase a new laptop, can I simply move the old drive to the new Mac as-is, or will data migration be a better solution?"
The new laptop will almost certainly need a more recent version of the OS than the one that is on the old drive.
My suggestion is that you get one of these:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=usb+sata+dock&x=0&y=0
(many items shown, they all work the same, just pick one you like that's cheap)
Put the old drive into it, and connect it to the new laptop.
Then use Migration Assistant to bring your old account to the new Mac.
The USB/SATA dock will become a very handy piece of hardware to have around, and did I mention they were _cheap_?
You can even boot from them (same as from an external drive enclosure).
The new laptop will almost certainly need a more recent version of the OS than the one that is on the old drive.
My suggestion is that you get one of these:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=usb+sata+dock&x=0&y=0
(many items shown, they all work the same, just pick one you like that's cheap)
Put the old drive into it, and connect it to the new laptop.
Then use Migration Assistant to bring your old account to the new Mac.
The USB/SATA dock will become a very handy piece of hardware to have around, and did I mention they were _cheap_?
You can even boot from them (same as from an external drive enclosure).
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
Thanks for the advice.
I have OS X Lion on the old hard drive. I do not want to simply transfer the old data because I bought a refurbished MBP and was not given the choice of a 7200rpm drive. Given the performance increase when I moved the old laptop to a 7200rpm drive, I want to use it in the new laptop because I don't really need the extra 250gb of space provided by the stock drive (and can use it as an external drive, anyhow).
I purchased a hard drive enclosure to help transfer data (if needed) and to serve as a case for the new drive when I get the old one into the new MBP. I was under the impression that the migration assistant can only be used with another functioning Mac and through firewire or ethernet. Is it possible to use it with a USB enclosure after all?
I have OS X Lion on the old hard drive. I do not want to simply transfer the old data because I bought a refurbished MBP and was not given the choice of a 7200rpm drive. Given the performance increase when I moved the old laptop to a 7200rpm drive, I want to use it in the new laptop because I don't really need the extra 250gb of space provided by the stock drive (and can use it as an external drive, anyhow).
I purchased a hard drive enclosure to help transfer data (if needed) and to serve as a case for the new drive when I get the old one into the new MBP. I was under the impression that the migration assistant can only be used with another functioning Mac and through firewire or ethernet. Is it possible to use it with a USB enclosure after all?
Thanks for all the help, I went on and ran setup assistant using the old hard drive. Now I just need to swap it all around again
Problem, solved.
Problem, solved.