Macbook hard disk swap

[shaty002]

I have two macbooks, one with 60GB the other 80GB hard disks.

Would I be able to swap the hard disks between the two without breaking anything? I guess we cannot do this for most windows machine because of difference in hardware configuration. I am thinking since these both machines are quite alike (with RAM and CPU differences obvious), it may work.

I thought get your opinion on the matter before heading for the swap.

 

[spinnerlys]

How much do they differ though except CPU & RAM?

You could use System Profiler to determine the differences.

If they are different model versions (MB 1.1 or 2.1 or 3.1 or 4.1) it may be possible but the installed drivers could not be efficient for the other model.

Why would you swap the drives if the difference is "only" 19GB?

 

[old-wiz]

And unless you have good mechanical skills and some experience taking laptops apart, you could wind up with 2 dead macbooks.

 

[xraydoc]

Yes, you can swap them. Unless one machine has some significant 3rd party hardware requiring special drivers, one MacBook's hard drive will boot another MacBook. It should be no problem. I routinely use my MacBook in FireWire disk mode to boot my Mac mini. No problems there, either.

And removing a hard drive from a plastic-shell MacBook (not a MacBook Pro) is a simple process. Remove battery. Remove metal plate covering RAM slots. Yank hard drive & slide new one in.

 

[shaty002]

Thanks guys for the feedback. I will give it a go tomorrow and see how things go. Yes, these are white plastic body macbooks.

The difference of 19 GB sometimes help because I routinely use my macbook for video editing and my wife's is for general use. Recently my hard disk fried and got I had a spare 60GB which I installed in mine.

Incidently video that I grap from my mini-DV cassette comes to around 22GB so the extra 20GB helps a lot. And oh, the place that I am living these days, access to a larger hard disk isn't very possible. That can be future plans.

Thanks again fellows!

 

[outasflyguy]

it should work. I've done it between a core duo machine and a core 2 duo machine.