Ok guys. So I have a late 2008 Macbook. 2 GHz. 4 GB RAM. Im running 10.6.8. Prehistoric for most of you probably. Nothing wrong with my 160GB HDD. However, my brother's MBP from around 2011 quit working for some small issue I think. He is Mr. money bags so he bought a new one and is full steam ahead with that now. But he took out the hard drive and still has it and it is still good. It's an Intel X-25 M SATA-II 120 GB SSD with Mavericks. A ton of other stuff too like 2011 Office and a bunch more. Newer software than what Ive got on mine and would like to have. So, I was wondering, can I place that SSD in my computer and have it work properly with everything that on it? I know my computer supports Mavericks (albeit barely and perhaps not perfectly.) but am I going to run into all kinds of glitches? Thank you very much for any light shed upon this.
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Yep... just swap that out and it will work fine in your 2008. That X-25 is bulletproof and will do a good job for you.
The only issue you will likely have is I believe Office will see it is on new hardware and stop working without reregistering.
I put Mavericks on my daughter's 2008 just like yours with 4GB and a hard drive and it works just fine.
The only issue you will likely have is I believe Office will see it is on new hardware and stop working without reregistering.
I put Mavericks on my daughter's 2008 just like yours with 4GB and a hard drive and it works just fine.
It varies by version. I think some versions of MS Office will "phone home" to MS and it will limit how many concurrent licenses you can run at the same time. It might not let you and your brother use the same product key at the same time.
I remember an older MS Office for Mac version I had that let me run it on five Macs.
If your Office needs are not too demanding, you might be able to get by with something like the free Libre Office suite.
http://www.libreoffice.org
Right. I pretty much need the real Office though. I have '08 now I just would like '11 and would be cool if I could use the one that's on the SSD. You may be talking about Office Mac '04. That thing seemed to have no guards from Microsoft at all. I actually "borrowed" it from my friends laptop via flash drive! Just moved all the files over and Wa-la! Worked perfectly. A ton of people at my college just did the same thing...taking it from the school iMacs. Different times I guess.
My brother has 3 product licenses with it and so I think he used a different one on his new computer. So the one on this SSD is only used on that drive. So you're saying that it would know that it's being used on a new computer and may disable it?
My brother has 3 product licenses with it and so I think he used a different one on his new computer. So the one on this SSD is only used on that drive. So you're saying that it would know that it's being used on a new computer and may disable it?
The three user licence is the Office 2011 'Home and Student Family Pack'. Technically you'd be in breach of the licence because you're not a member of your brother's household, but obviously it's not keyed to IP addresses or it would be pretty useless with a laptop.
It seems to be the application that most frequently fails to transfer nicely when moved – ie it demands that you re-enter the licence key – but in the last few weeks I've moved 2011 (latest version, 14.3.9) with Migration Assistant on three occasions: once from a backup to a new SSD in my Mini, the second time from a fresh backup of that SSD to a new-to-me Macbook's HDD, lastly from a backup of the Macbook's HDD to a replacement SSD. On no occasion did 2011 kick up a fuss, so there's obviously no *automatic* refusal to move between different disks / different Mac models / different MAC addresses.
So... try it. What's the worst that can happen?
YMMV, etc etc.
EDIT: this seems at odds with Weaselboy's UUID post
EDIT: this seems at odds with Weaselboy's UUID post
I don't think all versions "phone home" or check the UUID, so OP many be okay. I have not kept up with the differences in all the versions.