Migrating from Macbook 2008 => 2009 Can I Move the Whole Drive?

[philosopherdog]

I've got a 500 GB drive on my Macbook 13 " Aluminum 2008 and want to migrate to a new 2009 Unibody Pro 13 ". I don't suppose I can just move the whole drive over (physically)? Or do I have to wipe the drive, reinstall OS X.6, and then restore from a Timemachine Backup?

 

[Bengt77]

As the only differences are the built-in SD-card reader and the FW800 port, you should be fine. Support for both is built into Mac OS X, so there should be no problems whatsoever.

 

[fedup flyer]

I moved from a 2006 polycarb (pre-santa rosa) to a 2009 unibody with no problem. Just popped out the hard drive and put it in the new machine and it booted with zero problems.

 

[philosopherdog]

Thanx for the replies. Being able to just move the drive will make life much easier for sure.

 

[excommie]

I did the same about a year ago (swapped my HD from 15 MBP to a white MB). Everything worked fine, but the machine was taking 2 minutes to boot. After I re-set PRAM, the long boot time is solved (now takes about 30~35 seconds).

 

[philosopherdog]

I did the same about a year ago (swapped my HD from 15 MBP to a white MB). Everything worked fine, but the machine was taking 2 minutes to boot. After I re-set PRAM, the long boot time is solved (now takes about 30~35 seconds).

Resetting the PRAM is a very good suggestion. Anyhow, I popped the drive in from the old machine and it works as expected. That was the easiest computer upgrade I've ever done! I swapped my 2008 for a 2009 unibody 13 inch. They are very similar machines, but I find the 2009 feels more solid without that problematic battery hatch. The screen is seriously better and so is the battery. SD card slot will come in handy and Firewire is sweet. I also found that the battery recharges much more quickly on the new machine. I know they are probably coming out with new processors in the first 3 months of 2010, but I'm impatient. I'd rather not buy something just released in case there's some major issue.