Move Old hard drive with OSX installed to new macbook -possible?

[bombjack]

Ok, my 15" MBP late 2008 died yesterday RIP :-( The replacement will be the cheapest MBP 13". I hate the thought of installing/configuring everything again, so my question: Is it possible to move the old hard drive to the new MBP withouth doing any reinstallations etc? OSX is Mountain Lion, "latest and greatest"

FYI: The "old" drive is actually quite new. It's a 7200 rpm 500GB with an extra 8GB SSD for the most used programs, which is a nice feature. I'm pretty sure it is faster than the included 5400rpm in a MBP.

Thanks!

 

[justperry]

Ok, my 15" MBP late 2008 died yesterday RIP :-( The replacement will be the cheapest MBP 13". I hate the thought of installing/configuring everything again, so my question: Is it possible to move the old hard drive to the new MBP withouth doing any reinstallations etc? OSX is Mountain Lion, "latest and greatest"

FYI: The "old" drive is actually quite new. It's a 7200 rpm 500GB with an extra 8GB SSD for the most used programs, which is a nice feature. I'm pretty sure it is faster than the included 5400rpm in a MBP.

Thanks!

If you have an external enclosure you can use Migration Assistant to move all your stuff from the old to the new drive without opening the new MacBookPro

 

[Sirolway]

I doubt you can move the disk from your old Mac to a new one without having to reinstall the OS.
Tempting as it is to put the old / faster disk in the new machine, your simplest option is as someone else said - get an external enclosure & use Migration Assistant on the new machine to move all your files over.
Then use the external drive for Time Machine or just external storage ..

 

[justperry]

I doubt you can move the disk from your old Mac to a new one without having to reinstall the OS.
Tempting as it is to put the old / faster disk in the new machine, your simplest option is as someone else said - get an external enclosure & use Migration Assistant on the new machine to move all your files over.
Then use the external drive for Time Machine or just external storage ..

If the MBP can run the System that is on that disk you can install it internally, in this case there is 10.8 on it and it will be possible.

It all depends what the OP wants, if he wants the faster HD inside he should go ahead, but if it was me I would just import all his Data from the old one.

 

[Ccrew]

It'll work to swap the HDD from the old to the new. Done it countless times.