Moving from a Macbook to a Macbook Pro

[manewman]

I was wondering if I can take the hard drive out of my Macbook and put it in my Macbook Pro? I want to do this so I don't have to go through the pain of completely reconfiguring my new machine with the 100 different applications I use. If there is a way please please please let me know.

Cheers!

MN

 

[maclover001]

Grab an external HD and use Time Machine restore.

 

[GimmeSlack12]

Save yourself a ton of trouble and just use the Migration Assistant. It'll move everything from your old machine to your new one. No need to get your hands dirty with swapping drives.

 

[dsnort]

You can import all your settings from you old comp to the new one during the setup procedure for the new one. You will get a prompt asking if you want to transfer your data from another Mac, click yes and follow the prompts. It has to be done using firewire, you may need a firewire 400/800 adapter.

 

[gr8tfly]

Save yourself a ton of trouble and just use the Migration Assistant. It'll move everything from your old machine to your new one. No need to get your hands dirty with swapping drives.

+1

You do NOT want to use the OS from an older model. There's a good chance you'll end up with a big headache. Use the Migration Assistant. The only thing you might need to do afterwards, is to reenter a serial number or two. You will have all your apps, data, and settings. It should end up looking virtually identical to the MacBook you migrated from, except have the correct build of the OS for that model.

For instance: My old MBP (17" 2.33) was running the latest 10.5.6. I did boot off of it, knowing it would be different, but seeing a different display calibration (it was bluish), went off on a wild goose chase. Finally, I found that the new 17" UB MBP came with build 9G2141, whereas the old (public release) of 10.5.6 was build 9G55. One of the differences was a different "Color LCD" calibration - the other was a different Energy Saver pref pane, which was missing the GPU selection.

The "bluish" problem was exactly the same as many reported seeing on display models in Apple Stores. They ALSO used 9G55, instead of the shipping build. The problem arose because they have a standard network image for the store machines and hadn't updated the one used for the 17" UB MBPs.

Bottom line - IMO, trust the Migration Assistant. It does a very thorough job - anything missed will be minor, if anything.

for reference: Mac OS X versions (builds) included with Intel-based Macs

edit: btw, the Migration Assistant is run automatically during the setup of the new machine

 

[MTI]

Don't they (Apple Store) do this for free?

 

[Jozone]

Don't they (Apple Store) do this for free?

Not positive, but if they dont this would be what you want to pick up (pretty reasonable price) http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/1394B6912C/

 

[dsnort]

Not positive, but if they dont this would be what you want to pick up (pretty reasonable price) http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/1394B6912C/

There's also an adapter that fits on the end of any firewire 400 cable you already have.

http://www.sonnettech.com/product/fw_adapter.html

Handy, but it actually cost more than the cable jozone posted.

 

[Benguitar]

edit: btw, the Migration Assistant is run automatically during the setup of the new machine

That is the approach I took and it worked flawless for me, I highly recommend doing Migration Assistant before Time Machine.

I'd use Time Machine (or in my case SuperDuper) as your backup plan.

 

[gr8tfly]

That is the approach I took and it worked flawless for me, I highly recommend doing Migration Assistant before Time Machine.

I'd use Time Machine (or in my case SuperDuper) as your backup plan.

As far using Migration Assistant, you can [also] migrate from Time Machine, as well as directly from the old machine (FW Target Mode, for instance). But, using Time Machine itself to get your old system transferred won't work, since you also get the old OS.