Moving the HDD/SSD from one MBP to another

[tenderidol]

Hi all,
Currently, I have a 160GB Intel G2 SSD in my 15" MBP. When Intel releases the 320GB version soon, the 160GB will move to my wife's 13" MBP.

Except for the few titles, the software we use are identical (The software we have is all "multiple copy" versions). To avoid reinstalling Snow Leopard and the programs again, I would like to just install the SSD to the 13" MBP and make some changes (e.g., changing accounts in Mail, loading different set of Firefox bookmarks, etc etc). It seems like the name and the password of the Admin account can be changed under "user accounts" as well.

Would this create any problems? Is it naive to assume that once SL boots the first time, it will make the necessary changes once it realizes that it's in a different environment?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Gabriel GR]

Hi all,
Currently, I have a 160GB Intel G2 SSD in my 15" MBP. When Intel releases the 320GB version soon, the 160GB will move to my wife's 13" MBP.

Except for the few titles, the software we use are identical (The software we have is all "multiple copy" versions). To avoid reinstalling Snow Leopard and the programs again, I would like to just install the SSD to the 13" MBP and make some changes (e.g., changing accounts in Mail, loading different set of Firefox bookmarks, etc etc). It seems like the name and the password of the Admin account can be changed under "user accounts" as well.

Would this create any problems? Is it naive to assume that once SL boots the first time, it will make the necessary changes once it realizes that it's in a different environment?

Thanks in advance!

I am not sure about the answer. But you can skip reinstalling on both laptops by using an external drive enclosure.

Copy your 160gb SSD to the new one and install it in your 15" Mac
Erase the 160gb SSD.
Copy your wife's files to the 160gb SSD
Install it in your wife's 13" Mac.

You will save time and both computers will have their exact files.

BTW by "copy" I mean clone the entire drive with something like Superduper, carboncopycloner etc.

 

[coast1ja]

Once you get the drives the exact same... you can fool OSX into thinking that you are running setup for the first time. There are many guides on how to do this. Like this one.

That will allow you to set up a new admin account (new mail, etc.) and still keep all of your programs and other files... you can even delete the other admin account if you want. Just make sure the new account is named something different than any other existing account.

 

[tenderidol]

Once you get the drives the exact same... you can fool OSX into thinking that you are running setup for the first time. There are many guides on how to do this. Like this one.

That will allow you to set up a new admin account (new mail, etc.) and still keep all of your programs and other files... you can even delete the other admin account if you want. Just make sure the new account is named something different than any other existing account.

Thanks for the reply. That admin "hack" will come in handy for sure...

One question though. When you say "once you get the drives the exact same", do you mean some sort of cloning, copying files, etc? Can the above method work on the SSD that I'll transfer from my computer to my wife's?

Thanks again!