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New macbook osx install question

koolkeat

koolkeat

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 5, 2007
31
0
Farmington, UT
so i got a used macbook for christmas, and it has leopard installed. The macbook didn't come with the install disk for leopard. My problem is that i want to put in a new, bigger hard drive, but to do so i need install disks for OSX, that i don't have.
I do however have the OSX installation disks that came with a macbook pro. Can i use them to install OSX on the new hard drive? I wouldn't think that using them would work on my macbook, but i thought i would ask anyway.
My other question if the macbook pro disks won't work is how should i go about getting a copy of leopard? i would assume that i have the right to use it if i purchased a macbook that had it already installed on the macbook, but i don't want to buy a copy if i already have a license to use it.
thanks in advanced.
 
Tallest Skil said:
No, you can't. They won't work. Buy Leopard from Amazon, Apple, or MacMall.
Click to expand...

If he has one of the MacBooks that come with Leopard why should he have to buy it again just for the DVDs? If he has one of the MacBooks that come with Leopard, then he can legally torrent the install discs.
 
AFAIK installation disks are model specific. As Tallest Skil said, disks for any MacBook pro (or even a different model of MacBook) simply will not work on your MacBook. But I don't think you need the Leopard installation disks. Buy your new larger hard disk and a suitable usb enclosure (cost $20?). Get a copy of SuperDuper (or equivalent program - this is freeware, though you get an enhanced product for a small charge). Remove your existing hard disk (placing it in the enclosure) and replace it with the new disk. Connect the external disk (your old internal disk) via the usb and boot from it by starting the computer while holding down the Option (Alt) key. Then prepare the new internal disk using Disk Utilities and clone your old hard disk to the new disk using SuperDuper and make sure the new disk is bootable. Restart the computer in the normal way and it will boot from the new internal disk with all your programs, data and settings from the old disk. Keep the old disk until you are happy with the new set up. Then erase the old disk and use it for backups of important files.
 
well i already have my new hard disk, and i did get an external enclosure and some software to convert it, i'm not sure if it is super duper or what it is.
can anyone confirm that this will work?
 
I can confirm that attaching a new hard drive in an external enclosure, cloning the internal hard drive onto it with SuperDuper, then replacing the internal drive with the new one will work.

However, you don't specify what the software you have is, so I can't confirm that.

Why don't you just download SuperDuper? You don't have to buy it. The free version allows you to do manual clones. Buying lets you do scheduled and incremental clones.

As for the install disks ... what is the exact model of your MacBook? If it came with Leopard, you might be able to get a replacement disk from Apple. But if it came with Tiger and was upgraded, the previous owner shouldn't have sold it without the Leopard disk.
 
the software that i got with it is prosoft engineering inc. Data Backup 3. I looked into super duper and i think thats the way i'm gunna go, but my last question is should i put my new drive into the external enclosure, clone my old drive to the external, then take the new drive out of the external and put it in the macbook, or should i put in the new drive, boot from the external then clone to the new drive?
the first option seems to be more work, but also makes more sense to me.
 
koolkeat said:
the software that i got with it is prosoft engineering inc. Data Backup 3. I looked into super duper and i think thats the way i'm gunna go, but my last question is should i put my new drive into the external enclosure, clone my old drive to the external, then take the new drive out of the external and put it in the macbook, or should i put in the new drive, boot from the external then clone to the new drive?
the first option seems to be more work, but also makes more sense to me.
Click to expand...
I would say definitely put the new drive into the external enclosure until it is totally ready to be installed internally on the offchance that any problems show up in the new drive during preparation. Once it has been cloned to (and BTW Data Backup 3 will clone your internal drive too- as will the free Carbon Copy Cloner which I personally wind up using more than either DB3 or my paid copy of SuperDuper) you can then boot from it and make sure all is OK before installing it internally.

I just think it is more logical to prepare the new drive fully first, then pop it in place when ready and tested.

BTW- Don't forget to set up your new drive with Mac OS Extended (Journaled) with a GUID partition map scheme before you try to clone to it as clones don't work with the PC format/partition map that they normally come with new.
 
Emerica said:
If he has one of the MacBooks that come with Leopard why should he have to buy it again just for the DVDs? If he has one of the MacBooks that come with Leopard, then he can legally torrent the install discs.
Click to expand...

HA! HA HA! HA! YEAH! That's legal!

The EULA says 1 computer per OS. He didn't buy a family pack. It is illegal for him to install Leopard with his other computer's disks, even if it were physically possible to do so (because it isn't. Because restore disks don't work with any computer other than the model with which they came).
 
sickmacdoc said:
BTW- Don't forget to set up your new drive with Mac OS Extended (Journaled) with a GUID partition map scheme before you try to clone to it as clones don't work with the PC format/partition map that they normally come with new.
Click to expand...

well i would like to think that i'm not completely stupid when it comes to computers, but this one lost me. how would i go about doing that?
 
ok i have the new drive in the external enclosure and its opened up in disk utility, but now i have no idea what settings to set the GUID partition map scheme. I'm pretty sure its already mac os x extended (journaled) because it says so under RAID then volume format.
 
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