Swap Hard Drive To Another Macbook?

[matty1551]

I have 2 Macbooks. It seems that one is on its way to the graveyard.

Can I simply swap my hard drive out from one to the other without reformatting? Or will that cause issues? I have a time machine backup I can use but I hate to go through all the trouble if it's not necessary.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

Depends which macbooks you have

Some details would be nice then you may get an answer.

 

[Weaselboy]

I have 2 Macbooks. It seems that one is on its way to the graveyard.

Can I simply swap my hard drive out from one to the other without reformatting? Or will that cause issues? I have a time machine backup I can use but I hate to go through all the trouble if it's not necessary.

Yes, with a caveat. The machine accepting the drive just needs to be capable of running the OS X version that is not the donor hard drive. For example, if the donor drive has OS X 10.9 Mavericks on it and the receiving machine can run Mavericks, then you are good to go.

But for example, if the donor machine is running 10.6 Snow Leopard and the receiving machine came with Mavericks, then it won't work.