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Swap hard drives w/o reinstalling OS?

Obsidian6

Obsidian6

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Apr 29, 2006
683
3
Laguna Niguel, CA
I've never done this before, but I'm curious if I was to swap the hard drive from my macbook and my macbook pro if they would still boot and operate as normal?

I'm plenty capable of taking them apart, I just would like to know if I can save myself the time of reinstalling the OS by just swapping the drives.
 
Yes. Use a clone program like SuperDuper (free) to copy your current OS image to your new drive first... then swap it out with the old one.

Edit: Never mind. I misread.
 
Cave Man said:
If you didn't initialize your new drive with a GUID partition table it will not boot.
Click to expand...

He was switching them between some MB and an MBP...I'm sure they're both setup with GUID partition tables.

You may run in to some driver conflicts though OP, just because each OS install is fairly specific for that model. Most standout would be the lack of a GPU on the BlackBook/the presence of a dedicated GPU on the Pro.
 
NewMacbookPlz said:
He was switching them between some MB and an MBP...I'm sure they're both setup with GUID partition tables.

You may run in to some driver conflicts though OP, just because each OS install is fairly specific for that model. Most standout would be the lack of a GPU on the BlackBook/the presence of a dedicated GPU on the Pro.
Click to expand...

That isn't so.

OSX automatically detects the drivers required on bootup. This is why I can boot from my external HD with 10.5.8 on both MBs and my G4 and everything works!
 
cjmillsnun said:
That isn't so.

OSX automatically detects the drivers required on bootup. This is why I can boot from my external HD with 10.5.8 on both MBs and my G4 and everything works!
Click to expand...

Good to know! I thought the installation was model'ish specific like the OS DVDs that come with the computers...whoops!
 
everything went smooth for the macbook, it's running wonderfully with the 7200rpm drive in there.

I did run into 1 issue on the macbook pro. My father uses it in clamshell mode 99% of the time, I went to re-connect the bluetooth mouse and keyboard and at first they just wouldn't respond. I manually removed and re-added them and they began to work again however when in clamshell mode I'm not able to click on anything or open anything on the desktop.

Also when I open the screen back up nothing happens. If I reboot the MBP then both screens will respond again and the "non-clicking" issue disappears. Only to reappear again as soon as you close the lid.

I've never had something like this happen before, any idea what's causing it?
 
Obsidian6 said:
everything went smooth for the macbook, it's running wonderfully with the 7200rpm drive in there.

I did run into 1 issue on the macbook pro. My father uses it in clamshell mode 99% of the time, I went to re-connect the bluetooth mouse and keyboard and at first they just wouldn't respond. I manually removed and re-added them and they began to work again however when in clamshell mode I'm not able to click on anything or open anything on the desktop.

Also when I open the screen back up nothing happens. If I reboot the MBP then both screens will respond again and the "non-clicking" issue disappears. Only to reappear again as soon as you close the lid.

I've never had something like this happen before, any idea what's causing it?
Click to expand...

Do you have the power adapter plugged in? I know the MacBooks only work correctly when plugged in. Perhaps the hard drive swap worked flawlessly, but the MBP is confused slightly and in this case thinks it's a regular MacBook. I know that doesn't really make sense because of the way the operating system runs, however, don't forget that exact science is not an exact science.
 
Absolutely, everything is plugged in to the appropriate powersources. I imagine it is getting confused and I may have to do a restore (I did a full backup beforehand just in case)
 
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