Swap my hard drive to my new MBP

[phinsup]

Hey guys I just ordered a new 13 to replace my 17 2.33 C2D (wanted something smaller and more portable).

Anyhow I have a seagate 7200RPM in my 17 with 10.6.6 installed, can I just swap that drive into the 13 when it gets here? Or do I need to wipe it, install it and do a restore from the time capsule?

Thanks.

 

[nateo200]

Hey guys I just ordered a new 13 to replace my 17 2.33 C2D (wanted something smaller and more portable).

Anyhow I have a seagate 7200RPM in my 17 with 10.6.6 installed, can I just swap that drive into the 13 when it gets here? Or do I need to wipe it, install it and do a restore from the time capsule?

Thanks.

If the drives are the same capacity I would just connect them via firewire and transfer everything over..

 

[phinsup]

If the drives are the same capacity I would just connect them via firewire and transfer everything over..

Same capacity yes, but the one in my current MBP is a brand new 7200 RPM drive, seems silly to transfer everything over to a 5400 RPM!!!

EDIT: actually i take that back the one in my current MBP is 500GB, the one in the new one is 320GB so it's also bigger (not that i need the space)

 

[vincenz]

I don't see why you wouldn't be able to. It's just another hard drive.

 

[phinsup]

I don't see why you wouldn't be able to. It's just another hard drive.

That's what I was thinking, will be same version of the OS, the only issue would maybe be some sort of settings for the new hardware once booted.

 

[talmy]

Old system images don't always boot up or run correctly on new systems because of new drivers. Best bet (somewhat complicated!):

1. Clone your old drive to another hard drive.
2. Put the old drive in the new system.
3. Using the OS X DVD that comes with the new system, erase and install the OS.
4. Boot the old system from the cloned drive and use Migration Assistant to move applications and accounts to new system.

You could conceivably use the new drive in the new system as the "another hard drive" for step 1.

 

[phinsup]

Old system images don't always boot up or run correctly on new systems because of new drivers. Best bet (somewhat complicated!):

1. Clone your old drive to another hard drive.
2. Put the old drive in the new system.
3. Using the OS X DVD that comes with the new system, erase and install the OS.
4. Boot the old system from the cloned drive and use Migration Assistant to move applications and accounts to new system.

You could conceivably use the new drive in the new system as the "another hard drive" for step 1.

Can I use the migration assistant to restore from a time capsule backup?

NM Looks like I can, so basically I figure, wipe the drive in the old system, install it in the new system and install the OS from the disk, then do the migration assistant and migrate the data from the time capsule.

 

[talmy]

Can I use the migration assistant to restore from a time capsule backup?

NM Looks like I can, so basically I figure, wipe the drive in the old system, install it in the new system and install the OS from the disk, then do the migration assistant and migrate the data from the time capsule.

That should work. I didn't mention TimeMachine because I don't trust it! YMMV

 

[phinsup]

That should work. I didn't mention TimeMachine because I don't trust it! YMMV

I can't complain, it's saved me twice. Once when the drive on my 17 failed and just recently when I installed an SSD in my wife's macbook air. Both restores when perfectly, although the air took about 5 hours over wifi!!!

 

[yetanotherdave]

I'm thinking of doing something like this, wouldn't it be easier to put the better drive from the old laptop in the new one, then re-install os-x from the restore discs? No messing around transferring data off and back on again then.

 

[phinsup]

I'm thinking of doing something like this, wouldn't it be easier to put the better drive from the old laptop in the new one, then re-install os-x from the restore discs? No messing around transferring data off and back on again then.

Yea I want to keep my data though.

Basically what I plan to do at this point. Take the drive out of the old one, put it in the new one and wipe and reinstall osx on the new one, then use the migration assistant to transfer my data from the time capsule and I'm done!

 

[yetanotherdave]

re-installing preserves your data, I've done it before when I needed to downgrade to an earlier version of OS X. it just re-writes the system files, leaving /users alone.

in theory it should work the same way, like this, I am hoping someone has done it before!

 

[phinsup]

re-installing preserves your data, I've done it before when I needed to downgrade to an earlier version of OS X. it just re-writes the system files, leaving /users alone.

in theory it should work the same way, like this, I am hoping someone has done it before!

Oic. That would be great if it's possible. Be a lot easier then doing a full restore.