Swapping boot drive between different macs

[mjsmke]

Hi,

I think this will work but just want to check. My friend bought a new SSD and has lost his copy of 10.6 but i have mine.

If i put his SSD in my mac pro and install 10.6 on that then put it back in his Macbook will it still work ok?

 

[goMac]

No, that won't work. 10.6 optimizes for the machine it's installing to during the install.

Why not just install off the 10.6 disk onto his machine?

 

[Transporteur]

No, that won't work. 10.6 optimizes for the machine it's installing to during the install.

Why not just install off the 10.6 disk onto his machine?

You can't use the install discs from a Mac Pro to install OS X on a MacBook.
The supplied discs are tailored for the very system they ship with. You'd need a retail CD for such an attempt (not the grey ones).

 

[goMac]

You can't use the install discs from a Mac Pro to install OS X on a MacBook.
The supplied discs are tailored for the very system they ship with. You'd need a retail CD for such an attempt (not the grey ones).

Yeah, I guess it just wasn't clear if OP had the in box DVDs or the retail DVD.

You can get away with it if you install, and then install the latest combo update before you swap. But 10.6 DVDs are $30, seems like way more trouble than it's worth.

 

[Hellhammer]

It should work because neither of them uses a special version of OS X (i.e. 10.6.6 is newer than the machines).

 

[Transporteur]

You can get away with it if you install, and then install the latest combo update before you swap.

I was thinking about that, however, I wasn't a 100% sure if the combo update installs all drivers for all available Apple products on the machine. Actually that's quite hard to believe since there is no reason for installing 5870 drivers on a Mini.

 

[goMac]

It should work because neither of them uses a special version of OS X (i.e. 10.6.6 is newer than the machines).

No, it won't. Apple purposely will only install the drivers for the machine you are installing to. Doesn't matter if the OS version is newer. You've got to install the combo update before you swap (which forces it to install the drivers.)

I used to do a lot of imaging of machines, so I spent a lot of time dealing with all the pitfalls of this sort of thing. 🙂

I was thinking about that, however, I wasn't a 100% sure if the combo update installs all drivers for all available Apple products on the machine. Actually that's quite hard to believe since there is no reason for installing 5870 drivers on a Mini.

For some reason the combo update works. My understanding is this may have been done because Apple didn't want to bother with making the combo update "special" when most people will grab the machine specific deltas from Software Update anyway, and as a nod to sys admins who need to create "universal" hard disk images.

 

[mjsmke]

Thanks for the replies everyone. 🙂

Yes its the grey disc i have that came with the Mac Pro.

I just found a dmg file i made last year of the retail disc to 10.6, so i'm burning that now to see if it will boot.

 

[Hellhammer]

No, it won't. Apple purposely will only install the drivers for the machine you are installing to. Doesn't matter if the OS version is newer. You've got to install the combo update before you swap (which forces it to install the drivers.)

I used to do a lot of imaging of machines, so I spent a lot of time dealing with all the pitfalls of this sort of thing. 🙂

I've seen people swapping drives from 2006 MBPs to brand new 2010 MBPs without any special tricks and they share nothing when it comes to hardware. I can't say you're wrong as I have no personal experience with this but other posts I've seen fight against what you said.

 

[goMac]

I've seen people swapping drives from 2006 MBPs to brand new 2010 MBPs without any special tricks and they share nothing when it comes to hardware.

From personal experience, I know you can't even do this on normal Macbooks. It'll boot, but eventually you notice that performance is off, or you have other issues.

The line I've gotten directly from Apple is not to do it, as the installer optimizes for the machine it's being run on, and you can run into issues.

(If you install the combo update before you swap, you'll be fine.)

 

[Transporteur]

For some reason the combo update works. My understanding is this may have been done because Apple didn't want to bother with making the combo update "special" when most people will grab the machine specific deltas from Software Update anyway, and as a nod to sys admins who need to create "universal" hard disk images.

Sure, makes sense from that point of view. I was more thinking of the installation that might check the underlying system and installs only drivers according to that specific system, similar as the OS X installer itself does it.

But well, apparently it does not. Good to know. 🙂

 

[goMac]

But well, apparently it does not. Good to know. 🙂

Yeah, again, I'm not entirely sure why the combo doesn't do that, because what you said make sense, but if there wasn't an option to create universal boot disks, there would be a lot of angry sys admins. 🙂

 

[mjsmke]

Ok, ive just tried burning the .cdr file of Snow Leopard retail disk through disk utility but the disc afterwards is blank.

Ive tried this twice.

The discs are DVD+R DL so i know they should work.

 

[Cindori]

No, that won't work. 10.6 optimizes for the machine it's installing to during the install.

W r o n g.

There are loads of drivers in everyones system that are not for the machine.
I have swapped boot drives between mac mini's, mac pro's, and macbook pro's. There has never been an issue. The boot drive I'm running my 2010 MBP with (and have been since august) was the boot drive in my Mac Pro 2006, for example. No problems. Camera worked right after replacing the drive.

Ok, ive just tried burning the .cdr file of Snow Leopard retail disk through disk utility but the disc afterwards is blank.

Ive tried this twice.

The discs are DVD+R DL so i know they should work.

The retail disc is of course copy protected.

 

[mjsmke]

So how come people have managed to download it via torrents? And its worked?

 

[Cindori]

So how come people have managed to download it via torrents? And its worked?

Because the copy protection is removed?

 

[goMac]

W r o n g.

There are loads of drivers in everyones system that are not for the machine.
I have swapped boot drives between mac mini's, mac pro's, and macbook pro's. There has never been an issue. The boot drive I'm running my 2010 MBP with (and have been since august) was the boot drive in my Mac Pro 2006, for example. No problems. Camera worked right after replacing the drive.

Again, I'm going to tell you that I have personally, with my own two hands, swapped boot drives for both 10.5 and 10.6 and not had it work. In addition, I've seen other reports on this forum matching.

Now, just because it worked for you don't mean it will work in every case. Apple most certainly has active support advisories against it.

I'm glad it happened to work for you. But don't put false information on the forums.

(They actually started doing this around 10.5 iirc and all the support advisories started then. It was to reduce install time and system update sizes. You'll notice in software update that every machine has a different download size for updates.)

The retail disc is of course copy protected.

Pretty sure this isn't true... I've had no issues copying the disk, and Google doesn't show anyone reporting the disk is copy protected.

Edit: First Apple support advisory concerning this is for 10.3.4's software update. Recommended resolution for moving an install between disks? Combo updater.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1228?viewlocale=en_US

 

[Cindori]

Again, I'm going to tell you that I have personally, with my own two hands, swapped boot drives for both 10.5 and 10.6 and not had it work. In addition, I've seen other reports on this forum matching.

Now, just because it worked for you don't mean it will work in every case. Apple most certainly has active support advisories against it.

I'm glad it happened to work for you. But don't put false information on the forums.

(They actually started doing this around 10.5 iirc and all the support advisories started then. It was to reduce install time and system update sizes. You'll notice in software update that every machine has a different download size for updates.)

You are talking about older OS versions.
Older OS versions might not contain necessary drivers to run the computer.

Pretty sure this isn't true... I've had no issues copying the disk, and Google doesn't show anyone reporting the disk is copy protected.

k, then OP fails at burning it.

 

[goMac]

You are talking about older OS versions.
Older OS versions might not contain necessary drivers to run the computer.

No, I'm not. Read my link. Apple does specific installs for specific machines. They do not install all drivers on all machines unless you do the combo update by hand.

Seriously, I worked as a Mac tech. I had conversations with Apple about this.

Edit: This is a possibility on why it worked for you:

Why are some computers not offered a smaller update?

Not every computer that has Mac OS X v10.3.4 or later can benefit from smaller Software Updates. Why? Sometimes, modifications made to Mac OS X system files, including ones made by third-party products, may require the installation of a full sized version of a Mac OS X software update. You don't have to worry about figuring out which kind of update is best for you, just let Software Update preferences do the work.

Again, don't go promising people that they can swap drives. The above most certainly will not apply to everyone. Telling people to apply the combo first is the safest way to go.

 

[Cindori]

Minor updates may be tailored, but OS are not afaik. That is why it will work for OP. 10.6 contains drivers to run Macbooks.

 

[goMac]

Minor updates may be tailored, but OS are not afaik. That is why it will work for OP. 10.6 contains drivers to run Macbooks.

Yeah, Googling but I'm 99% sure that's not right. The DVD's also cut out certain drivers at run time in order to cut down the install time.

 

[Cindori]

Speculating doesnt help TS much though.
He should just try swapping drives, if it boots he's going to install updates anyway and if they behave as you describe he will not have problems.

 

[pknz]

I have done a 10.6 install on an external drive connected to a Mac Pro that has booted a MacBook.

My 2c.

 

[linuxcooldude]

While I'm not doubting swapping drives or using install disks from other mac computers will work, I'm weary about problems will eventually crop up or performance issues in the future. Seems to be a lot of people saying it will work fine, others it might have issues. For the time being I'll think I will try to use the correct install disks or retail version of Snow leopard till I get something more solid.

 

[mjsmke]

I have Snow Leopard retail on my hard drive as a .cdr and .dmg files but cant get them to work from a dual layer DVD. wasted 3 already. Disk utility says it has been successfully burned but the disk is blank in finder and wont boot.

Maybe i can restore the dmg file to a usb flash drive?