Upgrading from MB Unibody to MBP 13, need advice on hard drive

[rkrskr]

Hi guys,

I should be upgrading from my MacBook Unibody to the new 13 inch MBP, and will move my 320 GB Hitachi 5'400 rpm to the new 13 inch MBP base model (2.26 Ghz).

As such, I would appreciate any advice on the reinstallation of the OS:
1) Would the MBP boot up with my 320 GB hard disk in?
2) If some problems occur, say missing drivers for the FireWire 800, would doing a Time Machine restore onto the formatted 320 GB hard disk help?

I would not like to do a reinstall of the OS if possible.

Thank you all for your time.

 

[Ploki]

yes, its basically the same computer with the Firewire port.
you will perhaps need a few FW kexts, but as far as i know they dont take those out anyway.. i can check over the weeked if the 13" MB Has them.
otherwise, someone with a 15" or 13" mbp with a fresh system can zip 'em up and mail them to you

 

[Philflow]

Of course I have not tried it, but I think it will be boot and you should be fine.

It's basically the same hardware except for, like you said, FW.

 

[onehoop]

Ironically, if you had a firewire port, then you could hook a firewire between the two computers, run Carbon Copy Cloner, and have the new hard drive act exactly the same but with zero hours of use (~1.5) instead of swapping in a used drive!

Practically it shouldn't make much difference as long as you don't leave loose ends on the swap because you couldn't have put many hours on the MBU yet.

Edit: On reconsideration, maybe you should upgrade to a 500GB 7200rpm drive (or a 320GB) while you are at it? Just buy an enclosure for the drive, then do the carbon copy cloner onto the target drive and swap it in, instead? Whatever drive ends up being extra can go in the enclosure in the end as some portable storage. (If it's the same size, you could simply use it as portable extra-paranoid back-up. Useful for presentations or people who's livings rely on their presentations, like electronic musicians.) Check out ifixit.com


M@

 

[Ploki]

so, if you are keeping the MB unibody thats a good idea.

get an enclosure with FW AND USB2.0, then you can clone the drive from the MB Aluminum and swap it in the MBP and then use it as an external drive.
but if you go through that much trouble u could just use migration assistant.
you know , its really a plethora of options :O

 

[rkrskr]

Hi guys,

Thanks for all the suggestions. I think I will just pop in my 320 GB HDD into the 13 inch MacBook Pro and see how it goes. Hope I do not encounter the same problem listed here: http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/MacBook-Pro-13-Inch-Unibody/814/1#c2133.

If i do encounter that problem, it looks like I need to format my 320 GB HDD and restore from a Time Machine backup.