Using Carbon Copy to clone a hard disk to be used on a different Mac Mini

[Abdulhaq]

I have been facing problems with my mid 2011 2.5 GHz Mac Mini because of its built in graphic card. I have obtained a 2.3 GHz 2011 Mac Mini with a new unformatted 500 GB SSD. Kindly let me know if I can clone the 128 GB SSD from the 2.5 GHz Mac Mini and copy it to the 500 GB SSD in the 2.3 GHz Mac Mini using Carbon Copy. I would like to know if the 2.3 GHz Mac Mini will boot and I will have access to all my installed software. Alternately do I have to install the operating system on the 500GB hard disk and do the installations of all my software all over again.

 

[Boyd01]

I don't see any reason why a clone wouldn't boot the other Mini and be identical to the old one. For example, a number of years ago I had a clone of my 2013 MacBook Air running Mountain Lion. That same disk worked perfectly on my 2012 Mini. I was actually pretty surprised by that at the time.

 

[Yebubbleman]

You might have an easier time doing a clean install on your second Mac mini of whichever OS you want (my strong recommendation is to use the latest point release version of the OS that you're using on the first Mac mini) and then using the Migration Assistant during the post-install setup to move everything over. It should move applications and user accounts with no issue.

 

[Amethyst1]

For example, a number of years ago I had a clone of my 2013 MacBook Air running Mountain Lion. That same disk worked perfectly on my 2012 Mini. I was actually pretty surprised by that at the time.

macOS installs are universal across one architecture (as in machine-agnostic) as long as the model is supported.