Hard-Drive Swap?

[rdav]

We are upgrading our Mac Pro from 4,1 to the new 5,1 model (both 8-core). Is it possible to take the loaded 1.5Tb OS-X hard drive from the older to the newer machine and just slot it in (replacing the existing 1Tb drive)? Will it boot and work, or are there other considerations, problems, licence conflicts etc?

 

[simsaladimbamba]

It should boot, just make sure you run the latest version of Mac OS X on the older 1.5TB HDD, to have al the drivers for the new MP.

 

[goMac]

You must run the combo updater for the latest version of Mac OS X first on the drive you are swapping in.

The regular update will not work. You must manually install the combo one.

 

[WardC]

You must update your system on the drive to 10.6.5 or 10.6.6 before you install it in the New MacPro5,1. The new 2010 Mac Pros use a special version of 10.6.4 as the lowest system that it will run, it requires at least this version or later. The originally "F...69" build of 10.6.4 will cause your 2010 machine to have problems, but it will fine if you are running 10.6.5 or later.

I learned this the hard way when installing my SSD from my 2009 to 2010 Mac Pro. I had to use the system disks to update the system, the graphics were acting up and everything was being very sluggish under the old 10.6.4 on the 2010 machine.

 

[rdav]

Hard-Drive Swap ~ Between Machines (OS-X, Win).

Thanks for the advice & guidance. Will download the OS-X 10.06.06 Combo package from the Apple site.

Does the same apply to a second hard-drive, running Windows-7 under BootCamp? Can it be transferred directly to a spare drive-bay in the new Mac Pro 5,1.? Or would it require "reauthorization" from Microsoft etc?

 

[MagicBoy]

Thanks for the advice & guidance. Will download the OS-X 10.06.06 Combo package from the Apple site.

Does the same apply to a second hard-drive, running Windows-7 under BootCamp? Can it be transferred directly to a spare drive-bay in the new Mac Pro 5,1.? Or would it require "reauthorization" from Microsoft etc?

Windows will likely require reauthorisation due to the number of changes in the hardware (eg MAC addresses of network cards, different CPUs, etc etc). The core chipset is the same so it should boot OK from a Windows perspective.