Can I clone my desktop Mac OS to my MacBook Pro?

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Can I clone my desktop Mac OS to my MacBook Pro?

When I leave town, I need to clone my desktop to my laptop. I am told that because of the differing hardware between them, you should NOT clone the system from desktop to laptop or vice versa. I have tried it before but my cloned system was pretty slow.

Has anyone had success with this? Is there any particular software that works better for this (Carbon Copy Cloner vs SuperDuper vs ChronoSync)?

Any and all advice greatly appreciated!!

Mac Pro 2.66 GHz x 2, Mac OS X (10.6.4)

Posted on Aug 11, 2010 8:42 PM

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Answer 1

iVmichael

Level 6

13,740 points

Aug 11, 2010 9:15 PM in response to Dr. Dreds

The OS files on a Desktop and Laptop are different so I don't advise trying to run one on the other and vice versa.

If you just need to copy/synch your user files like Documents or Photos you could just synch/copy those only ?
e.g. Sync2Folders
http://tcfj.pagesperso-orange.fr/site/programmes/realbasic/SyncTwoFolders_i.zip

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Answer 2

Dr. Dreds Author

Level 1

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Aug 13, 2010 5:37 PM in response to iVmichael

Micheal,

Thanks for the advice. However, I need to copy applications as well as the user folder.

Gwen.

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Answer 3

Aug 13, 2010 6:05 PM in response to Dr. Dreds

It'll be fine, so long as the OS you're trying to run is later than the one that came with your system.

I do it all the time at work. I have an external drive split into 4 partitions. Three are for diagnostic programs, the fourth is an emergency OS I can use to boot any system if I need to verify something and the internal HDD is shot. And it's nothing special either.

So, say for example the laptop shipped with 10.5 (and it's an Intel based system) and your desktop shipped with 10.6. It would work just fine. If it's the other way around, you may have problems. My new 27" iMac requires 10.6.3 at a minimum, so if I tried using anything less it would kernel panic at boot.

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Answer 4

Dr. Dreds Author

Level 1

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Aug 17, 2010 8:48 PM in response to Scott Billings

Thanks, Scott!

So is any one particular sync or clone program better than another for this type of cloning?

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Answer 5

Aug 18, 2010 7:52 PM in response to Dr. Dreds

A simple time machine backup then restore via OSX install disk will be a 100% clone

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