Can I clone a MacBook 2009 to a MB Pro 2012

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Level 1

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Can I clone a MacBook 2009 to a MB Pro 2012

HI,

I Just purchased a new MacBook Pro with a 2.6ghz and 5400rpm 750gb hard drive. I also purchased the MacBook care plan and a 1 TB @7200 rpm to put in the new MacBook Pro. I didn't know if A. My care plan covers the transfer for free or B. if it was possible to clone the hard drive so when I put the new 1TB in the new MacBook Pro, it is set up identical to my current 2009 MacBook. The reason I need it exact is because I am a DJ and I have years of placing files in certain folders that open in a specific software called serato scratch live. If I just transfer the files i feel that when I open the software, all of my sunflowers (called crates) which for example are broken down into things like "Hip Hop" and in that folder is other folders more specific to the genre and year so when I click on it all the mp3s are saved in it. These files come from iTunes though so it's two different software working together. I may have lost you so ill just go with the basic question again, can this clone be done? And programs that I have purchased like ableton live 9.0 will that still work on my new MacBook Pro ??

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.7.5), Macbook Osx 10.7.5 to MBPro Unknown

Posted on Mar 13, 2013 8:29 PM

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Answer 1

steve359

Level 6

17,169 points

Mar 13, 2013 8:34 PM in response to dprievo

Clone is not possible. The device drivers installed in the previous OS install wil almost without any doubt fail to support the new hardware.

You can connect it using an external enclousre or just network the two systems to "migrate" user settings. Software will need to be re-installed.

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Answer 2

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Mar 13, 2013 8:34 PM in response to dprievo

The specific answer is no. Your old drive has Lion installed. You new computer will have a special version of Mountain Lion installed that cannot be installed on your old computer.

What you can do is to migrate the Home folder from your old computer to the new computer. This can be done over Firewire or Ethernet. The former is faster and more reliable, but both computers must have Firewire ports.

Alternatively, you can connect your backup drive to the new computer and restore the Home folder to the new computer from your backup. This can be a Time Machine or any other backup.

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Answer 3

ds store

Level 7

30,725 points

Mar 13, 2013 8:37 PM in response to dprievo

No you can't clone a another Mac's hard drive to a different model, only to the same exact model in nearly all cases.

However you can Setup Assistant or Migration Assistant against a external clone drive made from another Mac to transfer programs and users over, just not OS X.

If the programs are PowerPC based code that ran fine under 10.6, then they won't run in 10.7 or 10.8. If it's Intel based code, then it should run outsdie the typical updates often required to match the OS X version.

Most commonly used backup methods

https://discussions.apple.com/community/notebooks/macbook_pro?view=documents

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