Replacing macbook hard drive from one running older OS X

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Level 1

8 points

Replacing macbook hard drive from one running older OS X

This is kinda complex sorry.

So I've got 2 black macbook A1181s, an older one running OS X tiger because of its crappy processor will only support 2GB RAM and a newer one running snow leopard maxed out at 4GB RAM, but the newer one got a S.M.A.R.T error so I've tried replacing the hard drive with the one from the the older one but it won't read it because, I'm told, of the upper memory limit on OS X tiger. I have no install disk because I bought both second hand but is there any way to install snow leopard onto my old hard drive then restore my backups from USB or will I have to buy a new hard drive and install disk? Obviously I can't install the new os with the hard drive in my older macbook because the specs are too low (it's an early 2006 one) so I'm kinda stuck. My question is would using a combination of smaller and larger memory units in my newer macbook make it compatible with the older hard drive and OS X memory specs? And is all of this worth it or should I give up and buy a cheap new PC? Thanks a lot in advance I know it's hard to follow :)

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Feb 6, 2014 8:46 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Eustace Mendis

Level 7

25,416 points

Feb 6, 2014 9:28 AM in response to Cheeky Fudge

You have a Snow Leopard DVD? With that you can do a lot. If you do not have it, you can buy one here:

http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC573/mac-os-x-106-snow-leopard

Before you try to mix RAM, keep the 4GB as is, and get the drive up to speed.

Put the working hard drive in the new MB. Boot from the SL disk, format the drive (Mac OS extended journaled, GUID partition table) and install OS 10.6 from the DVD.

Run software update to get it up to 10.6.8.

This will take about 2 hours - depending on your download speed. So you decide if it is worth the effort.

After that you can decide about transferring data, and testing if mixing RAM modules will work.

By the way, SL runs on 2 gB RAM.

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Answer 2

Cheeky Fudge Author

Level 1

8 points

Feb 6, 2014 9:56 AM in response to Eustace Mendis

Ok thanks a lot seems relatively simple now cheers

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Answer 3

K Shaffer

Level 7

34,966 points

Feb 6, 2014 12:38 PM in response to Cheeky Fudge

The early MacBook models (coreduo 1.83GHz+ core2duo 2.0+) all do well with Leopard 10.5.8 and later. Even Snow Leopard 10.6(.8) does well enough with 2GB of RAM in the base model first-edition MacBook 13" as a final OS upgrade, since the first model can't go past SL 10.6.8. And some earlier MacBooks should not go past Snow Leopard, even if suggested they may do OK. Less troubles without it added to the vintage mix.

So if the hard disk drive in the MB early model black is good (if original, hardly worth moving into another MB) I'd leave it there and get a new HDD of reliable brand for the other MacBook. Or a OWC Mercury SSD.

Anyway, my early MacBook runs nicely with 70% empty hard disk drive and 2GB RAM, but has only Leopard 10.5.8 installed. Could be a bit better with Snow Leopard 10.6.8 and rosetta for any older powerPC applications.

Good luck & happy computing! 🙂

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