Upgrading then cloning. (2 separate MacBookPro versions

One suggestion is to do your cloning before you upgrade to Mavericks. That way you can easily go back if you need to. If you don't have that clone and want to go back, you have to reinstall everything from scratch. The cloning process is very easy. Use Carbon Copy Cloner, since it will also copy your Recovery partition. Super Duper is free, but it doesn't copy the Recovery partition.

The cloning is a good idea anyway, as it's not wise to trust just one backup. Time Machine is great, but what happens if that drive fails at the same time as your computer? I know it sounds unlikely, but it happens. These forums are full of "Help! I lost all my stuff!" posts.

Gesua,

I'm a little confused about what you're doing. Are you going to try to copy the 10.6.8 machine to the 10.8.5 machine?

If that's the case, use Migration Assistant to get all your stuff over to the new machine. It's in Applications / Utilities. That will bring over all your files and programs and the newer machine will have all of your stuff on it. I think you'll end up with both versions of Adobe on there, but I'm not positive about that. It's a good reason to have the clones first.

Upgrading the 10.6.8 machine won't fix the flickering. That's most likely caused by a bad internal cable. It's possible to fix that, but it's a pretty involved job. I don't know if this is your exact model, but this will give you an idea what's involved:

http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook+Pro+15-Inch+Core+2+Duo+Models+A1226+and+A126 0+Display+Data+Cable+Replacement/1312

So what you'll want to do is connect the clone of your 10.6.8 MBP to the newer one, then run Migration Assistant. It'll give you the option of what you want to bring over. Keep in mind that what it brings over as far as documents and settings is going to be under your user name.

Gesua,

Here's the deal... you say you're trying to boot the clone onto the 10.8.5 and nothing is happening. It won't. 10.6.8 is an older version of OS X that's probably not going to work on the newer machine. That's why you want to bring your stuff over with Migration Assistant. So here's the steps.

1. Clone the old machine.

2. Run Migration Assistant to bring your stuff from the old machine to the new one.

3. If you now clone the new machine, it's a backup. Save your old clones in case there's a problem.

At that point you should have your stuff on the new machine under your login name. Now you can upgrade to Mavericks if you want to.

Gesua Galante wrote:

Hi BobRz,

Thank you for the link. I will check into that.

I have been trying to boot up the clone of my 10.6.8 onto the 10.8.5 and nothing is happening. Just the grey screen with the apple. I verified the boot on my other computer and it looked okay. I'll keep trying.

And you will never succeed in booting a Mac with an operating system that predates it.

Don't waste your time.

Gesua,

I'm wondering if you're truly understanding what the clone is for. In this case, you're going to use it for migration. Don't get the idea that you can just restore the clone to a different machine as a substitute. That's not going to work well. Migration is not going to bring over your 10.6.8 system, just your apps, settings, and documents. When you boot the new one it's still going to be running 10.8.5. Your stuff will be under your own user name (and use the same one that was on your old machine when you create the account), and his and your applications should all be available.

You also want those cloned copies as a backup in case of a hard drive crash. A hard drive will ALWAYS fail sooner or later.

You're welcome. The migration is the easy part. Especially if you've ever done this kind of thing on a Windows machine, which is a nightmare. All you have to do is make your login name, start migration assistant, tell it what you want, and go relax for awhile.

OK... plug the drive that contains that clone into either machine, then open a Finder window. Right click that drive and choose Get Info. That'll tell you how much space is used on that drive. Remember though that the clone also includes the Mac system files and you're not moving those over, so the used space is actually something less than what it shows.

You can also do the Get Info trick on your husband's machine to see how much space it has availble.

You lost me on telling you "if it's bootable because not enough space."