Booting from external SDD (running Mavericks) on new MBP Retina with Yosemite.

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Booting from external SDD (running Mavericks) on new MBP Retina with Yosemite.

Hello,

I just bought a new Macbook Pro 15" Retina (2.2 ghz) because my previous laptop stopped working. I was previously running Mavericks, and I'm trying to use my old SDD drive as a startup disc (through USB 3 enclosure) but its not working. I get a grey screen with a circle and line through it. I just came to know that I will not be able to startup up Mavericks on a laptop that came with Yosemite. Is this true?

If I chose to recover the data from the disc or Time Capsule (using command + r) on starting up, will my data get copied to the new drive with no issues? Or is it best to run the old drive and update it to Yosemite to be able to use it as a start up disc?

Thanks,

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Yosemite (10.10.5), Boot from Mavericks drive

Posted on Aug 31, 2015 11:40 PM

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Answer 1

John Galt

Level 10

156,308 points

Sep 1, 2015 12:40 AM in response to cccosmo

Is this true?

Yes: Use the version of OS X that came with your Mac, or a compatible newer version - Apple Support:

If you copy older system files from another computer to your Mac, or try to use startup disks designed for older computers, you might see one or more of the following:

Your Mac doesn't start up, or you see a prohibitory symbol at startup

...

If I chose to recover the data from the disc or Time Capsule (using command + r) on starting up, will my data get copied to the new drive with no issues?

Yes... if everything works properly, which it should, considering you are only migrating from the previous OS X version.

Or is it best to run the old drive and update it to Yosemite to be able to use it as a start up disc?

You can do that if you wish, after migrating its data. Once that task is complete, it won't be very useful in its present state. Consider using it for an additional Time Machine backup or "clone".

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