oldHAC
Level 1 (4 points)
Notebooks

Q: Erase macbook drive and clone in iMac drive.

Getting a Macbook pro. Have iMac. Will I mess up anything on the book if I erase its SSD and clone in my existing iMac clone (it will fit). Never had laptop and don't know if anything unique resides in the drive, i.e., trackpad software, etc.

iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2014), OS X El Capitan (10.11.4)

Posted on May 8, 2016 4:48 PM

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oldHAC

Q: Erase macbook drive and clone in iMac drive.

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  • Helpful answers

  • by Niel,

    Niel Niel May 8, 2016 4:54 PM in response to oldHAC
    Level 10 (312,761 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 8, 2016 4:54 PM in response to oldHAC

    If the OS you're cloning is at least as new as the MacBook Pro's original one, some commercial software may refuse to run, and a very small number of settings, such as the Energy Saver ones, won't carry over. You may also need to run the combo updater for the installed OS version.

     

    If it's older, it won't start up the computer.

     

    (142152)

  • by ManSinha,

    ManSinha ManSinha May 8, 2016 4:54 PM in response to oldHAC
    Level 6 (10,250 points)
    iPhone
    May 8, 2016 4:54 PM in response to oldHAC

    Why do want to clone the older drive rather than moving content? (just curious)

  • by KimUserName,Helpful

    KimUserName KimUserName May 8, 2016 5:09 PM in response to oldHAC
    Level 4 (1,400 points)
    Notebooks
    May 8, 2016 5:09 PM in response to oldHAC

    It should work fine. They are both using El Capitan 10.11.4.

     

    What I would do is to buy an external drive same size or larger than your MacBook Pro.

     

    Open Disk Utility>Erase and format the external HD to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and a GUID partition.

     

    Then use a third party application such as Carbon Copy Cloner Carbon Copy Cloner (Not free, but worth the price) or Super Duper to copy all data from the internal HDD of the iMac.

     

    The clone will be a exact copy of your hard drive and it will be bootable.

     

    Connect the cloned drive to your MacBook Pro and

     

    Boot the MBP with the OPTION key (Startup Manager) and select the external drive. How to choose a startup disk on your Mac

     

    If it boots the MBP, test the operation.

     

    If you are happy that it works ok, then clone your external drive to your MacBook Pro.

     

     

    Option 2: Use migration assistant and copy the data from your iMac to your MacBook Pro. Move your content to a new Mac - Apple Support

     

    Kim

  • by oldHAC,

    oldHAC oldHAC May 8, 2016 5:05 PM in response to KimUserName
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Notebooks
    May 8, 2016 5:05 PM in response to KimUserName

    Good answer. don't know why I skipped the step of first cloning the new book. If my existing clone from iMac doesn't work properly, I can just clone the orig book drive back on. thanks

  • by oldHAC,

    oldHAC oldHAC May 8, 2016 5:07 PM in response to ManSinha
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Notebooks
    May 8, 2016 5:07 PM in response to ManSinha

    cloning brings over everything I now work with in one operation. It is a start and walk away operation I don't even have to think about (except all the thinking I have already done). thanks for replying.