Can you clone a HDD & can I run 10.5.8 on an Intel MacBook

SKIPPY PB

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Jan 9, 2015
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I have some older mac computers who's life clock expired. One I bought second hand which had some nice programs installed on it. It may need a new motherboard or something of the sort and is one of the old mac towers which takes up a lot of space. So I am attempting to downsize to a macbook and transfer everything onto one.

Can an Intel Core 2 Duo MacBook run 10.5/10.5.8?

And can I clone the hard drive from the desktop onto a 2.5" HDD for the macbook and then repair the OS with an installation CD?
 

SKIPPY PB

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Jan 9, 2015
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4,610


I see. I take it there is no repair function with the installation disc's and apple would not want there customers to be able to do that. So I am assuming from this answer that the newer intel style MacBooks, such as the A1181 would be able to run backdated software such as 10.5 and 10.4.

Would "migrating" the entire HDD when doing a fresh install keep the programs & such active?
 

saudor

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Apr 27, 2013
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Provided that the OS the Macbook originally came with ran 10.5.8, it should be ok. As for cloning, you'll need to plug in the 2.5 inch hard drive directly into the desktop and use a cloning tool such as SuperDuper or Carbon Cloner

Or plug the 2.5 inch hard drive through a portable USB 2.5" enclosure. Repeat as above.

Once cloning is done, plug the drive into your macbook and it should be ok. If you want to do a clean install, reinstall the OS as normal and use any external hard drive to move over your files.

If you want to keep programs active, you can use time machine to restore the applications using migration assistant.

But more importantly, how old is the old computer? Is it powerpc? or intel. If it's the former, it might get a little tricky but should be still supported as rosetta was there until 10.6
 

SKIPPY PB

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Jan 9, 2015
53
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4,610


Desktop is a G5 PowerPC (non-intel obviously) using 10.5.8 (or used to use it before the motherboard decided it wanted to retire early)

I actually used the time machine migration with my OS X 10.6 hackintosh and it worked i just need to figure out where all the validation codes and such are. I did purchase a late 2006 A1181 macbook aswell, once I get it up and running I will clone to that aswell.

Now to clear things up all Intel Macs cannot use any OS X before 10.6? Such as 10.4, 10.5, etc.

 

McHenryB

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Jan 31, 2015
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You'd have to check on a model-by-model basis. No Intel Mac will run an OS earlier than 10.4.4 as all earlier versions were PPC only. Some old Intel MAcs will run 10.4.4, and so on.

In general, Macs will only run an OS the same as, or newer than, the one they were supplied with. And there comes a cutoff point when old Macs won't run newer versions of OS X.

For a model-by-model list of supported versions of OS X see: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204319
 

SKIPPY PB

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Jan 9, 2015
53
0
4,610


Seems like there planned obsolescence is about 4-5 years, I wonder if you can make a HackBook lol. Im not sure if thats even illegal given that the EULA states there software can only be used on Apple products. I'll see what I find when the right parts come in to get the laptop up and running.