Can I just swap in a harddrive from a MacBook Pro into a Windows C2D then boot up fine?

dman

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Ultimate Geek

Topic # 109596 23-Sep-2012 17:06
Got a dead MacBook Pro 13" 2009 on my hands, I'm thinking a cheap option to get up and running would be to buy a cheapie second hand C2D (such as this one: http://pbtech.co.nz/index.php?z=p&p=EXWKSHP7804&name=EX-LEASED-HP-DC7800-SFF-INTEL-C2D-E6550-2.33GHz-1G ) then remove its hard drive and replace it with the one from the MacBook Pro (as the hard drive is working ok) then just boot up and the old data/settings should be as it was before? Does this seem like a reasonable idea? Any problems/issues that I'm missing? Who I am: multi time Ironman finisher, University of Auckland graduate, Freelancer (mainly focused on website development, message me for work). twitter.com/TersoIT

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Reply # 690200 23-Sep-2012 17:24
So are you saying you want to just boot to OSX on the old hard disk? If so then no that won't work. EFI boot vs BIOS boot for a start.

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Reply # 690210 23-Sep-2012 17:44
NO way. Btw the laptop is only 3 yrs old. Apple should fix it

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Reply # 690301 23-Sep-2012 21:28
OSX also checks the TPM to ensure the computer is Apple-manufactured. Past that, even Unix/BSD/OSX can't boot with such a vastly different configuration from what they were installed with like that.

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Ultimate Geek

Reply # 691895 26-Sep-2012 20:27
oh, guess it won't be that easy. Forgive my ignorance, I basically never use OSX! So I suppose my path is install hackintosh then attempt to pass across the settings from the old machine, how would I do that easily? Any link to relevant articles that would be applicable is appreciated. I already did some googling around on this topic and it appears there is something called "migration assistant", so if I could get another MacBook even just for an hour I could put the old harddrive into that to boot up the old one then get all the data/settings exported onto the new C2D PC? http://www.macworld.com/article/1162154/move_data_from_an_old_mac_to_a_new_mac.html Am I vaguely on the right track here? btw, I doubt Apple will fix it for free! Basically was his fault while he was trying to "clean" it. Who I am: multi time Ironman finisher, University of Auckland graduate, Freelancer (mainly focused on website development, message me for work). twitter.com/TersoIT

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Reply # 691902 26-Sep-2012 20:40
What is actually wrong with it? A fix may be better than other options you are considering.

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Reply # 691904 26-Sep-2012 20:42
Naming the exact model number could be useful.

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Ultimate Geek

Reply # 691957 26-Sep-2012 22:54
gzt: What is actually wrong with it? A fix may be better than other options you are considering. Cost basically, he is quite short on cash as a student. Who I am: multi time Ironman finisher, University of Auckland graduate, Freelancer (mainly focused on website development, message me for work). twitter.com/TersoIT