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Moving harddrive from mini to custom box?


Flybye
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Hi all.

 

My subject says it all. Can you move a fully working OSX SL install from a mini to a custom box without having to reinstall OSX?

 

Of course, I'd prefer to use a faster and larger drive...eventually, but I'd like to know if its possible to just stick the drive in a new box to quickly get myself up and running. And I'll take care of a clean install later on a real drive.

 

The custom box will be an E2220 with 8GB of ram using an MSI motherboard with components that seem to be compatible with OSX.

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Mac Mini?

 

Yes it is completely possible. Just install the boot loader/drivers you need on the Mini's HDD and it will be fine.

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Naa I'm talking about physically puting the mini's 2.5" harddrive with SL already running on it and connecting it to the custom box. With a 2.5" adapter, of course.

 

Or did I misunderstand you? I thought the bootloader stuff was only for when you are doing a clean install of OSX.

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All PCs need a boot loader regardless. :)

 

Of course, if it's temporary you could just avoid the HDD bracket altogether...:rolleyes: I tend to be "improper" like that. :D

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Ah okay I forgot about the entire EFI / DSDT thing. I'll read up on it to see how I can add it to an existing OSX install. Thx. Of course, do feel free to share any links you may know on it. ;)

 

I feel dirty when leaving a hard drive hanging for too long. :P

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This package is the boot loader. You will then need your kernel extensions (kexts) that can power your hackintosh. For sure you will need FakeSMC, but you may need others depending on your hardware configuration.

 

To boot initially, you will need to use a boot CD to start up from your HDD. If you look at the Snow Leopard guide in my signature, you can download the boot CD and boot it with mach_kernel like I describe. :)

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Ah thx! Actually, I was just reading up on Chameleon.

 

So I think I'm just going to do a clean install and see how it works out with the hardware, and then I'll toy with my old drive in the mini.

 

I experimented with a hackintosh about 4 years ago, but I never got the audio to work. It seems the hackintosh community is much more seasoned now. I didn't keep trying to find a fix because of the no support with Blu-Ray movies. But now, my tired 1.8ghz mini with 2GB that I use everyday has had enough.

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