07-23-2011, 12:38 PM

Hi - I'm using a Mac Pro Quad Core with 8 GB ram.
I have about 400GB+ of software on it. 2 hard drives.

I'm going to China for 2 months + in a couple of weeks. My brother lives
there and has a Mac Pro 8 core with 16GB ram.

Can I take my hard drives out, stick them into his spare 2 slots on his
Mac Pro... and start up the OS from my hard drives?

So pretty much taking my computer with me?

Thanks for any advice, it is of great value to me.

About my mac:
2.66 Quad Core Intel Xeon 8 GB Ram

07-23-2011, 12:50 PM

Questions:

1. What OS version are you running on your Mac Pro?
2. Which quad-core Mac Pro do you have (there are a couple different models)?
3. Which 8-core Mac Pro does your brother have (there are a number of them)?

The bottom line is it should work (your HD in your brothers computer)...but if you're running an older version of the Mac OS...and your brother's Mac Pro is newer...then there could be an issue.

- Nick

07-23-2011, 02:29 PM

thank you Nick!

We are running the latest updated snow leopard OS
the mac pros are both the new Mac pros. In terms of which version
I am not sure about that. Mine was purchased 16 months ago and my brothers
about 6 months ago.

07-23-2011, 03:51 PM

Originally Posted by Jake49

thank you Nick!

We are running the latest updated snow leopard OS
the mac pros are both the new Mac pros. In terms of which version
I am not sure about that. Mine was purchased 16 months ago and my brothers
about 6 months ago.

Everything sounds good to me. I just wanted to be sure that your quad-core Mac Pro wasn't one from the 2006-2008 time frame...running an older version of the Mac OS...such as OS 10.4 or 10.5. If both of the Mac Pro's are relatively new...and both are running the latest version of Snow Leopard (10.6.8)...then you should be fine.

I recently sold my old 2006 Mac Pro (which was running OS 10.6.4)...put the old hard drive from it into a newer 2009 Mac Pro I purchased to replace it...and everything worked fine.

Enjoy your trip to China (Nee how Ma?...Wa hen how!),

- Nick

07-23-2011, 05:04 PM

Wo hun hao, xie xie

I don't speak any Chinese hahah! but my brothers have been out
there for 3 years setting up, so they know enough heh

Thanks Nick, it's great to know that it could be possible!!
I just got a macbook pro 15" i7 2.2 quad version - so that will handle
things fine I'm sure - there's just a lot of stuff on my mac pro that I
think I'll need over there.

Do you know how to get a choice went booting up, which hard drive
to boot from?
His hard drives will be in there so I'm using the spare slots... is there
a command on the keyboard that you might know of?

Thanks for the advice!!! much appreciated!!!!! DDD

07-23-2011, 07:44 PM

Originally Posted by Jake49

Do you know how to get a choice went booting up, which hard drive
to boot from?

Press the "option" key while booting up...this will give you the choice of which hard drive to boot from (only hard drives with a compatible OS installed on them).

A second way (after the computer is booted up)...go to:

- Apple Menu
- System Preferences
- Startup Disk
- Select hard drive to boot from
- Restart computer

HTH,

- Nick

07-23-2011, 10:25 PM

thanks Nick, really appreciate your advice in all this. I'm just happy that
it could work and it sounds like it will... love it.