Cloning a Mac drive to use in another Mac

Greetings,

My background is desktop support/helpdesk at a company with many windows boxes but only 7 Mac. Learning Macs not I"m like a noob still.

> I configure a PC with the applications I want and tweak settings needed
> User an app like Ghost to clone the drive
> Apply the close the to other machines of same model
> Deploy machine to new user or
> Apply the clone to a machine with severe OS issues

I can even apply the close to similar model machines and after the boot up install the drivers

I would like to do something similar.
>Configure a Mac
>Install all the apps
>Clone the drive
>Apply the close to another Macs (intel Based)

I have googled, however, I get result that say yes I can do it and no because once the Mac starts up it will have issues because the clone was taken from another Mac. I've asked other techs and also get mixed results.

I'm thinking that if I use the newest Mac (intel based) and apply it to any other Macs that are over (intel based) the drivers would install and it would function fine.

I don't mind experimenting but setting up a Mac with CS4/CS5 and other apps take forever.

Is there a way for me to accomplish that I can do in a windows environment?

You can not clone the contents of one model Mac to another model Mac which is different because the hardware is not the same. You'll wind up getting kernel panics (Mac version of BSOD) and it won't work.

There is however, software to do cloning. SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner are the most popular. They are not like Ghost or Acronis True Image though and will only work on drives formatted as HFS+. (To be used for cloning same model Macs only)

Sorry I forgot to add that I use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the Mac HD.

Dang, this makes my job more difficult.

Thank you for your response

chscag said:

You can not clone the contents of one model Mac to another model Mac which is different because the hardware is not the same. You'll wind up getting kernel panics (Mac version of BSOD) and it won't work.

There is however, software to do cloning. SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner are the most popular. They are not like Ghost or Acronis True Image though and will only work on drives formatted as HFS+. (To be used for cloning same model Macs only)

Click to expand...

Does used for cloning of same model Macs mean Intel or Pre-Intel or does it mean same model within the Intel or Pre-Instel meaning I can use a clone from a 12 core Mac on a 8 core mac?

LunchBox said:

I'm thinking that if I use the newest Mac (intel based) and apply it to any other Macs that are over (intel based) the drivers would install and it would function fine.

I don't mind experimenting but setting up a Mac with CS4/CS5 and other apps take forever.

Click to expand...

I guess an important question here is...What are you trying to accomplish by being able to "clone" one Mac's hard drive...and then be able to use the cloned drive in another Macintosh computer?

When you start to mention "CS4/CS5 & other apps"...I start getting a little concerned about what's going on here.

- Nick

In a windows world I would close 1 PC and use that clone on other PCs of the same model.

I want to configure a Mac with all the apps etc installed, clone the drive. Then when I need to re-install the OS for whatever reason, I can apply the close instead of spending 4 hours to install the OS, CS4/5, and a few other apps along with the updates.

I know that I have to stick to groups like Intel or Non-Intel. But, do I have to also stick to Macs with same amount of cores? I am not sure how to tell the actual model (sorry I'm a noob with Macs). I always though I would be able to apply a clone to any other Mac (intel to intel , pre-instel to pre-instel) etc.