Switching hard drives between two macbook pros

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Hi there,
Situation - I have two MacBook Pros, 1.83GHZ models. One with a 750GB upgraded HD that we use for our "main" computer. The other "secondary" computer is still stock with an 80GB HD. I'm beginning to have various problems with the "main computer".
I want to swap the hard drives and make the "secondary", none problematic computer, the main one.
Both computers are backed up to a 2TB Time Capsule.
My Question - should I just swap the two hard drives? Or should I re-format both computers first, erase all of the data etc, to "like new", then swap the drives and perform a restore? Which is the best option? Or is there another way?
Thanks,
Trevor
 

chscag

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Your Mac's Specs
2017 27" iMac, 10.5" iPad Pro, iPhone 8, iPhone 11, iPhone 12 Mini, Numerous iPods, Monterey
Since you have a backup of each, go ahead and swap them around. It appears both machines are the same with regard to hardware so it should work in theory. However, if it causes either machine to kernel panic, you may have to go to plan B.
 
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Thanks for your thoughts

That was the way I was going to do it. But then last night I had this feeling like there was a possibility that a bunch of my programs/settings might get screwed up in some way doing it that way. Was not sure how much of the system settings reside in the HD vs something native to the machine itself, separate from the HD. Sounds stupid now that I think about it.
I'll be switching things here tonight and I'll make a final post to say how it went.
Thanks,
T
 
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Completed Successfully

Howdy,
Just completed the HD swap and it worked seamlessly. No hiccups.
Thanks,
T
 

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