Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

System HDD hot swap between G5 Powermacs

Jan 17, 2008 11:16PM PST

I own a Powermac G5 1.8 dual and I've just bought a Powermac G5 2.7 dual. Now, instead of re-installing all the software (including the operative system), I was thinking wether I could just swap the system disks between the two computer, since I am going to sell the Powermac 1.8 and I need all my stuff on the new one. Could it work? Apps needs to be reinstalled due to the new machine specs or by simply swapping the system disk everything is going to work? Thank you.

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
No machine I know today can hot swap a System HDD.
Jan 17, 2008 11:20PM PST

Was that a typo or gaff?

- Collapse -
"Hot swap" means both machines are powered
Jan 18, 2008 1:17AM PST

on (hence "hot") when you take the HDD out of one and install in the other.

If the machines are OFF and the HDDs are swapped, that is not a "hot" swap...

Presuming the machines are powered off when you do the swap, I personally don't see why this should not work - but not knowing the system configs of the hard drives or how the OS was installed, it would be tough to tell. If it does work, the apps would not need to be re-installed.

You *could* try it - if it works, that's cool - if not, swap them back... doing that particular brain surgery on those particular machines is not a big deal.

- Collapse -
my mistake
Jan 18, 2008 1:46AM PST

Yeah, I was meaning "swapping the HDs with both machines not powered". I am not a native english speaker so, some meanings are quite oscure to me. By the way, I could try and see what happens, assuming that this try wouldn't damage the HDs (I don't think so).

- Collapse -
Shouldn't be a problem,
Jan 18, 2008 5:12AM PST

especially as both machines are almost identical.

The new one has nothing different about it, other than the faster processor, so the swap should a matter of routine.

As noted, try it and see.

P