It seems I can't boot a system installed on one MacBook in another MacBook.
My laptop needs a few days of servicing, so I thought it would be easiest to clone an image of my OS X install on USB drive, then boot from this USB drive on another laptop. Unfortunately all I get is a grey "no-no" circle.
What I actually did was:
- Using Disk Utility I cloned MacBook's (let's call it "A") boot partition onto USB partition.
- I can successfully boot MacBook A using this cloned partition.
- If I plug USB drive into another MacBook ("B") and turn it on: the operating system on USB partition appears as available in bootloader screen (with orange icon) – but I cannot actually boot from it. Screen remains grey and a grey disabled sign is displayed.
- The same happens if I simply use original A's drive in USB case (so this is not a cloning problem).
- The same happens if I try to boot MacMini using USB drive.
Is it normal behavior, that OS X install is bound to the computer it was installed on?
Is there something I can do to override this behavior and force my MacBook B to boot with operating system installed on A?
A is MacBook Retina 15" and B is MacBook Retina 13".
OS X version is 10.8.
Best Answer
Try this:
I know it's not a clone, but Migration Assistant does fairly well and preserves all your data. I did this when I had to transfer my system (OS X 10.9 on a "classic" MBP 13" late 2012) on my new SSD drive. It worked very well. I did not lose any data.
If it doesn't work, your problem may be that you're trying to boot a version of Mac OS X earlier than what came with MacBook B. Maybe installing Mavericks will do the trick.
See this article on Apple KB in order to know the original OS X version shipped with your hardware.