Question Install MacOS to supported machine, then swap hard drive to unsupported machine possible?

Joseph_138

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From time to time, I see sellers on ebay selling hard drives with MacOS preinstalled on them. Can I avoid the whole hassle of using OpenCore to install to an unsupported Mac, by buying one of these hard drives, and plugging it in to my unsupported machine? Will it be bootable?
 

punkncat

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Far from a MacOS expert, but I would not recommend doing so with a PC, much less from an ecosystem which is very particular about the hardware it runs on. Most of the very little I know about running MacOS on non Apple builds and/or running Windows on Apple hardware came to me by way of digging around on "Hackintosh" and other similar boards.
 

Joseph_138

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Far from a MacOS expert, but I would not recommend doing so with a PC, much less from an ecosystem which is very particular about the hardware it runs on. Most of the very little I know about running MacOS on non Apple builds and/or running Windows on Apple hardware came to me by way of digging around on "Hackintosh" and other similar boards.

I said on a supported machine, not a PC. My plan is to install a later version than Catalina onto a Mac Pro 5,1, but without going through the voodoo of OpenCore to do it. OpenCore seems like a lot of trouble, on the same level as installing to a Hackintosh, that I would rather just build a Hackintosh, with newer hardware than what the Mac Pro has in it. Swapping in a hard drive from a supported machine, would save a lot of time and trouble.
 
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punkncat

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I said on a supported machine, not a PC. My plan is to install a later version than Catalina onto a Mac Pro 5,1, but without going through the voodoo of OpenCore to do it. OpenCore seems like a lot of trouble, on the same level as installing to a Hackintosh, that I would rather just build a Hackintosh, with newer hardware than what the Mac Pro has in it. Swapping in a hard drive from a supported machine, would save a lot of time and trouble.


What I meant by saying that is that I would not recommend trying to use a drive that was installed on a specific machine to a different machine. The only time I have had any luck using a "clone of" a specific install was when bulk installing on exact same hardware (specifically, Dell office builds that were identical in every way). IE, I wouldn't try it on a PC (which supports loads of hardware), much less with an Apple product whose walled garden supports very specific hardware. I feel you might just waste some money and introduce headaches.
 
OpenCore is actually super easy to install, all you need is an external usb drive of around 16GB and you can install Mac OS Monterey on your machine easily. I am running it on a Mac Mini 6,2 and literally you just download it then follow the easy instructions. Basically make your install media, install OpenCore, the boot up using the alt key and select it then select your Monterey install media to install Monterey. Thats it. For detailed instructions go to: https://dortania.github.io/OpenCore-Legacy-Patcher/START.html