Restoring from a Backup to A Different Type of Mac

[jcan]

Hello,

In Windows, it is impossible to backup a PC and then restore it to another PC with a different configuration, as the Windows OS must be "tied" to a specific PC: In other words, the user must install Windows to the new PC from scratch (so that the new drivers, etc. will be installed) and then go through the cumbersome procedure of installing all his apps all over again.

What is the case with Mac OS X when restoring backups to different types of machines? For example, if someone has an iMac, backs it up in Time Machine, and then restores the backup to a MacBook Pro or a Mac Mini, what will happen? Will the operating system be able to "adapt" to its new surroundings, or problems are going to arise?

 

[JeffCGD]

The answer to your question depends on how the OS was installed in the first place. Firstly, A PowerPC install of Leopard or earlier can only be restored to a PowerPC Mac, and the same with an Intel install, if you expect it to still boot afterwards. Secondly, you 'may' have issues if you restore a machine specific version of the operating system (as on the grey discs which come with a machine) as opposed to the generic OS install which result when installing from the BLACK disk that are in a boxed retail copy of OSX.