Move NVMe to new Hackintosh ?

[buddyjack2]

In 2017 my current (prebuilt) PC shipped with Win10 on a WD Blue M.2 SATA-III SSD (250 Gb) and, later, I added a Samsung 960 EVO NVMe (500 Gb) in its second M.2 slot. It's this Samsung EVO that contains my (working) EFI and BigSur 11.5.1.

Am now configuring a new Hackintosh and for cost considerations am wondering if I can pull the Samsung EVO from my old Hack and re-use it in the new one? (My old Hack would be demoted to a Win10-only PC running off its WD Blue SSD). Obviously the old EFI on the Samsung EVO would have to be completely replaced with a new version suited to the new mobo & CPU, but what are the chances the Mac OS on it would still work? The SMBIOS in OpenCore would be changed from iMacPro1,1 to iMac20,2 so I'm concerned there might be subtle OS file differences in the System Folder or elsewhere that I'm not aware of.

I know I could just erase the Samsung EVO completely first, and install a fresh OS along with the new EFI... but all my Mac apps are on that drive too, and would need to be re-installed/re-configured in that scenario, which would mean a lot more work. Any advice/opinions? Thanks!

 

[pastrychef]

what are the chances the Mac OS on it would still work?

100%

 

[buddyjack2]

Wow, that was fast. And very definite Thanks for the confidence boost !

 

[etorix]

The gist of OpenCore is not doing any modification to the OS X installation but to introduce SSDT/kext "from below" at boot time and to perform dynamic patching. As the OS install remains pristine ("vanilla"), it can move between systems, as long as the bootloader allows.
You can just move the drive, prepare a new EFI on USB and go. Just make sure to use the BIOS boot menu to pick up your USB rather than from the drive. When the new EFI is finalised, copy it to the drive.
I have never moved a drive between a hackintosh and a real Mac, for lack of M.2 or PCIe slots on the Mac, but that should work too.

 

[Jamesbond007]

In 2017 my current (prebuilt) PC shipped with Win10 on a WD Blue M.2 SATA-III SSD (250 Gb) and, later, I added a Samsung 960 EVO NVMe (500 Gb) in its second M.2 slot. It's this Samsung EVO that contains my (working) EFI and BigSur 11.5.1.

Am now configuring a new Hackintosh and for cost considerations am wondering if I can pull the Samsung EVO from my old Hack and re-use it in the new one? (My old Hack would be demoted to a Win10-only PC running off its WD Blue SSD). Obviously the old EFI on the Samsung EVO would have to be completely replaced with a new version suited to the new mobo & CPU, but what are the chances the Mac OS on it would still work? The SMBIOS in OpenCore would be changed from iMacPro1,1 to iMac20,2 so I'm concerned there might be subtle OS file differences in the System Folder or elsewhere that I'm not aware of.

I know I could just erase the Samsung EVO completely first, and install a fresh OS along with the new EFI... but all my Mac apps are on that drive too, and would need to be re-installed/re-configured in that scenario, which would mean a lot more work. Any advice/opinions? Thanks!

Your old NVMe drive should be able to work directly in your system provided that Big Sur supports it. You did not mention the new system's specifications so I cannot determine whether Big Sur supports it.

You want to change the SMBIOS on the new system? I would urge caution, since a change of SMBIOS is regarded by many paid apps to be a change of system and some of these apps may be deactivated in such a case, causing problems and headaches.

 

[c-o-pr]

Your old NVMe drive should be able to work directly in your system provided that Big Sur supports it. You did not mention the new system's specifications so I cannot determine whether Big Sur supports it.

You want to change the SMBIOS on the new system? I would urge caution, since a change of SMBIOS is regarded by many paid apps to be a change of system and some of these apps may be deactivated in such a case, causing problems and headaches.

SMBIOS change causes Apple services to see another device.

And then there are potential issues with config.plist Platform information reuse.

So while the OC approach of avoiding disturbance of installation files is a nice trait, it's maybe overly optimistic to think of it as making installations transportable.

And we can be sure Apply is looking at the mayhem caused by a rebel fleet mucking with magic-numbers from their side.

Keeping in mind they've previously substantially locked down the mobile counterparts.

The PC (in a general sense) is now perched right on the edge of the world, and becoming a big, scrappy right-to-repair, privacy, and piracy hullabaloo. A multi-trillion$ Dutch East Apple Co. no doubt includes a contingent of Lord Admiral Cutler Becketts dreaming maybe of a compass to capture Calypso and complete domination of the high seas of the webz, or/and maybe about sending the more rebellious elements in its fleets to Davy Jones' locker. Arrr

Minty fresh linux anyone?

 

[pastrychef]

SMBIOS change causes Apple services to see another device.

And then there are potential issues with config.plist Platform information reuse.

So while the OC approach of avoiding disturbance of installation files is a nice trait, it's maybe overly optimistic to think of it as making installations transportable.

And we can be sure Apply is looking at the mayhem caused by a rebel fleet mucking with magic-numbers from their side.

Keeping in mind they've previously substantially locked down the mobile counterparts.

The PC (in a general sense) is now perched right on the edge of the world, and becoming a big, scrappy right-to-repair, privacy, and piracy hullabaloo. A multi-trillion$ Dutch East Apple Co. no doubt includes a contingent of Lord Admiral Cutler Becketts dreaming maybe of a compass to capture Calypso and complete domination of the high seas of the webz, or/and maybe about sending the more rebellious elements in its fleets to Davy Jones' locker. Arrr

Minty fresh linux anyone?

Of course macOS will see it as a new system once SMBIOS info has been changed. That will happen every time you change the SMBIOS info even if you leave the SSD in the same computer. But it works fine. I've done it dozens of times. The latest being about a week ago.

 

[buddyjack2]

Thanks to all for the replies! I've ordered an Asus ROG Maximus XIII Hero mobo, an i9-10900K CPU, and an AMD Radeon RX 6800… they may arrive by the end of the decade, LOL. While waiting, I'm reading people's experiences and OC tips with that gear and as always will be depending on the great help at this Forum to get it all working

 

[Jamesbond007]

SMBIOS change causes Apple services to see another device.

And then there are potential issues with config.plist Platform information reuse.

So while the OC approach of avoiding disturbance of installation files is a nice trait, it's maybe overly optimistic to think of it as making installations transportable.

And we can be sure Apply is looking at the mayhem caused by a rebel fleet mucking with magic-numbers from their side.

Keeping in mind they've previously substantially locked down the mobile counterparts.

The PC (in a general sense) is now perched right on the edge of the world, and becoming a big, scrappy right-to-repair, privacy, and piracy hullabaloo. A multi-trillion$ Dutch East Apple Co. no doubt includes a contingent of Lord Admiral Cutler Becketts dreaming maybe of a compass to capture Calypso and complete domination of the high seas of the webz, or/and maybe about sending the more rebellious elements in its fleets to Davy Jones' locker. Arrr

Minty fresh linux anyone?

I don't use OpenCore and am still with Clover. No Big Sur, and will probably never install it.

That said, I have done several motherboard replacements myself with the MacOS disk staying the same, and I have also made update installations (e.g. the recent Mojave / Catalina Security Updates) on a spare system and then clone the updated system to my various systems. The MacOS systems all boot and work fine in all cases. I make sure the hardware replacements are compatible with the MacOS system.

I have never encountered any serious issues, real or potential.

In the past I always install a MacOS version ONCE only and then clone the installed system to disks in other systems, changing SMBIOS / serial numbers if necessary. I won't be spending time to install MacOS on a new system knowing the cloning process works. If this process does not work I would never have that many systems running MacOS.