iMac SD clone to MBP?

[t3rockhall]

I've developed some corruption somewhere in my mbp. My iMac is fine. The SD clone has less than 70 gb on it, so I have plenty of room. I even did a clean install of Snow Leopard on the mbp, so I think the corruption is in the user file, somewhere.

Can I use SD to overwrite the MBP HD and get the 2 Macs to the same state? I used to do this to keep my 2 G5's in sync, but of course, these 2 Macs are not identical.

Both Macs were purchased in April 2010.

Thanks.

[dnanian]

"Corruption in the user file" is vague enough that I'm rather concerned that you're jumping to conclusions without really diagnosing the problem. Can you go into more detail about what's wrong?

[t3rockhall]

"Corruption in the user file" is vague enough that I'm rather concerned that you're jumping to conclusions without really diagnosing the problem. Can you go into more detail about what's wrong?

At the risk of being longwinded, here we go:
I do the New York Times crosswords in their timed Java applet. I do other crosswords in different Java applets. On my MBP, the timed NYT applet comes up black with an "Error Loading Puzzle" but on the iMac, it opens properly. I usually use Chronosync to get the user folders identical, but it isn't working properly here.

On the MBP, I have reinstalled the OS, updated it, and still the error lives. I rebooted in safe mode, and the error is still there. BUT if I log into the MBP as a guest user, go to the Times, enter my passwords, the applet appears as it should. That's why I'm sure the issue is in the user account file.

I suppose that I should try booting from my SD clone before I try to bring it over to the MBP, to be absolutely sure it will work.

End of long explanation.

[dnanian]

Have you tried clearing your system and user caches? Checked to see if there are any local JAR/Java caches?

[t3rockhall]

Have you tried clearing your system and user caches? Checked to see if there are any local JAR/Java caches?

CacheOut runs automatically on reboot. I also ran OnyX.

I should add that it's definitely got something to do with Firefox. I got rid of 4, and went back to 3.6.16. Both machines got fresh downloads, except for the Applications Support file (aha??), but the Chronosync should have fixed that. Maybe I should just dump the FF App Support file and then run Chronosync again. I suppose it couldn't hurt.

I have tested this now with the SD clone, and it works properly, on both the iMac and the SD HD.

Again, If I can simply overwrite the MBP HD with my iMac HD clone, I'd be OK with that.

[dnanian]

Or copy it from the SD! backup. Any of which is more sensible than replacing everything.

[t3rockhall]

I tossed the entire App Support folder, and used CS to restore it. Thank you for your help.

Now, let me go back to my original question. Can I use my SD! clone to overwrite my MBP with no ill effects?

If I go off on vacation for a couple of weeks, and use the MBP, can I simply backup to my external with SD and then overwrite my iMac when I get back? and Vise Versa? Like I used to do with my 2 G5s. The hard drives are named differently.

[dnanian]

Generally, if they can both use the same OS version, yes.

[t3rockhall]

As usual, thank you for your great support.