[The Liberator]

Hi guys,

If you look at my signature, I currently have two iMacs on it. I have been using an iMac G5 for nearly four years now. I need to change over to something slightly faster for my current needs. The iMac I will be changing over to is the other iMac (the Intel Core Two Duo one) in my signature.

What is happening is that all of the files of both computers are being are being switched to the other computer. I also have two external drives with enough space to backup everything that is on each iMac. It is essential that all files are moved properly. I would like it if both computers and all the files had a clean move, by what I mean is where everything of the of the files of one of the computers had been completely erased and vice versa before the files are swapped.

Thank you in advance, Liberator.

[bobbob]

Time Machine. You can do it to a disk image, one for each mac, hosted on the external drive. Wipe (one at a time, please). Then pick the right backup to restore. Ta-da.

[The Liberator]

I have Tiger, although I do have BackUp, which I have already used to back everything up on the G5. Thank you anyway.

Maybe this whole operation is easier than it might seem, I am not completely sure though.

Liberator.

[charmin]

Buy SuperDuper!, do it now.

[The Liberator]

I do not think I will need to buy it, but I think I will download the trial version, I only really need it for this one operation.

Thanks, Liberator.

[teflon]

In which case, Carbon Copy Cloner will do just as good a job and be free.

[The Liberator]

Okay, cool.

Thanks, Liberator.

[teflon]

glad to be of help.

One quick word of warning.
Only do a quick and dirty clone if its 100% compatible from the old to the new. So, say, a G4 to a G5 both running Tiger. But not a CD MBP to the very latest Mac Pro (which has a custom build of 10.5 and fresh graphics drivers).

In your special case, youre doing the good old PPC to intel switch, which, unfortunately, doesnt go too nicely in Tiger because it isnt Universal.

So, heres what you do. You clone each of your computers to a separate external drive (if you wanted, I believe you could clone to disk images, in order to keep things tidy, or just do one if youre reckless). Wipe one computer (Id go intel first), install 10.4, create a temporary user (you delete it when this is done, and dont give it an already used user name), do all the system updates, then jump feet first into the fun that is Migration Assistant.
Point it to your external hard drive (or FW linked computer if youre being reckless) and click go.
Sit down have a cup of tea, or 30 and when you come back delete the temporary user account, and give it a day or two grace to check that everything is working and copied across correctly.

Then rinse lather and repeat on the other computer.

For posterity and security and super duper safety, Id recommend that you keep a hold of those clones for a good month or so. If something isnt working too nicely (generally just an app which 'forgets' its serial number) then you can happily Target Disk Mode boot that backup on the other computer and track it down.

Also, it could be an idea to use CCC or SuperDuper in a regular/semi-regular backup scheme to keep all your vitals safe an secure, and have a spot to which you can roll back your computer that means you dont have to reinstall everything from scratch.

*phew*
good luck!

[The Liberator]

I am sorry, but I am a bit confused…

Quote

…here is what you do. You clone each of your computers to a separate external drive (if you wanted, I believe you could clone to disk images, in order to keep things tidy, or just do one if youre reckless).

What exactly do you mean by clone, as you also said before that using a HD clone in an intel switch might not work properly. Also, would it be a good or bad idea to just copy all of the files from the computers to the externals? No clone, just the actual files.

Thanks, Liberator.

[teflon]

Cloning keeps a perfectly preserved copy of the ecosystem in your mac.
Since youre creating the systems from scratch, theres likely to be an extension or two which is still PPC only or doesnt work or whatever. So, having a clone means that you can always revert to where you were before.
Also, its still bootable.

When I say clone, I mean to use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone from your internal HDD to one of the other external HDDs.

The problem with just copying everything across is that it takes a lot longer than just using Migration Assistant. Also, its damned tedious (Id know Ive done it a few times). Migration Assistant does everything for you, and the best part is that if it doesnt do something quite right, youve still got the clone from which you can manually copy the preference/license/whatever files across to the respective places.

[The Liberator]

Okay. To clarify, I should clone both of the iMacs' hard drives using CCC, and then use Migration Assistant to move the files across, yes? The way I move the files across is by creating another account on said iMac and then putting the files from Migration Assistant onto that account yes? Of course I would do that again, but in vice–versa.

Thanks, Liberator.

[teflon]

yes, except that Migration Assistant will preserve the Name and Short Name (the more important one, as its practically unchangeable) of the account that its transferring.
So if youve got the same account name on both systems, theres not much you can do except delete the account thats already there, create a dummy one, and then migrate.

are you still planning on making a fresh start on both machines?

also, how comes youre still on 10.4?
10.5 would have, if Im thinking right, made this entire process much simpler, as the system is Universal, so you can boot the intel from a PPC drive, and vice versa (its the vice versa Im not so sure about here).

[bobbob]

teflon, on April 12th 2009, 04:39 AM, said:

you can boot the intel from a PPC drive, and vice versa (its the vice versa Im not so sure about here)

I think they borked it a bit, and the bootloaders only do Apple or GPT drive layouts, respectively, so it won't work. Clone it to a disk image on the external drive, wipe and re-install, mount the disk image, then use migration assistant on it.

[teflon]

No, im fairly certain that intel macs can boot from a PPC install, but not the other way round, because of the drive layouts you mentioned.

[The Liberator]

Okay cool. So I make a clone of the Intel drive I would then wipe the G5, re–install and use the clone as a .dmg, mount it and have Migration Assistant use the clone. Also, I do not remember exactly what I meant by a safe install. I also do not have Leopard because the Intel mac came with Tiger instead (a 2006/7 iMac I think. One last thing in this post: you say it is safe to use Migration Assistant and move all of the files like normal from the G5 to the Intel iMac, yes?

Thanks, Liberator.

[bobbob]

The Liberator, on April 12th 2009, 05:48 PM, said:

use Migration Assistant and move all of the files like normal from the G5 to the Intel iMac, yes?

Should be, unless you have some PPC-specific InputManager haxie or something which obviously won't work properly.

[The Liberator]

One last thing I want to check… Will it be absolutely fine using Migration Assistant to move the files from the Intel iMac to the G5? This is because you guys have stated that there might/will be ill effects using a clone from the Intel to the G5, yes?

Thanks, Liberator.

[teflon]

it should be fine, because Migration Assistant will hav e been updated to know all the endian differences in files, not to mention that youll just have installed a fresh 10.4.11 which will have all your system sorted for you.

And youll have the HDD clones as security in the unlikely case that something goes awry.

[The Liberator]

Well… okay, it is set then. The transition should be done by the start of next week

Thanks for everything guys, I will report back when the computers have been swapped around.

Thanks, Liberator.

P.S. Eric, tBC could you leave the thread open if in the unlikely case I need to ask for help again, thanks.

[the Battle Cat]

Ordinarily I would lock this thread, then delete it, then stamp on the ashes, then give everybody in the thread a warning, then PM them with a nasty message. But, since you've quoted Bruce Lee in your signature, I will show leniency towards you and your little friends. However, don't let me catch you making a thread and then successfully getting your questions answered again. This makes me very angry.