Best way to move apps, data, mail, etc. to new imac?

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Level 1

10 points

Best way to move apps, data, mail, etc. to new imac?

I am wondering what the best way is to move stuff from my g4 pb to new imac. Both are osx 10.4.4. I have an external fw drive with a clone of my pb drive on one partition. I don't want to copy everything to the new mac. I have a .mac acct.

Here are my questions:

Can I move my mail, contacts, ical, and transmit (ftp) settings just by syncing with .mac? All of those are backed up daily to idisk. If i sync to the new mac, will all mail messages be copied?

What about apps? Is it best to just drag them over from the pb or fw drive, or to re-install from disks and/or install/dmg files when possible?

Firefox... I have a bunch of extensions installed and config is highly customized. If I just drag it over to new imac, will config and extensions still work?

Any idea of the easiest way to keep files synced between 2 macs? All files are in my user folder.

I use SuperDuper for backup from pb to fw drive, but I am hoping for a more direct/automatic way for the file sync. Size and number of files are too large for .mac. Has anyone tried SuperDuper on new mac yet?

One more question... user accounts. I have 3. One main (admin), one guest, and one emergency admin. There is nothing to transfer from any acct. besides main. Is it better to transfer the accts over from pb, or to set up identical accts on the new mac?

Thanks!

12" pb g4 1.33/768, 20" imac cd 2.0/1G Mac OS X (10.4.4)

Posted on Jan 20, 2006 6:47 PM

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Answer 1

Jan 20, 2006 8:31 PM in response to Lori B

Perhaps the easiest way to transfer information from one machine to the other is using Migration Assistant found in your application/utilities menu. Have a look at . You'll need a firewire cable to connect the two machines.

Since you are migrating applications etc. to a new System architecture, I suggest being cautious about what applications you transfer. Some apps. (non-Universal) may not be Rosetta compatible. Have a look at the current compatibility list from Apple for Universal Apps. Also, here's about Rosetta.

Rather than syncing the .Mac account to your new system, it may be safer to simply move this information via MA. Not sure about how the syncing works between the 2 machines going forward. Someone else will have to answer that question.

"I use SuperDuper for backup from pb to fw drive, but I am hoping for a more direct/automatic way for the file sync. Size and number of files are too large for .mac. Has anyone tried SuperDuper on new mac yet?"

Not ready for prime time yet. Have a look at this thread on SuperDuper's forums.

User accounts can be set up on your new machine via System Preferences>Accounts. No sense transfering them if you have no personal information in the User account.

Firefox is not yet Universal, although I understand it's coming soon. I guess the current version runs OK in Rosetta. The transfer of extensions etc. ought to be handled easily via Migration Assistant.

Lastly, make sure your G4 is fully backed up via SuperDuper (bootable clone) before starting Migration Assistant.

Good Luck

iMac G5 Rev C 20" 2.5gb RAM 250 gb HD/iBook G4 1.33 ghz 1.5gb RAM 40 gb HD Mac OS X (10.4.4) LaCie 160gb d2 HD

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Answer 2

Jan 20, 2006 9:32 PM in response to Lori B

One other item: Version Tracker also has a resource page for MacIntel apps.

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Answer 3

Lori B Author

Level 1

10 points

Jan 21, 2006 1:27 PM in response to Lori B

Thank you very much! That it a lot of helpful information 🙂

I do use one of the user accounts on my pb. Do you know what is the best way to transfer that one? I'm not sure whether it is better to recreate the account and manually transfer docs, etc. to the imac, or to transfer the whole acct. w/the migration assistant. I will also create another guest and emergency admin account on the imac, so maybe it is best to just transfer the 3 accounts I already have on the pb. In a less convoluted version, my question is...

Is there any benefit or harm that can come from transferring my accts. w/the migration assistant vs. creating identical accts. on imac and transferring things manually? I am worried about transferring any bad plist files to the new mac. Is there a way to transfer the user account without transferring the library?

Thanks again.

12" pb g4 1.33/768, 20" imac cd 2.0/1G Mac OS X (10.4.4)

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Answer 4

Jan 21, 2006 1:46 PM in response to Lori B

Hi Lori,
My new imac intel did not have the OS installed when it came (which I thought was weird) but on install simply followed directions to transfer from my G4 via firewire and within about 1.5 hrs all user accounts, internet connection info, user files and everything else from my old G4 was up and running on the new G5!!!
Including all songs on itunes, photos in iphoto, movie files imovie - EVERYTHING was there.
Granted some of the old apps (painter classic OS9) didn't run anymore but this was expected.
This computer ROCKS!! (big improvement from 15" imac G4 700MHz)
B.

G5 Intel 2.0GHz 1GB Mac OS X (10.4.4)

G5 Intel 2.0GHz 1GB Mac OS X (10.4.4)

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Answer 5

Jan 21, 2006 5:23 PM in response to Lori B

"Is there any benefit or harm that can come from transferring my accts. w/the migration assistant vs. creating identical accts. on imac and transferring things manually? I am worried about transferring any bad plist files to the new mac. Is there a way to transfer the user account without transferring the library?"

If it's "bad plist files" you're concerned about, you can simply delete the files in the preference folder after you complete the migration, or you can run Preferential Treatment before you migrate your information to the new machine.

Personally, I think it's best to use the Migration Assistant for the transfer. When I made my transfer, the only items that did not transfer cleanly were 3rd party add-ons from Unsanity, which I had to reinstall after the migration. Since you are operating an OS X system based on Intel, I'd remove any 3rd party add-ons from your library before using MA, as more than likely, they are not yet converted to Universal Binary.

iMac G5 Rev C 20" 2.5gb RAM 250 gb HD/iBook G4 1.33 ghz 1.5gb RAM 40 gb HD Mac OS X (10.4.4) LaCie 160gb d2 HD

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Answer 6

Lori B Author

Level 1

10 points

Jan 21, 2006 5:35 PM in response to Hawaiian_Starman

Thanks again 🙂 Using the migration assistant will definitely make things easier. Good idea about the .plist files.

12" pb g4 1.33/768, 20" imac cd 2.0/1G Mac OS X (10.4.4)

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Answer 7

Jan 21, 2006 8:00 PM in response to Lori B

I used the Migration Assistant to move everything over from my powerbook. I got a lot of stuff that can't work (like Classic) but it is easy to delete the stuff that won't play once you find it. If you don't find it, then all its doing is consuming some disk.

- gws

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