I am trying to manually move data music photos files etc from my old imac 2006 to a new imac however apple doesn't support this...how do I do it?
iMac, Mac OS X (10.4.11)
Why don't you want to automatically transfer files? It's a lot easier and more reliable.
If you want to do it manually, set up a Firewire connection between the two Macs. Boot the old Mac in target mode (hold down the T key as you reboot), and the drive should get mounted to the new Mac's desktop. You can then copy whatever user files over you like. I wouldn't try transferring applications this way, though.
Matt
I tried to do this with an apple rep and it wouldn't work after we purchased a firewire the new imac wouldn't recognize my older system they told me there is a way to do it manually but wouldn't tell me how. I didn't think this would be such problem or that if my old imac was too old I couldn't transfer music photos etc.
I was told it's becuae we don't have snow lepord on the 06 model
Their response was bogus. With a FireWire cable, there should be no problem migrating from the old machine. See Pondini's Tips for details.
lawrencefromdarien wrote:
I tried to do this with an apple rep and it wouldn't work after we purchased a firewire the new imac wouldn't recognize my older system they told me there is a way to do it manually but wouldn't tell me how. I didn't think this would be such problem or that if my old imac was too old I couldn't transfer music photos etc.
I was told it's becuae we don't have snow lepord on the 06 model
Relax, a lot of the Apple Store people are learning about computers just as you are.
All you need to transfer your files is a external powered hard drive you can pick up at any computer or office store.
They mostly come in USB 3/2 now (3 is backwards compatible with 2 which all Mac's use), so if you want to save some money you can get the USB 2 only drives because with your new Mac it's most likely your not going to be upgrading for a few years anyway, so why pay more for USB 3 if your not going to use it?
You should get two external powered drives, 1TB each should be plenty enough.
When you hook the FIRST drive up to your new Mac, a TimeMachine popup window will appear asking you if you would want to make this drive a TimeMachine backup drive. In your case that your just learning, allow it to make the drive a TimeMachine drive, this keeps a rotating backup of everything on your boot drive, so in case something happens you can recover (or someone can recover for you) everything on the new Mac.
Once that is completed (may take a hour or more) then disconnect the TimeMachine drive and hook up the SECOND external hard drive, what you want to do here is open Disk Utility in your Application's > Utilities Folder.
Select the name of the hard drive maker on the left and click Erase on the bar, then click the Erase button. (don't change anything it will format it HFS+ journaled by default)
Once that's completed you will have a external backup drive you can connect to your older Mac, it will appear on the Desktop and you can drag and drop your files from your folders into it, then connect it to the new machine and transfer files into the user folders there.
Once you're done that hook up the TimeMachine drive to the new Mac either all the time or once a day to allow it to update the backup. Don't hook up this TimeMachine drive to any other computer, just the new one.
If you ever have a serious problem with your machine, you can restore from the TimeMachine backups once you learn more how it works.
The SECOND external drive can be used to transfer data or be used as extra storage space in case your boot drive starts getting full, especially with videos. But remember, the TimeMachine drive is a rotating backup, meaning it deletes old stuff you've deleted off your boot drive eventually.
So if there is anything you want to save, but not be on your boot drive, you need to use the SECOND external drive as storage, don't count on it remaining on the TimeMachine drive.
Easy as pie. Good Luck. 🙂
I had Tiger on old imac and there is a problem we didn't have snow leapord on old imac....why is this such a problem? I am so confused.
Easy apie are you kidding me?
The problem is not you, it's Apple instructing their employees to be pushing stuff on people that they don't understand and always being in a constant chaotic state of change and forcing you to keep up.
Just follow my instructions above how to use a external drive and create a TimeMachine backup drive with your new Mac and you'll be fine.
If you can't get it, it's ok to have someone who's a local Mac geek to come to assist you. 🙂
I am trying to manually transfer data from a 2006 iMac to new how do I do this apple won't tell me
