Q: where is setup assistant

Setup Assistant is only shown when you setup a Mac for the first time.

It allows you to connect another Mac via Firewire Target Disk Mode (connect a cable to both machines, hold T boot the old Mac) or from TimeMachine of a older Mac and then migrate users data to the new machine.

If you have already created a new user on the new machine, just use Migration Assistant (in your new Mac's Utilities folder) and that will transfer from the older Mac.

However with Migration assistant, it leaves the first user created on the new machine alone, adding the older users.

Problem with Setup and Migration Assistant is if you had problems with the old Mac or it's software is not running correctly etc., then doing this procedure can also mess up your new Mac. Especially more so with 10.7 as the Users/Library folder is hidden.

The software of the older Mac likely won't work on the newer Mac because of the change of operating system, so then you have to clean all this old crap out of the new Mac, which the older un-installer may not work properly with newer OS X version.

In my opinion it's better to transfer files manually via a external storage drive into same named user accounts on the new machine and tweak things as you like.

• Most commonly used backup methods

Install new versions of software for that OS X version. It's a bit more work, but it's more reliable and avoids having to fix things afterwards or even wipe the whole mess and do it manually after a botched migration.

I don't use TimeMachine or Migration Assistant, trading a bit more time and energy to have a much more reliable machine.

If you use Setup or Migration Assistant and it botches things up, then if you don't know what your doing to fix it, your taking your new machine back to Apple to wait while they fix it for you and take a peek at all your personal files.

I only had one hard drive physically die on all my Mac's over 20 years, it's because I don't take chances and have more attention to detail when doing things to avoid potential problems.

Perhaps when SSD's become the norm software can do things better, but not with hard drives as the physical aspect of holding data on the drive fails and extra precaution must be taken to have a really reliable machine.

OK, I am loosing my mind, too many discussions I have looked at. I want to do the same thing. I have a new Mac, I want to duplicate this mac to my new one for the office so they will both be the same. I guess the setup assistant is the best as opposed to Migration as I do not want to create a new user. So should I connect the firewire cable before I start the new mac for the first time, and put the old mac in target disc mode. My older mac is Lion and everything is updated. your help is appreciated. I did read the tutorial that a lot of people posted to many options and to many os's to get a clear direction