Migration Assistant moves only select files.
Target disk mode.
If you have a second Mac computer, you may want to try to copy over as many files you can. One way is to use target disk mode.
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1661
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.6/en/8443.html
"Installing OS X 10.4 'Tiger' on DVD-Challenged Macs Using FireWire Target Disk Mode"
http://lowendmac.com/misc/06/0710.html
Here is a picture of a firewire port:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b6/IEEE_1394_Firewire_PCI_ Expansion_Card_Digon3.jpg/800px-IEEE_1394_Firewire_PCI_Expansion_Card_Digon3.jpg
You need cloning software.
Carbon Copy Cloner will copy your startup drive to an external firewire drive. You can boot from the external drive to verify that you have a good clone. When you upgrade your existing startup drive, you can at any time boot from your external drive and go back to your existing system.
http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html
SuperDuper is the wildly acclaimed program that makes recovery painless, because it makes creating a fully bootable backup painless. Its incredibly clear, friendly interface is understandable, easy to use, and SuperDuper's built-in scheduler makes it trivial to back up automatically. And it runs beautifully on both Intel and Power PC Macs!
