problems using Migration Assistant from Tiger to Snow Leopard

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problems using Migration Assistant from Tiger to Snow Leopard

I want to scavenge files and apps from a Power Mac G4 (PowerMac3,5) running Tiger 10.4.11 before I turn it out to pasture. Most of them were migrated years ago to another system and have been updated and upgraded over the years, but a few apps have no modern equivalent. Now I want to do one last "pull" to pick up anything left behind all those years ago, particularly apps for which the install discs are in deep storage at best and possibly discarded.

I'm trying to use Migration Assistant in a nearly virgin Snow Leopard 10.6.8 system (installed fresh from 10.6.3 retail optical disc, updated over the network, lightly tested). It has a single admin account, no other user accounts.

Possible complicating factors: the Snow Leopard system is Server running under Parallels 10.1.4 on Yosemite 10.10.2 on an Early 2008 Mac Pro (MacPro3,1) with third-party USB3 controller in a PCI slot.

At present, I'm using a portable drive with both FW and USB interfaces as an intermediate storage (FW on the G4 to clone the system drive, USB on the Mac Pro to connect it to the virtual machine). SL sees the drive just fine, can copy files from it, and can even run apps from it. Migration Assistant sees the drive and offers to migrate from it.

Two problems:

1. No matter what user(s) I select for migration, Migration Assistant tells me it is a duplicate account. Proposing an account name never used before does not help. As a result, no user files can be migrated. (Obviously, I could copy them in other ways, but I think MA should do a more thorough job.)

2. Migration Assistant offers to migrate absolutely no applications. Even applications that SL will run from the drive cannot be migrated. (Some are PPC apps, but SL will run them via Rosetta. Others are Universal apps.)

Am I expecting too much of Migration Assistant?

Is the Migration Assistant shipped with SL Server (and updated through Software Update) not capable of running under SL Server?

Should SL MA refuse to migrate any applications from a Power Mac, even Universal applications?

Am I missing something obvious?

Is there key information I have omitted?

Mac Pro (Early 2008), OS X Yosemite (10.10.2)

Posted on Mar 6, 2015 5:06 PM

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Answer 1

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MlchaelLAX

Level 4

2,286 points

Mar 7, 2015 10:16 AM in response to markwmsn

A thought: Since you have a 2008 Mac Pro, why not install Snow Leopard client in a new partition or external hard drive and run it natively?

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Answer 2

markwmsn Author

Level 6

14,999 points

Mar 7, 2015 1:07 PM in response to MlchaelLAX

Thanks for your response, MIchaelLAX.

Yes, I could do it that way, but I am hoping to be able to run the Snow Leopard system and the Yosemite system simultaneously.

The 2008 Mac Pro is my primary home server for files, mail, and backups. I don't want to have to take it out of service to run the old programs. In addition, one of the recent uses of the old apps requires simultaneous (or nearly so) use of the older apps and newer apps on Y.

I may try it, just to see if Migration Assistant 3.0.4 is still recalcitrant in that environment. I believe I still have a retail copy of SL Client available. (The only reason I bought the SL Server license was to do this project. It's not the twenty bucks, it's the principle of the thing.)

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Answer 3

markwmsn Author

Level 6

14,999 points

Mar 8, 2015 4:15 PM in response to markwmsn

I was able to install Snow Leopard (client) in a partition, and it was able to migrate users and many applications from the G4 clone on the portable drive. Some of the apps even run.

Then I went back to my SL Server virtual machine and tried to migrate FROM the SL client partition. Migration Assistant showed the same symptoms as importing from the clone directly (no apps offered, bogus "dup user" errors). I am forced to conclude that either (a) Migration Assistant 3.0.4/1.1 is broken when run on SL Server or (b) my new SL Server installation is broken. I'm either going to have to boot back and forth to run the old apps or find their installation media and reinstall them in my SL Server virtual machine.

Even worse, I realized that one of the antique programs I still haven't dug everything out of is a Classic application that had to be kludged to survive Y2K!

Thanks again, MIchaelLAX.

Anybody else have any clever ideas?

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Answer 4

MlchaelLAX

Level 4

2,286 points

Mar 11, 2015 1:25 PM in response to markwmsn

markwmsn wrote:

...It's not the twenty bucks, it's the principle of the thing.

Not sure what you meant by that statement. Although this "principle" may be more important to you than the twenty bucks, I know that my time is worth more to me than your twenty bucks!

What apps are you using?

markwmsn wrote:

I was able to install Snow Leopard (client) in a partition, and it was able to migrate users and many applications from the G4 clone on the portable drive. Some of the apps even run.

Then I went back to my SL Server virtual machine and tried to migrate FROM the SL client partition. Migration Assistant showed the same symptoms as importing from the clone directly (no apps offered, bogus "dup user" errors). I am forced to conclude that either (a) Migration Assistant 3.0.4/1.1 is broken when run on SL Server or (b) my new SL Server installation is broken. I'm either going to have to boot back and forth to run the old apps or find their installation media and reinstall them in my SL Server virtual machine.

Even worse, I realized that one of the antique programs I still haven't dug everything out of is a Classic application that had to be kludged to survive Y2K!

Thanks again, MIchaelLAX.

Anybody else have any clever ideas?

So, glad to see that Migration Assistant did work for you in Snow Leopard...

More clever ideas:

Install Snow Leopard client in Parallels and use its Migration Assistant:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1365439

Here is a recent post I assembled for running Classic apps on Intel Macs:

With the newer Intel Macs, you have to run a Classic emulator such as SheepShaver, which requires you to extract the Mac ROMs from your older Classic Mac and then install Mac OS 9.

A related program is Chubby Bunny, which comes bundled with all of that included (google the term "Classic-On-Intel v 4.0.1 chubby bunny").

More information on SheepShaver:

http://www.emaculation.com/doku.php/sheepshaver_mac_os_x_setup

and

http://www.everymac.com/mac-answers/mac-os-9-classic-support-faq/run-macos-9-on- intel-macs.html

and more information about Chubby Bunny:

http://www.macwindows.com/OS9_on_Intel_Mac.html#092408b

and

http://hackthemac.blogspot.co.uk/2008/08/chubby-bunny-old-virtual-machine.html

Here is the Classic CD-ROM version of RISK II running in SheepShaver on my Lion Mac Mini:

[click on image to enlarge]

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