How to clone an iMac to an identical iMac?

Question

Level 1

8 points

How to clone an iMac to an identical iMac?

I want to clone the hard drive of an old iMac to the hard drive of an identical iMac, so that it can it can boot from the clone. The restore discs are not available.

the old iMac is running OS X 10.3.9.

iMac, iOS 3.1.3

Posted on Sep 5, 2015 8:17 AM

Reply

Answer 1

rkaufmann87

Level 10

140,274 points

Sep 5, 2015 8:21 AM in response to Carrmuha

Both machines must have come with 10.3.9 or earlier installed on them when originally purchased. If the newer machine came with a later version of OS X, then you cannot install an earlier version of OS X on it. For example if the newer machine came from Apple with 10.4.0 or later, you CANNOT install10.3.9.

Reply

Answer 2

Carrmuha Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 5, 2015 8:42 AM in response to rkaufmann87

There is no new and old iMac. They are 100% identical and purchased at the same exact time. the restore discs have been lost quite a while ago. One of the iMacs has a good working installation of OS X 10.3.9 , and the other one did too until somebody wiped the hard drive. I just need to clone the one with the good install onto the wiped

Reply

Answer 3

den.thed

Level 9

76,906 points

Sep 5, 2015 8:49 AM in response to Carrmuha

Get a FireWire 400 to 400 cable and try using Disk Utility Restore while in FireWire Target Disk Mode.

How to use and troubleshoot FireWire target disk mode - Apple Support

Reply

Answer 4

rkaufmann87

Level 10

140,274 points

Sep 5, 2015 8:52 AM in response to Carrmuha

Both of these machines are PPC based iMacs. This forum is for Intel based iMacs, I believe the process will be the same though.

Connect the two computers with a FireWire or Thunderbolt cable.
Start up the computer to be used as a disk in target disk mode:
- If the computer is off, start it up while holding down the T key.
- If the computer is on, choose Apple menu > System Preferences, click Startup Disk, and then click Target Disk Mode.When the computer has started up, a disk icon appears on the desktop of the other computer.
Transfer files by dragging them to and from the disk.
Eject the disk by dragging its icon to the Trash.While you drag, the Trash icon changes to an Eject icon.
On the computer you used as a disk, push the power button to shut it down, and then disconnect the cable.

Reply