How To Migrate G5 to MacPro

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Level 1

19 points

How To Migrate G5 to MacPro

I have a G5 with Mac OS 10.4 on it, which means no Time Machine. As I understand it, I could upgrade to 10.5, the most recent a G5 supports, if I had the 10.5 install disks, which I don't. So what's the best way to migrate the G5 to a MacPro? Is there any way to get OS 10.5 so I could do an upgrade, then migrate using Time Machine? Is there any other backup software that will let me move accounts without cloning the G5's hard drive or losing files or apps, as Time Machine does?

Mac Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10.2), null

Posted on Feb 1, 2016 1:50 PM

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Answer 1

Niel

Level 10

726,863 points

Feb 1, 2016 1:53 PM in response to jabaro

Use FireWire Target Disk mode and drag your files over manually. If the Mac Pro is running 10.7 or newer, it's unlikely that any of the applications from the G5 will be able to run on it unless upgraded.

(139070)

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Answer 2

jabaro Author

Level 1

19 points

Feb 1, 2016 2:00 PM in response to Niel

That sounds kind of messy. I'm not worried about apps, but emails, contacts, calendars, photos, preferences and other related files. These files are not all in one place, and finding and copying them all would not be easy or foolproof. That's what I want to avoid.

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Answer 3

Niel

Level 10

726,863 points

Feb 1, 2016 2:10 PM in response to jabaro

Drag-copy your home folder on the G5 to the Users folder on the Mac Pro, log into a different account on the Mac Pro, and swap the names of the original and copied home folder.

(139073)

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Answer 4

jabaro Author

Level 1

19 points

Feb 4, 2016 8:27 AM in response to Niel

I tried that, and the permissions are all screwed up. It won't import Mail messages because the Mail folder has read/write permission for the other account on the computer. That's as far as I got, but I assume calendars, address book, and others will have the same problem. Not to mention all the System Preferences are gone.

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Answer 5

jabaro Author

Level 1

19 points

Feb 4, 2016 8:51 AM in response to jabaro

I fixed permissions, and now Mail just hangs, doesn't ask to import messages, nothing.

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Answer 6

a brody

Level 10

82,941 points

Feb 4, 2016 8:16 PM in response to jabaro

Make sure your Mail and Mail Downloads folders found in your Users -> yourname -> Library folder are copied to the new machine's Desktop.

Then use Mail's Import Mailboxes to import Mac OS X Mail from the new Mail application directing to the Mail the Mail folder.

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Answer 7

kahjot

Level 4

2,462 points

Feb 7, 2016 8:18 AM in response to jabaro

What model Mac Pro do you have?

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Answer 8

jabaro Author

Level 1

19 points

Feb 7, 2016 8:44 AM in response to a brody

After more fiddling and multiple restarts, it appears that most everything has migrated successfully. The only thing, so far, that appears to have been lost are some, but not all, system preferences. I assume some were just not compatible. It worked, but it was definitely NOT as smooth a process as using Migration Assistant.

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