Updating to new Macs

Question

Updating to new Macs

Hi

I'm trying to find the smoothest way to transition from our older G4 macs to new IMacs and maybe a Pro or two! In the past it has always been a struggle with having to reinstall old programs, fonts etc. I was just wondering whether or not there is a better way, or maybe I should just ask, "What is the correct way?" We are a Prepress department at a medium size commercial and digital print shop running Creative Suite, Suitcase, Quark, Freehand etc.

thanks

david

POWERBOOK G4, Mac OS X (10.4.8), 768Mb ram

Posted on Dec 11, 2006 8:19 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

rhwalker

Level 3

589 points

Dec 11, 2006 9:35 PM in response to ghtK3VHxiO9DalJklqHh

(1) the best way is simply to use the migration assistant that comes with the new computer. Hook the two computers together with an ethernet cable and transfer away.

(2) Note though that you probably do want to install new applications because the G4 apps probably aren't universal binaries.

(3) depending on how many you have to update, it might pay to do one, image the disk, use that.

(4) if you are going to do the image route, you might want to take this opportunity to manage the whole setup using radmind. That way, if something bad happens, you can easily tell, and you can use radmind to push the updates. The breakpoint between having radmind be efficient (it does take time to get the load images up and running) is somewhere between 5 and 10 systems. There are some cr**py apps that don't like being installed from an image.

Mike Bombich's site ( http://www.bombich.com/software/index.html) and AFP548
( http://www.afp548.com) have a good discussion of imaging, etc., techniques.

Russ

Xserve G5 2.0 GHz 2 GB RAM Mac OS X (10.4.8) Apple Hardware RAID, ATTO UL4D, Exabyte VXA-2 1x10 1u

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Answer 2

Gulliver

Level 7

25,720 points

Dec 12, 2006 1:35 AM in response to ghtK3VHxiO9DalJklqHh

Hi David,

first of all: WELCOME TO THE DISCUSSIONS!

You hit a weak point! Using the migration assistant to migrate user data and applications from PowerPC-based Macs to Intel-based Macs can be troublesome: Intel-based Mac: Some migrated applications may need to be updated.

There were quite a few reports on this forum where users report major problems after the migration and had to reinstall. The migration assistant seems to be very reliable when used between Macs with the same processor type but also seems to cause lots of problems when moving from PPC to Intel. Therefore I suggest you do the migration manually without the migration assistant.

If this answered your question please consider granting some stars: Why reward points?

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Answer 3

Dec 12, 2006 1:12 PM in response to ghtK3VHxiO9DalJklqHh

Thanks for your help guys. I might try 1 machine using the migration assistant and see how well it works. Based on the result I will determine whether to use that route or just go back to reinstalling apps one at a time.

thanks for your advice

DJH

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