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MBP on the way .. now how to transfer from ancient powerbook G4

R

rols

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 18, 2008
546
281
Well my macbook pro penryn has finally shipped out of Shanghai, and as that's real close to Singapore, the next two days will have it in my hands.

So I need to transfer my user from my current powerbook g4 (which I will sadly miss) to the new mac. I wondered whether going from PowerPC to Intel what the best way to go is.

Should I totally trust the migration assistant, even though I know I have things on the powerbook which aren't intel, or should I take an opportunity to build a new machine, pulling in my documents and downloads folders, and then redownloading things I actually use and setting them up from scratch? Does anyone know the options which Migration Assistant gives you (ie basic information, all document, all applications, ... etc), or is it just all or none.

For mail I have everything on IMAP, I think I want to just set up a new account and re-import everything. That sound right?

I need to deauthorize iTunes from this machine, I'm up to 4 in the house already.

My temptation is to build from scratch and lose 4 years of cruft, however I'm sure I've also customized things in the past (like AFP mounts) which I no longer quite remember what they were.
 
OllyW

OllyW

Moderator
Staff member
Oct 11, 2005
17,196
6,799
The Black Country, England
From the Leopard set-up manual.....

Transferring Information From Another Mac or Volume

The setup assistant can help you transfer information from another Mac OS X computer
or volume to your new Mac OS X system. If you choose to transfer information, you will
be asked to select which items you want transferred. You can transfer user accounts,
network and other settings, applications, and files and folders. Some transferred
applications may not work and will have to be reinstalled.
Note:
You don’t have to transfer information during installation. You can use Migration
Assistant, a utility installed with Mac OS X Leopard, to transfer applications, files, and
folders from another computer or volume at any time.
Click to expand...
 
Batt

Batt

macrumors 65816
Dec 17, 2007
1,234
4
Syracuse, NY
Clear the crap from the Powerbook first, then use Setup Asst., which is easier than Migration Asst. Migration Asst. insists you create a new user acct., Setup Asst. keeps the same name.
 
D

djellison

macrumors 68020
Feb 2, 2007
2,229
4
Pasadena CA
Personally, I would advice NOT using any of the assistant and instead create a new account on the new machine, and transfer things over manually. Just going from an MB to an MBP, the migration assistant left my machine unstable and slow. A clean install and a manual copy across - things were fine.

Doug
 
xeux

xeux

macrumors regular
Jul 19, 2007
185
73
Phoenix, AZ
Coming from a PPC machine.... Save yourself the headache and start from scratch. Not worth tracking down PPC processes etc....
 
Batt

Batt

macrumors 65816
Dec 17, 2007
1,234
4
Syracuse, NY
djellison said:
Personally, I would advice NOT using any of the assistant and instead create a new account on the new machine, and transfer things over manually. Just going from an MB to an MBP, the migration assistant left my machine unstable and slow. A clean install and a manual copy across - things were fine.

Doug
Click to expand...

brandonshough said:
Coming from a PPC machine.... Save yourself the headache and start from scratch. Not worth tracking down PPC processes etc....
Click to expand...

Well, I had no such issues. Used Setup Asst. and transferred from a G4 iBook to an Intel MBP with absolutely no problems whatsoever.
 
P

Pees330

macrumors 6502
May 26, 2006
310
0
Las Vegas, NV
I used the migration assistant after I reinstalled Leopard to clear out the extra languages and drivers. I used it before I loaded up the machine, so it would just use the same username, etc. I loaded everything except for the applications because I also came from a PPC. I connected with firewire for the transfer.
 
OllyW

OllyW

Moderator
Staff member
Oct 11, 2005
17,196
6,799
The Black Country, England
Pees330 said:
I used the migration assistant after I reinstalled Leopard to clear out the extra languages and drivers. I used it before I loaded up the machine, so it would just use the same username, etc. I loaded everything except for the applications because I also came from a PPC. I connected with firewire for the transfer.
Click to expand...

That's exactly the way I did it when I went from PPC to Intel.
 
G

gpeden

macrumors regular
Nov 24, 2007
115
1
Hi,

I used migration assistant to go from my MDD G4/10.3.9 to a PBP/Tiger and it worked great, right down to the position of files on the desktop. Good thing I spent several hours organizing things first :) So far, I've only needed to enter a couple of passwords.

Cheers!

Glen
 
P

PowerBookRelic

macrumors 6502
Mar 7, 2008
263
0
If I were to migrate to a new computer, what would happen with my iTunes? I am originally inclined to just copy files from my external HDD; however, I have a silly request. In iTunes it keeps track of the number of times that I played each song, if I were to drag the files from a HDD, it would only import the song fresh. If I use migration assistnat, would information, such as, the play count in iTunes be maintained? Also, where do I find things, such as, in Mail, it will quickfind email addresses that I have received mail from, above and beyond those in my address book:apple::apple:
 
WardC

WardC

macrumors 68030
Oct 17, 2007
2,727
215
Fort Worth, TX
Yes -- echoes of above: You are dealing with a transfer from a PPC Mac to an intel Mac, thus the pre-installed Apps and System on the new Mac (intel) are all new, native apps, while your G4 has PPC-only apps. Migration assistant would result in a massive headache, and a system with lots of problems. You would end up with a bunch of non-native apps, and possibly parts of your system that will not even run on your Intel Mac.

I will give you 5 good options for transfer:

1) Burn everything to CDRs from your G4 that you want to transfer
2) Same as above, using DVD-R if you can
3) Setup a simple Ethernet Network and transfer w/ File Sharing
4) Transfer computer - computer over Airport (if you have wireless on both)
5) Use a FireWire cable and setup 1 machine in HD mount mode, use one machine's drive as a mountable disk over FireWire
 
Batt

Batt

macrumors 65816
Dec 17, 2007
1,234
4
Syracuse, NY
I used Setup Assistant to migrate a PPC iBook G4 to an Intel MBP with absolutely no issues. Everything came over intact, and everything runs just fine.
 
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