Restoring and migrating

V

vonprond

macrumors newbie

Original poster

• Apr 1, 2008

• #1

I have 4 Macs of different configurations. One of these is a 2007 Mac Mini, Intel. For various boring reasons, the system has become unusable, and I want to restore it. BUT: it came with Tiger, and subsequently I installed Leopard. And in any case, what I really want to do is to give it all the content and identity of another of my Macs, an iMac (2008). Can I achieve this via Migration Assistant, or does that still leave me with the messed up current system installation...? All assistance appreciated!

 

M

mackindergarten

macrumors 6502

• Apr 1, 2008

• #2

Hi,

I guess you want to have all your data from the iMac on the Mini. Not clone the drive of the iMac onto the Mini.

So, connect the Mac to the Mini via a firewire cable.
Startup the iMac, holding down the "T" key. This will startup the Mac in Target Disk mode. This means the iMac will show up as external Firewire disk on the Mini, allowing you to use it via Migration assistant.

Hope this is helpful.
/Rupert

 

V

vonprond

macrumors newbie

Original poster

• Apr 1, 2008

• #3

Thanks, Rupert - but I knew that! In fact, what I *do* want to do is clone the iMac on to the Mini - and want to erase all the existing Mini settings in the process. What I was wondering is whether if I do that the Mini will still survive in the system and system settings, in which case my problems will continue.

Thanks!

Ferdinand

 

M

mackindergarten

macrumors 6502

• Apr 1, 2008

• #4

Hi,

if you clone the iMac onto the Mini everything which was on the Mini will be gone and it will have the exact same content as the iMac drive.

I'm not sure however, how the Mini would react, as you boot it up. I guess it will be OK, once I cloned the hard drive of my Powerbook and booted from it on a G5 and it went alright, so I guess it will do it.

You can try it out first; try booting the Mini from the iMac (which has to be in Target Disk mode) that should work and you can see if it produces any hiccups.

/Rupert

 

V

vonprond

macrumors newbie

Original poster

• Apr 2, 2008

• #5

Thanks again, Rupert - my real question is: *how* do I clone it? If I use 'Migration Assistant', doesn't that just add the iMac to the existing system, or does it delete it - I need to 'get rid' of everything on the Mini... Thanks again!

 

M

mackindergarten

macrumors 6502

• Apr 2, 2008

• #6

Hi,

we're getting there.
To clone the content of your iMac onto the Mini do like this:

Startup the Mini in Target Disk mode, connected to the iMac.
On the iMac go to Disk Utility (/Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility.app).
Go to the Restore tab.
Drag the iMac hard disk to Source and the Mini (ie the firewire disk) to Destination.
Check Erase destination
Click Restore.

This will clone the iMac hard disk onto the Mini and everything that was on the Mini will be whipped out.

Hope this answers your questions. Good luck.
/Rupert