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gmh1004

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 26, 2008
18
0
Hello. I have a five year old iMac (the one that came out after the white one) and will be getting a new iMac when released. Here's the problem: My daughter is visiting from 3,000 miles away and would like to take the old iMac with her when she flies back in two days so I need to copy or clone my old hard drive (including software) so I can transfer to my new computer when it comes in (getting 27" model).

I went to best buy and bought Seagate Backup Plus for Mac but realized later that it just backs up data and not software. I have not yet opened the box.

Is there an easy way to do what I want for the technically challenged?

If I end up having to ship the old one to her if I cannot easily do what I've outlined, what is the best way to pack an iMac so it doesn't get damaged during shipping? I have never shipped or received a used computer before. I will call UPS in the morning and ask if they can box it up for me. If they can then no problem, but if they can't?

My old iMac runs Leopard.
 
Last edited:

spork183

macrumors 6502a
Jul 30, 2006
878
0
Hello. I have a five year old iMac (the one that came out after the white one) and will be getting a new iMac when released. Here's the problem: My daughter is visiting from 3,000 miles away and would like to take the old iMac with her when she flies back in two days so I need to copy or clone my old hard drive (including software) so I can transfer to my new computer when it comes in (getting 27" model).

I went to best buy and bought Seagate Backup Plus for Mac but realized later that it just backs up data and not software. I have not yet opened the box.

Is there an easy way to do what I want for the technically challenged?

If I end up having to ship the old one to her if I cannot easily do what I've outlined, what is the best way to pack an iMac so it doesn't get damaged during shipping? I have never shipped or received a used computer before. I will call UPS in the morning and ask if they can box it up for me. If they can then no problem, but if they can't?

My old iMac runs Leopard.

If you use CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper!, you can make a bootable clone of your imac drive using an external firewire drive. You should be able to use that as your import source to your new iMac. However, the new iMac won't be able to boot off it...
 

GGJstudios

macrumors Westmere
May 16, 2008
44,539
941
I went to best buy and bought Seagate Backup Plus for Mac but realized later that it just backs up data and not software. I have not yet opened the box.

Is there an easy way to do what I want for the technically challenged?
Carbon Copy Cloner 3.5.1 ($40) or 3.4.6 (free) will create a bootable clone of your drive that you can use to restore data, apps and OS X to another drive.
 

gmh1004

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 26, 2008
18
0
Thanks to both of my responders. Do I have to clone my OS using CCC or SuperDuper. Wouldn't that be a problem when I transferred to my new iMac with a newer OS?

Also, I got a USB external hard drive as I understood the new iMac will not have FireWire.
 

flynz4

macrumors 68040
Aug 9, 2009
3,242
126
Portland, OR
You can back up your data + software using Time Machine. Any USB drive will work for Time Machine. You will have to format it first using "Drive Utility" which is already on your iMac.

When you get your new iMac... it will have Mountain Lion pre-installed. At first boot... you can specify that you want to restore from a backup.

You may need to re-enter the license codes for some of your software applications.

Once your new Mac is restored... you can use the external USB drive to keep backing up your new iMac.

Personally... I would back up the old machine to two separate externals. Drives are cheap and my data is valuable. I never want my data on just one device. Not even temporarily.

/Jim
 

gmh1004

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 26, 2008
18
0
I appreciate all of your responses.

I'm watching a video now on CCC and then will research Time Machine. I know this should be easy.
 

dangerly

macrumors regular
Oct 27, 2009
151
5
European Dis-Union
Hello,
I migrated from my MBP to a iMac a couple of days ago, done using a Time Machine backup. Everything went smooth, only thing I had to reinstall were the drivers of a Samsung Laser all in one.
Everything else was just like it was on the old computer (settings, applications, documents, etc. etc.).
Time Machine works just fine.
 
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