Trouble migrating from old iMac

You probably need 10.5.8 and Migration Update on that OS version to do so.

I just had a similar problem yesterday.

I was trying to migrate my user account from my old computer (PowerMac g4, OS 10.4.11) to my brand new Mac Mini (10.8.2).

I had heard that version 10.8 of Migration Assistant wouldn't work with anything older than OS 10.5. I though I could get around that by cloning the partition that held my (old) OS to a backup drive, then connect that to the Mini, then migrate. Didn't work.

So -- won't work in "target disk mode", and won't even migrate from a separate hard drive.

My solution:
My backup drive also had a copy of OS 10.5 that I had been experimenting with (but was not my "main" boot drive, I just preferred 10.4).

So, I did this:
1. Booted from the backup drive running OS 10.5
2. "Migrated" my account from 10.4 (g4 internal drive) to 10.5 (backup drive)
3. Disconnected backup drive from g4 and took it to the Mini
4. Using Migration Assistant on the Mini, migrated my 10.5 account from the backup drive to 10.8.2 on the Mini.

I had to do the migration TWICE, and it took more time, but it worked.

You -will- need either an external drive with a bootable copy of 10.5 on it, or, you might be able to first update your existing Mac to 10.5, and then connect it via firewire target disk mode, or by ethernet. Hmm... the new iMacs dropped the firewire port (unless you have the Thunderbolt-to-firewire adapter), so, is migration via ethernet possible?

Hope this helps!

Arhoolie said:

Tell me if I have this right? Mountain Lion is not going to migrate anything older than 10.5?

Old Mac is a PowerPC and not an INtel so as far as I know I cannot upgrade it to 10.5.

So I'd need to get another drive and buy 10.5 to run on it and carry out two migrations?

Thats rubbish (not your advice but the situation)

Click to expand...

10.5 works on PowerPC based Macs. As for needing an external drive, I'm not sure it's necessary - it's just how the person did it. I think if you upgraded your system to 10.5.x it would work like you want it to.

Arhoolie said:

Thanks all.

An update with a new problem!

I got an external drive and backed up everything from Old Mac on it. I then found a copy of Leopard start-up disc to borrow from a friend to upgrade OLd Mac so New Mac's migration assistant would accept it.

When I put this in Old Mac's drive it takes a few goes to get it to mount. Much whirring and clicking and grinding. On the occasions it does mount and I try to install it restarts the computer and always spits out the disc during restart, before the install can proceed.

The disc is clean and undamaged. I presume its just because the drive is on its last legs really.

Anyone any thoughts on how I might get Old Mac to accept the upgrade disc?

Could I plug the external drive with my Old Mac back up on it into my New Mac, along with the Leopard start-up disc, and do anything clever with it?

BTW, my new superdrive does not work on the old Mac and I have no other dvd drives I can use to get the install onto Old Mac.

Click to expand...

Sucks for you but honestly, we are talking about 8 year old OS so its bound to be a bit hard.
The easiest would be to borrow external USB DVD drive from someone and install update from that, or use a PCwith DVD drive, create iso image - you can then mount the image file on your old mac for upgrade.

You might also try this: use time machine to create a backup to external hard drive - then use the Migration Assistant and see if it picks up the backup. My hunch is it will probably be the same problem, ie 10.4 backup wont be recognized.

I know its not ethical but man the easiest thing you can do is to grab off Leopard from torrent site and just mount the image to install the upgrade.

Arhoolie said:

Thanks all.

An update with a new problem!

I got an external drive and backed up everything from Old Mac on it. I then found a copy of Leopard start-up disc to borrow from a friend to upgrade OLd Mac so New Mac's migration assistant would accept it.

When I put this in Old Mac's drive it takes a few goes to get it to mount. Much whirring and clicking and grinding. On the occasions it does mount and I try to install it restarts the computer and always spits out the disc during restart, before the install can proceed.

The disc is clean and undamaged. I presume its just because the drive is on its last legs really.

Anyone any thoughts on how I might get Old Mac to accept the upgrade disc?

Could I plug the external drive with my Old Mac back up on it into my New Mac, along with the Leopard start-up disc, and do anything clever with it?

BTW, my new superdrive does not work on the old Mac and I have no other dvd drives I can use to get the install onto Old Mac.

Click to expand...

I am not 100% sure this works but you can put the disk in the imac or in the superdrive and share it over the ethernet, then boot the old mac by holding down the Option key, and see if the CD/DVD shows up as a networked CD/DVD, if so you can then proceed but it will be slow.

Edit: Or it might be possible to install from the iMac on the external drive, but then you need to select Apple Partition Map for it to work, GUID will NOT work.

Repair permissions on the disk in Disk Utilities, if this does not work you could try to redo the update, you manually have to download 10.5.8 from Apple's web site and Install, many times this will resolve problems