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help with moving from Mac to.. Mac?

Demon

Demon

macrumors regular
Original poster
Hi.

I'm wondering if anyone knows what the best way to move from OS X to a new computer with OS X. So that all my music, files, apps, mail, bookmarks, passwords, videos etc... will follow me to the new computer.

is there a way? with 3rd party software? thanks a lot!
 
Re: help with moving from Mac to.. Mac?

Originally posted by Demon
what is the best way to move from OS X to a new computer with OS X.
So that all my music, files, apps, mail, bookmarks, passwords, videos etc... will follow me to the new computer.
is there a way? with 3rd party software?
Click to expand...
Demon, you don't need 3rd party software. You have a Mac. You do need one standard FireWire400 cable.
By the way, when you ask stuff like this, it helps if you disclose what the two Macs are, there are limitations to consider, and what level of OS X each is running. All OS X Macs are not equal, hardware or software wise.
Also, where are you? You have not put anything in your Profile that discloses who or what you are, not required, but not helpful either. We don't like to guess, otherwise mistakes are made.

Are you familiar with the procedure of turning an OS X Mac into an "external FireWire drive" that appears on the desktop of another FireWire connecte OS X Mac?
HOLD the T-key down on the "old" Mac upon STARTUP, and you will see a solid color screen with a yellow icon floating around (FireWire symbol) and now you can Drag & Drop all you old files, and User files onto your new Mac.

Try to put Apple system data in the right folder so OS X (Jaguar, Panther, what?) recognizes it on a restart of the New Mac. When you are satisfied that everything that you want has been transferred, you can turn loose of or destroy info on the Old Mac. If in doubt, back up the Library & Document files for the Stystem and for you the User on CD, DVD, or on the new Hard Drive.

Anything else?
What's your AIM name? Do you have iChatAV, iSight?
 

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One thing MacRand forgot, and I'm sure I'm right here although I have never had to do it, when you have finished transfering you need to 'eject' the old mac that is pretending to be a firewire drive. You can do this by dragging the icon on your new mac into the trash. I'm right there arn't I guys?

If you don't do this and just pull the cable out, I am sure you can damage one or both machines.

Just thought I would mention it!

Marc
 
Originally posted by marccarter
One thing MacRand forgot ...when you have finished transfering you need to 'eject' the old mac that is pretending to be a firewire drive. You can do this by dragging the icon on your new mac into the trash. I'm right there arn't I guys?
If you don't do this and just pull the cable out, I am sure you can damage one or both machines.
Click to expand...
MarcCarter, I forgot something else -
Demon, be sure to run Software Update on each machine first, before you do anything on either.
Check and make real sure that you have the very latest versions of Panther 10.3.2 running on each, including Apple Apps. Then, run
Disk Permissions to clean up any "permissions" problems.

Marc is correct about dragging the Disc's Icon for the FireWire drive created by the T-Key (I think "T" stands for Transfer using FireWire) into the trash to "Eject" it properly, just like any "external, removable drive". I should have remembered to tell Demon.
Old Mac = Slave; restart holding down "T"-key
NewMac = Master - with the Old (slaves) Hard Drives appearing on New Mac's desktop. You should see "Macintosh HD" and all other Hard Drives from the Old machine.

To keep from confusing yourself over two different "Macintosh HD" icons, I suggest you colorize the drives on the New Mac by clicking on its HD icon while holding down the control (ctrl) key - this brings up the Color Label menu, so click on a color for that icons text. Hopefully, the Old Mac's drives will have NO Color Label.

MarcCarter had the need down right, just backwards, you want to be looking at the desktop of the New Mac and the Disk from the Old Mac is the one you turn into a FireWire transfer drive, so it's the OLD Mac's icon that you're dragging to the trash location to "Eject", not the new.

Thanks, MarcCarter for watching my back.

BTW, can anyone help Demon with the things to move and where to put them besides the whole Microsoft User Data file along with the entire Document's folder, in his Named User's folder. Also look at transferring the Library file folder too. Help!
 
No problem MacRand. Actually, I said the icon ON the NEW MAC, not the NEW MAC icon, but didn't make it very clear. And I think 'T' satands for Target, as in Target Disk mode. 🙂

As for what files to transfer, I would like to know too, as I will need to tranfer all the stuff on this PB to a new one. I take it it is easier to install the software properly to the new Mac rather than just copy files? Can you easily copy your selected preferences across?

Then it is just a case of files, which shouldnt be too bad.

Marc
 
theres a program called carbon copy cloner on version tracker that will make a image of you home fold with all its prefs.

you might look into that as well
 
I'd go with virivdox. I use Carbon Copy Cloner every week to back up my stuff. Its great. Easy and no hassles. Also, it will just be like moving you HDD to the new computer. All your prefs and everything personal to you will be saved.
 
Hey just out of curiosity, why do people use FW over ethernet when ethernet is more convenient? (though I don't know the speeds..)
 
mmmdreg said:
Hey just out of curiosity, why do people use FW over ethernet when ethernet is more convenient? (though I don't know the speeds..)
Click to expand...

Speeds

Ethernet 10Mbit/s
Ethernet 100Mbit/s
Ethernet 1Gbit/s

Firewire 400Mbit/s
Firewire 800Mbit/s

All new Macs have all the listed Ethernet speeds above. Most of them have the new Firewire 800. Most people use the firewire option for one of two reasons. Either they already have a 6pin-6pin Firwire cable or it's because of convenience. When you use Target disk mode it's like accessing an external hard drive. There's no setup up or sharing prefs or anything the drive just pops up on your desktop and you go. After my recent experience of toasting a powerbook drive using Target disk mode I will never use it again at least not with a Firewire400 cable. There are a several problems with the Firewire 400 format from the hardware to the software end that doesn't lend itself to reliability when using Target disk mode. I think Firewire 800 is a lot safer. Something else you get with Target disk that you don't with sharing is guaranteed correct file permissions. Anything you copy onto your master computer using Target disk mode will contain all the privileges correct for you on that computer. With file sharing from my experience there is no guarantee of this. If you have to use a Firewire 400 cable for file swapping though I highly recommend you go the file sharing route and use Firewire over IP. This is much safer as it can't affect the boot blocks of the target drive in anyway unlike Target disk mode.
 
Thanks MacRand!

Thank you for your help.
i never knew that my Mac could be a firewire drive, that's great!
sorry for not replying... had major problems logging on for the last two days.

thanks for the clone suggestion as well, seems like that's pretty easy to do!
 
You don't want to clone your entire system. Just in case you were going to. Each OS installation is specific for the hardware it's installed on so you be sure to clone only your data and applications. Also start with fresh pref files only copy over the ones that would take too much to re-setup.
 
Demon said:
i never knew that my Mac could be a firewire drive, that's great!
sorry for not replying... had major problems logging on for the last two days.
Click to expand...
You're welcome. Everybody was "locked out" for the last couple of days while MacRumors' Administrator ARN worked on seriously upgrading the system. We have about 30,000 members and you were not alone in getting frustrated when your "password" was repeatedly rejected. It wasn't just you, it was everybody.

Forget who said it, but someone was right - the "T" doesn't stand for transfer (as I mislead you to believe), it stands for Target Drive - turning a whole Mac into a firewire Target Drive, a slave to another OS X Mac. Works great doesn't it? My eyes bugged out when an Apple Tech showed me how to do it over a year ago; it's so simple. Now it's your turn to pass the info on...
Don't forget to "EJECT" the Target FIREWIRE Drive or drives when you are done, and never pull the cable when something is going on in your Target Drive.
😎
 
MacRAND said:
You're welcome. Everybody was "locked out" for the last couple of days while MacRumors' Administrator ARN worked on seriously upgrading the system. We have about 30,000 members and you were not alone in getting frustrated when your "password" was repeatedly rejected. It wasn't just you, it was everybody.

Forget who said it, but someone was right - the "T" doesn't stand for transfer (as I mislead you to believe), it stands for Target Drive - turning a whole Mac into a firewire Target Drive, a slave to another OS X Mac. Works great doesn't it? My eyes bugged out when an Apple Tech showed me how to do it over a year ago; it's so simple. Now it's your turn to pass the info on...
Don't forget to "EJECT" the Target FIREWIRE Drive or drives when you are done, and never pull the cable when something is going on in your Target Drive.
😎
Click to expand...

I'm just really wary about this now because with 10.3 if you have an even slightly questionable cable or connection it could lead to problems. It toasted the hard drive in our Al15. Firewire over IP or Ethernet file sharing is much safer no chance of hardware corruption.
 
Thanks MacRand and MACbandit!

pass on the information?
of course! there must be so much OS X has that i am missing out on.
in the past year, i've bought... 8 Macs. only one of which is for myself.
i've turned 7 windows users into "believers" so i have to trouble shoot for these people quite often. thanks for your help guys, i'll be sure to ask you for pointers next time!

Nick.. 😀
 
Demon said:
pass on the information?
of course! there must be so much OS X has that i am missing out on.
in the past year, i've bought... 8 Macs. only one of which is for myself.
i've turned 7 windows users into "believers" so i have to trouble shoot for these people quite often. thanks for your help guys, i'll be sure to ask you for pointers next time!

Nick.. 😀
Click to expand...

As always I'm always happy to help out.
 
I just got my Powerbook back from Apple. They weren't able to salvage my data so I had to transfer everything over to it again.

I got a run of Cat5e cable and connected them that way. It was very simple using Appletalk. The Cat5e allows you to connect at Gigabit Ethernet speeds as long as both your computers support it. That's faster then Firewire800 not that the drive will go that fast. The little Powerbook maxed out at 20MB/s write speeds as seen by the Menumeters transfer rate.
 
Apple talk.

hmm. speaking of Apple talk... how DO you appletalk these days with OS X? there's no "Chooser" anymore, so where can i find Appletalk?
do i go to "connect to server"? in that case, it's not too difficult, but i'll need to turn Appletalk on in the System Preference? i rememeber seeing that in there somewhere. the only way i transfer files is through connect to server... to my old Windows PC. or through iChat... Rendezvous. now... i know you can use the Firewire. but i totally forgot about Appletalk. how how? thanks again!! 😕
 
Demon said:
hmm. speaking of Apple talk... how DO you appletalk these days with OS X? there's no "Chooser" anymore, so where can i find Appletalk?
do i go to "connect to server"? in that case, it's not too difficult, but i'll need to turn Appletalk on in the System Preference? i rememeber seeing that in there somewhere. the only way i transfer files is through connect to server... to my old Windows PC. or through iChat... Rendezvous. now... i know you can use the Firewire. but i totally forgot about Appletalk. how how? thanks again!! 😕
Click to expand...

To turn on Appletalk you need to go to your network prefpane and open up the connection type you are going to use for Appletalk then click on the Appletalk tab and turn it on from there.

Then go to the sharing prefpane and turn on Personal File Sharing.

After that I sometimes find it helpful to restart or logout and back in to get it all setup. Otherwise sometimes it takes a while for things to be recognized for some reason. From there you go to the network in the Go menu in the finder.

If you need to Network from a Mac to a PC or vice versa here is a helpful link.

http://joelshoemaker.com/computer/mac/wxpfs.html
 
Oh damn, this is very helpful! thanks! i tried it out, never realized appletalk was moved over there. thanks! 😀
 
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