2nd identical Mac arriving, can I duplicate my current system drive?

[hazza]

Hi there

I have a new Mac Pro Nehalem 2.26 8-core about to arrive (got a deal), and I am considering the massive task ahead of installing everything. I want it to run exactly the same stuff as my current machine, which is precisely the same config.

I am wondering if cloning my current drive is an option? Problems I guess I would encounter are:

- reauthorizing of all software
- network name / ID will need to be changed to avoid conflicts on network
- services like MobileMe will have to be setup afresh to avoid confusion

So in essence I guess it would operate perfectly in isolation (after reauthorizing), but it's the networking aspect that will cause problems. Is it possible / easy to fix these, and is there anything else I have missed that I need to be aware of?

Or is this a bad idea and I should install from scratch?

Many thanks
Harry

 

[Schtumple]

If you clone the entire hard drive from one system to the next, you should've run into any authorisation issues.

 

[Mal]

After doing the clone, boot from the new machine without it connected to the network, then go to System Preferences -> Sharing and change the name at the top. It would change it automatically if you don't, but it'll just append a (2) to the end, so if you do it manually you can just set it to whatever you want quickly without any risk of complications.

It's a minor issue though, so if you don't do this you won't affect the usage of either machine.

jW

 

[brucem91]

What about running the migration wizard from one computer to another, either through target-disk mode or TimeMachine to external? The only program I can think of that authorizes based on hardware ID is any autodesk program, which uses the ethernet card to identify your system.

 

[hazza]

Yes I have got software that definitely uses the Ethernet card in the authorisation process. Easy to reauthorise. Very pleased to hear the network name can be changed easily. So once that's done MobileMe will see it as a new machine? Is that all there is to it?

 

[hazza]

Actually I do run Tinemachine, so is there any reason to use that as the backup source instead?

 

[Schtumple]

Actually I do run Tinemachine, so is there any reason to use that as the backup source instead?

Time Machine takes absolutely ages, took me almost 4 hours to have TM install everything.