Copying a hard drive

[johnbro23]

I have two computers - an eMac and a MacBook Pro. The eMac hard drive had to be erased, and the software reinstalled. So all my applications, music, photos, ect. are wiped out. I'm wondering if its possible to copy everything (i.e. completely mirror the drive) on my MacBook Pro hard drive to my eMac hard drive?

 

[overanalyzer]

You should be able to do this by using the Migration Assistant, no? Although I'm wondering if the OS versions might be an issue. What OS is the eMac running?

 

[johnbro23]

The eMac runs on Panther, which does not have Migration Assistant. Do you think that app is compatible, say if I just email it to myself for use on my eMac?

 

[TimJim]

Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper.

 

[crees!]

Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper.

Does the eMac have the specs to run the OS (I'm assuming Leopard is on the Macbook Pro)?

 

[overanalyzer]

Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper.

I don't think you actually want to clone the drive with CCC or SuperDuper. You don't want the system files etc. since you're running different OS versions and I'm assuming the MBP might be an Intel, so you don't actually need to duplicate the drive, just copy the files you need.

Does the eMac have the specs to run the OS (I'm assuming Leopard is on the Macbook Pro)?

The eMac runs on Panther, which does not have Migration Assistant. Do you think that app is compatible, say if I just email it to myself for use on my eMac?

Tiger and Leopard both have Migration assistant. Can the eMac run either (guessing no way on Leopard)? If so and you can upgrade, that might make life easier.

I doubt the assistant will run just by copying it to the eMac. And based on the Migration Assistant FAQ (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25773) you can't perform the copy from the MBP to the eMac:

Can I use the Assistant to copy data to a computer that came with an earlier version of Mac OS X?

No, this version of the Assistant only works with the computer it came with. However, you can copy data from a dizzying array of older computers if they have a FireWire port and Mac OS X 10.1 or later. Make sure the older computer's firmware is up-to-date.

To transfer data to a different computer, you can use something besides the Assistant. For example, you could use .Mac iDisk or Backup, or a network connection such as Ethernet or AirPort. You could even burn files to a CD or DVD on one computer, then copy them from the disc to the other computer.

I'm thinking your best bet might be to mount the eMac as a FireWire drive in Target Disk Mode and manually copy everything over.

 

[johnbro23]

I've finally gotten around to really trying this. I think I can boot up the eMac as a firewire drive, and simply copy all of the stuff in "Mac" under "Devices" in the Finder on my MacBook Pro to the eMac HD. Will this work? This seems a little too simple...