Finally Upgrading to Intel, Practical Tips, Advice?

[Heb1228]

So I finally ordered a 17" MBP to replace my faithful 17" Powerbook. It should be here next week. I'm just looking for some practical tips from you guys who have done this before. A couple areas stand out:

1. A year of Time Machine Backups - Are they basically no good and I'm going to have to start over again?

2. Is Migration Assistant the best way to transfer Mail settings, messages, etc... Calendar, Address Book?

3. I know PPC macs will boot only firewire drives, will Intel boot either Firewire or USB or USB only? I ask because I use SuperDuper to clone in addition to Time Machine backups. (I know they need to be GUID vs. Apple Partition Map.)

Any other issues that stand out that will be helpful to know when this thing arrives?

 

[mcbane666]

!) timemachine is to recover lost date, if the install doesn't fail you haven't lost any data. not much need for the data on the time machine after that. you can use a different drive if you really feel you need to keep the old backups.

2) yes if your not a mobilme member.

3) they will boot from both firewire usb, and SD

PS watch out, these things are super fast, like the rest of the old power users that switch, your going to wonder why you kept that slow thing.

 

[eawmp1]

I found my upgrade from PPC was a great time to spring clean. I did a fresh install of system software, set up the computer the way I wanted, then I manually moved over stuff I really wanted (using the old computer in disk mode) Years of hidden/forgotten stuff left behind. It was a PITA, but I feel squeaky clean.

 

[Heb1228]

!) timemachine is to recover lost date, if the install doesn't fail you haven't lost any data. not much need for the data on the time machine after that. you can use a different drive if you really feel you need to keep the old backups.

I think you're missing the point of generational backups. If I realize today that I overwrote/deleted a file 6 months back, I can still go back and retrieve it.