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Getting ready for my iMac

M

Mbzamg32

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 21, 2013
13
0
So im awaiting delivery of my iMac 27 3.2ghz 8gb of ram 1tb FD GTX 680MX. It will be replacing a mid 2007 iMac.

I want to transfer some data from this to the new one. only some, maybe like a couple documents from Pages,15 catalogs from lightroom4 and my iTunes. I dont want to transfer everything as I want to start fresh and dont want to bring all the clutter. Is Migration Assistant capable of this? if so how? I thought it just automatically transfers everything. i want to create new users and not migrate all the user data from the '07. What is the best way to do all this?

And i bought the 16gb kit from Crucial. Can i just install this as soon as the iMac comes?

Thanks for all your input! Cant wait for it to get here!!!
 
Mbzamg32 said:
So im awaiting delivery of my iMac 27 3.2ghz 8gb of ram 1tb FD GTX 680MX. It will be replacing a mid 2007 iMac.

I want to transfer some data from this to the new one. only some, maybe like a couple documents from Pages,15 catalogs from lightroom4 and my iTunes. I dont want to transfer everything as I want to start fresh and dont want to bring all the clutter. Is Migration Assistant capable of this? if so how? I thought it just automatically transfers everything. i want to create new users and not migrate all the user data from the '07. What is the best way to do all this?

And i bought the 16gb kit from Crucial. Can i just install this as soon as the iMac comes?

Thanks for all your input! Cant wait for it to get here!!!
Click to expand...

Migration Assistant is an all or nothing situation, in other words if you choose to migrate data it will migrate all of your data files. If you only want to migrate some specific files then put them on an external HD and drag them to the new machine. I would strongly recommend you carefully read Pondini's guide on Setup Assistant available at: http://pondini.org/OSX/SetupLion.html
 
Could i do this with iTunes also? I see that itunes has different folders does all of them need to be in the ext. hdd? And i heard if i do it this way theres a risk that i may not get all files associated with a certain file. If i drag a folder into the ext. and drop them on the new mac.
 
I'm in the process of setting up a new iMac now. My strategy was to use an external hard drive to copy my complete music folder, documents folder, movies folder and pictures folder from my 2009 Mac Mini. I then plugged the hard drive into the new iMac and in Finder, selected each category, and in the hard drive, opened the folder to show the contents and hit "select all" and then copy. I then pasted everything into the new iMac's categories. This way I have all my pictures, my documents, my iTunes library, my other music, my movies in the iMac.... I haven't yet opened iTunes in the new machine -- that's tomorrow's project -- but in looking at the other categories and folders, everything is there just as it is in my Mac Mini. No fuss, no muss, and no migrating of old stuff that might cause problems or corruption of files and folders.

It takes a while to set up a machine from scratch, admittedly, but to me it's worth it to spend that time rather than just feeding everything right from one machine to the other. My Mac Mini, for instance, has been through three generations of OS X: Snow Leopard, Lion, and now Mountain Lion. There is undoubtedly a bunch of excess garbage kicking around in it that I really don't need to be putting into the brand-new iMac. This is a strategy that I've used since my Windows days and it has always paid off.

It's kind of fun, too, setting up a new machine and poking through all the settings and tweaking them again, etc. The royal pain comes in with setting up email accounts, though, especially if there are one or two that are domain-related rather than standard ISPs. Even this can be conquered, though, it just takes a little patience!

Before I did anything I went through my software applications and saw what I needed to download again (either free or paid software) and what I could live without, especially something that had been on the Mac Mini for a long time and rarely used. I use iCloud and that certainly is a time-saver when it comes to bookmarks, contacts, etc., all being synced and ready to roll. Just needed to put in my user name and password again on some forums such as this one and I was back in business. I remember years ago having a lengthy "cheat sheet" of all my various bookmarks so that when I got a new computer I had the listing of their URLs in order to find them again and set them up in the new machine. iCloud is so handy when it comes to this kind of thing!

So, yes, it's certainly possible to set up a new machine fresh and clean, simply use an external hard drive to copy over folders and files that you want -- aside from that, you really need to have a good backup mechanism anyway, right? That's the other purpose of an external drive.
 
Clix Pix said:
I'm in the process of setting up a new iMac now. My strategy was to use an external hard drive to copy my complete music folder, documents folder, movies folder and pictures folder from my 2009 Mac Mini. I then plugged the hard drive into the new iMac and in Finder, selected each category, and in the hard drive, opened the folder to show the contents and hit "select all" and then copy. I then pasted everything into the new iMac's categories. This way I have all my pictures, my documents, my iTunes library, my other music, my movies in the iMac.... I haven't yet opened iTunes in the new machine -- that's tomorrow's project -- but in looking at the other categories and folders, everything is there just as it is in my Mac Mini. No fuss, no muss, and no migrating of old stuff that might cause problems or corruption of files and folders.
Click to expand...

Can i use a flash drive for this? I have a 32gb flash drive. I only have 3 Pages documents, 15 catalogs in LR4 about 5,000 pics and my iTunes. Im still trying to save and decide on what ext. HDD to get waiting for Caldigit's T1.

When you say pasted everything in iMacs categories what do you mean?

For iTunes i see there's a lot of diff. folders...do i just copy the folder named itunes? and if I transfer this to the new iMac when I open iTunes will all my music be automatically be in there?

Thanks!!!
 
I purchased and used a 2 TB external hard drive because I wanted it not only for transferring purposes but also later backup purposes. I also had a lot of material to transfer from one machine to the other and a flash drive wouldn't have worked for me. That's not to say it wouldn't work for someone who has just a few files and folders to shift over.....

As for my process:

First, copied my entire pictures folder, music folder, movies folder, documents folder from the old Mac Mini to the external hard drive.

Then I plugged the external hard drive into the new iMac and copied over all of the material I'd just copied. Since there were already categories -- folders -- set up in the new machine for pictures, music, movies and documents, I simply clicked on each category in the new machine's Finder and then clicked on the appropriate matching one in the external drive, but I opened the folder in the external drive and actually hit "select all" (which then captured all of the folders/subfolders within that category) then hit "copy" in order to then have the contents ready to move over to the new machine. I could have done things somewhat differently but so far I am seeing that this has worked. Tomorrow will tell the tale when I open iTunes in the new machine for the first time..... I should be able to open it, authorize the new machine in it, and then have all of my movies, music, etc., plus playlists, in it just the way they are in my Mac Mini. This is why I captured the entire music folder rather than just the iTunes folder..... At this point I am not sure about how syncing my iPad and iPhone will work out, but if all the same content is there anyway, that should not be too much of an issue.
 
Clix Pix said:
I purchased and used a 2 TB external hard drive because I wanted it not only for transferring purposes but also later backup purposes. I also had a lot of material to transfer from one machine to the other and a flash drive wouldn't have worked for me. That's not to say it wouldn't work for someone who has just a few files and folders to shift over.....

As for my process:

First, copied my entire pictures folder, music folder, movies folder, documents folder from the old Mac Mini to the external hard drive.

Then I plugged the external hard drive into the new iMac and copied over all of the material I'd just copied. Since there were already categories -- folders -- set up in the new machine for pictures, music, movies and documents, I simply clicked on each category in the new machine's Finder and then clicked on the appropriate matching one in the external drive, but I opened the folder in the external drive and actually hit "select all" (which then captured all of the folders/subfolders within that category) then hit "copy" in order to then have the contents ready to move over to the new machine. I could have done things somewhat differently but so far I am seeing that this has worked. Tomorrow will tell the tale when I open iTunes in the new machine for the first time..... I should be able to open it, authorize the new machine in it, and then have all of my movies, music, etc., plus playlists, in it just the way they are in my Mac Mini. This is why I captured the entire music folder rather than just the iTunes folder..... At this point I am not sure about how syncing my iPad and iPhone will work out, but if all the same content is there anyway, that should not be too much of an issue.
Click to expand...

What kind of ext. did you get? I just purchased a Caldigit AV Pro 2tb. Do I need to format the drive before I copy the files I'm going to move to the new iMac? And how would I go about formatting?

I want to use the ext. for Carbon Copy Cloner and store my iTunes and photos. Planning to partition with 1tb for CCC and 1tb for iTunes and photos. Do you think I should do this first then copy the old files to the ext. drive then move them to the new iMac? That way I can just leave the iTunes and photos in the ext. drive.

So when you set up the iMac you just skipped the part where you are asked if you want to move files/data right?

BTW how did your iTunes go? Did it transfer smoothly... No problems?

Thanks for all your help!
 
I bought a G-Drive external drive, which is already formatted for the Mac platform. Most external HDs are formatted for Windows, but the package will tell you. I haven't formate a drive in a long time but you go into disk utility and format it in there.

Air Drop is new to me, haven't tried it out yet, but it is only available on the newer Macs and Lion or Mountain Lion. Probably you won't have it on a 2007 Mac.

Yes, in setting up the new iMac I skipped the part where I was asked about transferring from another machine and went through the process of establishing it as a new machine. After I had things up and running with iCloud and such, I then connected the external drive and added the documents, photos, movies, music.....

iTunes works just fine! I opened the program, authorized the iMac and was ready to play music and watch videos. I also went back into the Mac Mini and pulled the iPhone and iPad backup files from the library and copied those to the new machine, too. Haven't synced any of my devices yet on the iMac, been busy with other stuff.
 
My iMac arrived yestarday and it is made in Irland. Im pleased with that. Airdrop is copy files from one mac with another with wifi connection.
 
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