Mac Pro and Migration Assistant Advice please

[James_C]

I am waiting for my Mac Pro to ship and I want to transfer my user accounts , applications and files from my existing G5 Powermac. I used the Migration assistant to move my files from my then G4 Powermac to my current G5 Powermac without any problems. I have a mixture of Universal, Power PC and some classic applications (mainly some old games for my children) on the G5. Now that the Mac Pro has been out in the wild for a while now hopefully people have some experience using the assistant.

I am aware that the classic apps will no longer be supported on the Mac Pro, I have some 400GB of files and programs on the G5 and it would be a pain to have to reinstall everything from scratch, but I have read a couple of reports with people with problems using the assistant.

What experience have people had from using the assistant ?

 

[MacsAttack]

I am waiting for my Mac Pro to ship and I want to transfer my user accounts , applications and files from my existing G5 Powermac. I used the Migration assistant to move my files from my then G4 Powermac to my current G5 Powermac without any problems. I have a mixture of Universal, Power PC and some classic applications (mainly some old games for my children) on the G5. Now that the Mac Pro has been out in the wild for a while now hopefully people have some experience using the assistant.

I am aware that the classic apps will no longer be supported on the Mac Pro, I have some 400GB of files and programs on the G5 and it would be a pain to have to reinstall everything from scratch, but I have read a couple of reports with people with problems using the assistant.

What experience have people had from using the assistant ?

1. Do not create a user account with the same name as one you are going to import. The migration assistant will prompt you to give the imported one a unique name. Just create a dummy account when you first boot the machine and zap it later.

2. I did not import applications. Your preferences still get pulled accross so when you install the software again you are good to go.

3. Two minor problems I encountered was that Excel and Imageready would not run until I nuked the prefs for them.

Remember to deacivate things like iTunes or other software (like CS2) before shifting to the new machine.

 

[James_C]

MacsAttack thanks for your comments - anyone else used the migration tool ?

 

[YS2003]

Remember to deacivate things like iTunes or other software (like CS2) before shifting to the new machine.

If you don't do this, then, I assume the software does not work. Or, does it?

I've been a skeptic on Migration Assistant because of the potential data mix up or permission errors. Does it really work properly as it is advertised by Apple?

 

[Schroedinger]

I used the migration assistant off of my G4. I actually ran it the second I unpacked the Mac Pro, so I didn't run it before the transfer. Not surprisingly, it took ages (and by ages I mean hours). Of course that depends on how much stuff you have.

It ran fine, and I had no problems. I pulled over applications and everything. Then, just to be sure, I used the recovery disks to restore the original software (without erasing anything.) I did this just in case I had pulled over a PPC app that had been replaced with a Universal Binary.

She's running without any problems.

Let me know if you have any more questions.

 

[MacsAttack]

If you don't do this, then, I assume the software does not work. Or, does it?

I've been a skeptic on Migration Assistant because of the potential data mix up or permission errors. Does it really work properly as it is advertised by Apple?

If you have any purchase iTunes content (I have five audio books), then they can only be played back on 5 registered computers. So when you are done with a machine you deactivate it so that ten years from now you find they don't play on the 64 core Mac Mini (the latest in a long line of Apple computers toy have bought) then you don't get a nasty mesage telling you that five machines are allready using that file (thanks to the FairPlay DRM).

CS2 allows two machines to be registered (but not used at the same time), so you can put the software on a PC and a laptop, or your work machine and home machine. After two the software will not work until one of the others is deactivated.

Aside from having to blast the pref for Inageready to get it to run (real useful error message when it fails - NOT). Everything else has so far worked fine.

 

[crees!]

If you have any purchase iTunes content (I have five audio books), then they can only be played back on 5 registered computers. So when you are done with a machine you deactivate it so that ten years from now you find they don't play on the 64 core Mac Mini (the latest in a long line of Apple computers toy have bought) then you don't get a nasty mesage telling you that five machines are allready using that file (thanks to the FairPlay DRM).

Ah yes. But you're allowed once a year to deactivate all machines so you get your 5 authorizations back to do with that you please