Migration and Dual Account Issues

[Bryan Bowler]

I've been up for 28 hours straight, so I hope this post is readable...

I just got a new MacBook a few days ago and have run into a frustrating problem. After powering her up, I downloaded all of the latest updates, upgraded to iLife 09 (it came in the box), and then I used Migration Assistant to transfer everything over from my iMac. This took approximately 4-5 hours to complete. When everything was done, I had two accounts: the one I created when the MacBook was turned on, and a second one that was a clone of the iMac that I had just migrated over. I had only wanted one account on my MacBook, but now there was two. I also didn't like the fact that the original account had iLife 09, but the cloned account had iLife 08.

An hour or two of searching on MacRumors and Apple's website did not turn up a definitive answer, so I deleted the original account and started renaming the cloned account in an attempt to give it a different name. I started having concerns that everything was going to line up properly (root names, etc) so I threw in the towel and am now in the middle of wiping the MacBook clean and reloading Leopard. (I'm also bummed that all of the time I've put into this is down the tubes)

Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can avoid this from happening again? My goal is to have one account and I want it to have a different name than my iMac.

Thanks for the help!
Bryan

 

[Bryan Bowler]

Anyone? I've wiped my MacBook clean and performed a fresh install. I'd really like to sort this out before investing another 3-4 hours migrating data.

Thanks!
Bryan

 

[jw2002]

How about this:

1. Wipe the macbook drive
2. Initiate a fresh install of leopard
3. Perform migration ****DURING**** install (actually after install when it asks you to set up the first account)
4. Then perform stand alone software updates/upgrades/installs. This should prevent ilife 08/09 collisions.

 

[Bryan Bowler]

That's what I was thinking too, but unfortunately, it won't work. New MacBooks are currently shipping with 10.5.5. This version has a bug that prevents the migration assistant from working with Tiger (which is what my iMac is running). The problem has been resolved in 10.5.6, so you have to get the software updates for the migration to work. And to get the updates, you have to establish the computer's name and user account. Frustrating, because I feels like I'm stuck in a Catch 22. However, I'm sure there's a way around it, and it's probably obvious, but I just can't seem to figure it out!

I appreciate the suggestion. Does anyone else have any ideas?

Bryan