Need help moving folders from one mac to another

[leviathan74]

me and my lass are having difficulties moving folders from her old G4 to a new IMAC. photos saved in i photo we can simply put onto the camera sd card and then transfer but as I broke the cd burner on the G4 which I am constantly being reminded of at the moment How do you move folders from one mac to another as they contain pohotos our lass has had for a few years now.

I have no knowledge of computers as it took me two days to find the button to open the CD draw on my own new computer so any answers would need to be simplistic. I think you can just put them on a memory stick or load them onto the SD card of the camera. But how?

And considering I broke the burner on the other MAC our lass isnt that keen on me touching these folders as she doesnt want to lose the phtos.

Any help would be most welcome...

Thanks.

 

[DavieBoy]

I think all you want to do is use a firewire cable to attach the two computers, then hold T down when you turn on the older g4. Its HD will mount like an external HD on the new computer and u can drag and drop whatever u want.

 

[spinnerlys]

You can use the Migration Assistant to move files and folders and users via LAN or Firewire from one Mac to another.
Or you can use Target Disk Mode to start the older Mac as external HDD and connect it via Firewire to the new Mac and drag the files and folders off the G4.

MacOS X 10.5, 10.6: How to use Migration Assistant to transfer files from another Mac

Pro Tip of the Week: Move All Your Stuff to a New Mac — Quick​

Migration Assistant - Use Migration Assistant to Copy Data from a Previous OS​

6 easy steps to migrate your Mac using Time Machine​

Target Disk Mode​

 

[leviathan74]

OK I am sorry for asking.

But what is a fire wire cable? I have googled it and seen male 4,6,8 pin ones how do I know which one I will need?

If I have got this right.

We switch on the IMAC. connect it up to the G4 and the IMAC has a migration assistant inside it which will drag the folders from the G4.

Will it leave a copy of them on the old G4 in case anythings goes wrong?

 

[spinnerlys]

You need a Firewire 6-pin to 9-pin cable:

The 6-pin side (metallic, with black border at the end, five sides) goes into the G4 Mac, the 9-pin side (black plastic, four sides) goes into the new Mac. To start the G4 into Target Disk Mode, hold down the T key immediately after startup until you see the following appear on the G4's display:

There is also some information inside the links I provided if you want to know more.

And migrating data from one Mac to the other will not delete data on the old Mac, it will make a copy, thus leaving the original data where it is.

 

[exaybachay]

mac's freezing

all was very clear, I followed the steps, unfortunately when I activate Migration Assistant in my MacBook Pro the computer freezes when it comes to choose the firewire transfer option. I tried several times, and it's the same outcome.
It appears that I need to upgrade my Fireware in the laptop from which I want the files to be transferred, which is a IBook G4. Does anyone confirm this? If yes, how do I upgrade this? Thanks

 

[spinnerlys]

all was very clear, I followed the steps, unfortunately when I activate Migration Assistant in my MacBook Pro the computer freezes when it comes to choose the firewire transfer option. I tried several times, and it's the same outcome.
It appears that I need to upgrade my Fireware in the laptop from which I want the files to be transferred, which is a IBook G4. Does anyone confirm this? If yes, how do I upgrade this? Thanks

There is no need and no way to upgrade the Firewire 400 port and chip on the logic board of the iBook G4. Does the iBook even start in Target Disk Mode?

If not, if the iBook does still boot up, you can just connect both Macs via Ethernet and migrate that way.

 

[exaybachay]

Well, yes, at the start up of the Ibook I press T and it goes directly into TDM showing the yellow Y sign of firewire port. I can see it as an external HD in my Pro but still Pro freezes when I get to that point in Migration assistant.
I know I could drag apps and files and move them manually but I was looking for a more efficient way to do so. Via Ethernet it seems a bit complicate, I would prefer to use the firewire port. What could be the problem, then? thanks again.

 

[spinnerlys]

What Mac OS X version does that iBook run and what exact iBook model is it?

Btw, if you have access to an external HDD, that uses the Mac OS Extended (HFS+) format (or which you can format to that file system), you can clone the iBook's HDD onto that HDD and use that HDD in Migration Assistant.
Use either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper to do the cloning.

 

[exaybachay]

The Ibook is a 10.4.11 Tiger, I use to back up the HDD in an external drive with Carbon c. cloner, not sure if it uses the HFC+ format as you say, actually do not know wat is it but it does save all the HDD in the external HDD. I can try and see if this avoids the freezing when using MA. Will report later as know I have to go, thanks!

BTw: what if I use CCC to update the Pro transferring from the HDD backup?

 

[spinnerlys]

The Ibook is a 10.4.11 Tiger, I use to back up the HDD in an external drive with Carbon c. cloner, not sure if it uses the HFC+ format as you say, actually do not know wat is it but it does save all the HDD in the external HDD. I can try and see if this avoids the freezing when using MA. Will report later as know I have to go, thanks!

FAT32

• Read/Write FAT32 from both native Windows and native Mac OS X.
• No individual file larger than 4GB.

NTFS

• Read/Write NTFS from native Windows.
• Read only NTFS from native Mac OS X
• To Read/Write NTFS from Leopard: Install MacFUSEand NTFS-3G. You can install both with NTFS-3Gfor Mac OS X.
• To Read/Write NTFS from Snow Leopard: Guide: Enable native NTFS Read/Write in Snow Leopard
• (Be aware that some are of the opinion that enabling native NTFS in SL is unstable/unreliable, and favor the MacFuse/NTFS-3G method for Snow Leopard)

HFS

• Read/Write HFS from native Mac OS X
• To Read/Write HFS from Windows, Install MacDrive
• To Read HFS (but not Write) from Windows, Install HFSExplorer

As CCC worked with the external HDD, the external HDD will use HFS+ (Mac OS Extended).

BTw: what if I use CCC to update the Pro transferring from the HDD backup?

Please don't do that, except if you just clone the Home directory (Macintosh HD / Users / YOU) to the Users folder on the MBP, otherwise you will not be able to use the MBP, as it has newer software (Mac OS X and all the shebang) and driver for its hardware than the iBook's OS and drivers.