New Mac - Migration Assistant/User Account Problems

[cooper83]

I've written about my woes with my old iBook G4, but you'll be glad to know my new MacBook arrived today! Upon startup, I tried transferring my info using Setup Assistant via Firewire, which seemed simple enough, but it gave me the following error message (more or less):

Cannot transfer info. OS X not installed on other Mac. Press 'Continue' to try again

This is just not true. OS X is installed on the iBook. I tried several times to no avail. So I skipped that step and used Migration Assistant to do the transfer. Same error. I've read up on the Firewire Target Disk Mode, and as far as I know I don't need to update any firmware. But I don't think that's the issue, especially if it's saying that OS X isn't installed...

I successfully transferred all my info from my My Book external drive, but now I've run into another problem. I now have 2 separate user accounts under my name - one has all my info from the old iBook and the other is just fresh. Is there a way I can merge the 2 accounts? Or should I just delete my new account and keep the iBook account?

Sorry if it sounds confusing. The simple transfer process just didn't work out the way I was expecting, so I'm a little frustrated. Thanks!

 

[SthrnCmfrtr]

To be perfectly honest, I've never had anything having to do with connecting two Macs through Firewire work right. It's pretty irritating because usually, when I'm desperate enough to use Firewire for something, I really need it to work...

Did you upgrade the hard drive in the iBook by any chance? There might be something with the partitions that needs to be a certain way. Just a guess.

 

[cooper83]

Did you upgrade the hard drive in the iBook by any chance? There might be something with the partitions that needs to be a certain way. Just a guess.

No, haven't changed the hard drive. Haven't partitioned it. Only thing I've done is back it up to an external Firewire drive.

One more thing I should mention is that when starting/booting up the iBook, there is a OS9 Classic-looking icon...a blinking folder alternating with a question mark. Argh...

 

[overanalyzer]

This document says to make sure you have 10.1 or higher installed on the source computer (which I think you do, judging from your signature), and that the latest firmware is installed. I've never seen the Migration Assistant fail, though, in my various uses of it in several configurations and on multiple computers.

EDIT:

No, haven't changed the hard drive. Haven't partitioned it. Only thing I've done is back it up to an external Firewire drive.

One more thing I should mention is that when starting/booting up the iBook, there is a OS9 Classic-looking icon...a blinking folder alternating with a question mark. Argh...

Oh, well that doesn't sound very promising. Coincidentally bad timing with problems with the iBook?