Powerbook to Macbook best way to copy over data

[DerChef]

Hi folks

About to get a brand new black Macbook .

I have been reading in the forums including here about the best way to bring all your data over and am getting conflicting advice . I am leaning towards migration assistant as loads of users seem to have no issues at all with it.

Others put out dire warnings about incompatible plugins for mail and safari and the like.

My old powerbook is still in very good shape, boots quickly, always careful to remove detritus when uninstalling apps, and has no crashing applications or other errors. I keep as far as possible my apps and widgets updated to latest versions.

Only major PowerPC apps I have is MS office and Adobe Photoshop elements 4. I have no extra mail plugins and only fairly standard Safari ones like quicktime and flash.

So would you recommend me using migration assistant or trying copying relevant stuff over manually. I want to get up and running quickly but at the same time don't want to cripple my new machine some misbehaving process in the background.

Also I guess migration assistant is clever enough not to overwrite some system file the new iLife 06 needs with something from iLife 05 and the like.

 

[sailnavy]

Ronco

Use the Ronco Migration assistant... Set it and forget it. I've used it multiple times to go from PM G5 to intel, between PM G5's and between G5's and old iBook. It worked great every time. The old adage is still in play though... Back-up!!!

Personally, I'd back up the hard drive with Carbon Copy Cloner to an external, then copy it over from your book to the new machine via apple's built in utility. With the external safely disconnected and in a different room (perhaps wrap in aluminum foil, but that may be overkill), all your data will be safe, and you can let the software do the migration for you. It's worked like a charm for me.