Restoring old Leopard Time Machine Backup to new Lion iMac

[justASK]

I'm currently running Leopard (10.5.8) on a 2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo 24" iMac with 4GB RAM and have just backed it up with Time Machine.

I'm thinking of getting a new 27" iMac (which will naturally be running Lion), with 8GB RAM but a processing speed of 2.7 GHz.

Although it has a slower processing speed, I assume it will be faster, but wonder why???

More importantly, I'd like to know: Is it possible to hook up my Time Machine backup, taken from an old version of Leopard, onto this new iMac? Will my current system be completely restored? All the applications I currently run are Intel (and not PowerPC), so I believe they should transfer fine? Will I need to get new licenses for them? I'm quite happy running older versions of iLife/iWork so don't particularly want the new ones.

Any light shed on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Alan

 

[flopticalcube]

The new iMac will run faster because it does more per clock cycle then the old CPU. So even if it runs at a slightly lower clock speed, it will still be faster.

New iMacs can't run leopard. Use migration assistant instead. You probably won't need new licenses but check with the app vendors and ensure that they run on Lion.

 

[justASK]

Thanks - clockspeed - that's clearer.

I hadn't heard of migration assistant, but I've now looked into it and it looks good but am not sure if that will have the answer to my question... I don't want to run Leopard on my new mac, I want to restore my Time Machine backup (that I created on Leopard) on the new iMac which is running Lion... My question is whether the following would work when I boot up my new iMac:

If I just plug in the hard drive with my Time Machine backup on, use migration assistant, select 'Migrate from Time Machine' and then everything from my old iMac will be there - all my files, applications, system prefs etc...?

 

[flopticalcube]

Thanks - clockspeed - that's clearer.

I hadn't heard of migration assistant, but I've now looked into it and it looks good but am not sure if that will have the answer to my question... I don't want to run Leopard on my new mac, I want to restore my Time Machine backup (that I created on Leopard) on the new iMac which is running Lion... My question is whether the following would work when I boot up my new iMac:

If I just plug in the hard drive with my Time Machine backup on, use migration assistant, select 'Migrate from Time Machine' and then everything from my old iMac will be there - all my files, applications, system prefs etc...?

Yes. That should do it.

 

[robgendreau]

Thanks - clockspeed - that's clearer.

If I just plug in the hard drive with my Time Machine backup on, use migration assistant, select 'Migrate from Time Machine' and then everything from my old iMac will be there - all my files, applications, system prefs etc...?

An important caveat is that stuff that won't work on the new machine might NOT be brought over. Odds are that won't affect you much. But you should check to see if the applications you need run on Lion before you upgrade so you don't get any nasty surprises.

Rob