Target Disk Mode from Time Machine External Drive?

[icibaqu]

Hey everyone,

I have a 20" G5 iMac that I want to sell (interested*?) in order to buy a new Intel iMac. I would rather have cash from the sale in hand before buying the Intel version, but would really like the benefit of a Target Disk Mode transfer.

I also have a 1TB external drive connected to Time Machine. Can I either A) connect the External to a new Intel Mac and have it repopulate the new HD with all the info from the G5, a la Target Disk Mode (sort of as if my drive had failed and I had put in a new hard drive) or B) Somehow create a disk image on the external drive that I could use just as easily as Target Disk Mode? or C) Some other, much simpler suggestion that I haven't thought of?

Thanks for all advice. I appreciate it.


* if you are interested in a 20" G5 iMac, mine is from May 2005, has a 250 gb drive, 2.0 GHz, 1.5 GB of RAM, would come with a clean install of Leopard and iWork '08, and is generally in excellent condition. You can PM me.

 

[BlueRevolution]

Target disk mode only applies to internal drives, but yes, Migration Assistant will allow you to restore from a Time Machine partition. Normally I'd suggest using Carbon Copy Cloner to make a cloned copy of your internal drive, but you wouldn't be able to simply clone back because your new computer would be using a different processor architecture (Intel vs. PowerPC).

 

[icibaqu]

thanks for the response. will migration assistant go so far as to restore backgrounds, safari bookmarks, file placement as would be the case with TDM?

Also, I have two user accounts (well 3 if you count the admin) on the computer. Does anyone know if Time Machine backs up only within the user that's logged in at that moment?

 

[BlueRevolution]

thanks for the response. will migration assistant go so far as to restore backgrounds, safari bookmarks, file placement as would be the case with TDM?

Yes.

Also, I have two user accounts (well 3 if you count the admin) on the computer. Does anyone know if Time Machine backs up only within the user that's logged in at that moment?

No, it backs up the entire system.

 

[icibaqu]

thank you. very helpful.