Transferring data and apps from old to new machine

[C Fitzgerald]

New member here, sorry if I made a thread about something that's been covered a million times, but my search turned up nothing. I've been using an old G4 iLamp model for years, and it's been wonderful. Today it wouldn't start up, and the repair guys told me that the power supply and logic board were shot. Doing the quick math, the cost of repair got me more than halfway to a much better machine, so I'll probably get a new iMac.

When I do, how do I get my information from the backup drive (LaCie using Quicksilver that backs up everything every night) onto the new machine? What about all of the software that is registered to the old machine serial #? Do I have to reregister it all? Is it as simple as plugging the backup drive up to the new machine and dragging and dropping literally everything on it onto the new hard drive?

Any tips or links to info on this process would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Buzz Bumble]

I don't know about QuickSilver backups, so I'm not sure how you will get your backed-up documents from there. You could ask the technicians to remove the hard drive from the dead G4 iMac and then you can put it inside an external hard drive case and plug it into the new iMac's USB or FireWire port, and then simply drag your documents across.

For the applications, you're best to re-install them from the original CDs. You shouldn't need to re-register anything (obviously you'll need the original serial numbers).

The exception could be retail Adobe software that uses a silly authorisation system (you're meant to de-authorise the software on the old computer and then authroise the new computer, but obviously it is impossible when the old computer is dead or stolen!) - luckily you are allowed two installs (usually it's meant to be one desktop and one laptop) before it starts complaining and you have to try arguing your way through Adobe's "help"desk.

Depending what version of the Mac OS you were using on the G4, some of the software and old hardware may not work on the new iMac (anything requiring "Classic" definitely won't work) and you may have to upgrade those to newer versions as well.

 

[C Fitzgerald]

Thanks, Buzz. The G4 was running Leopard and doing just fine. What I was worrying about about was the applications like "Transcribe" and "Transmit", etc. - things I bought and downloaded online that I don't have hard copies of the serial # info for. Do you typically have trouble with issues like this when switching from machine to machine? Also, are there things that work on leopard but not snow leopard? Thanks in advance.

 

[angelwatt]

Migration Assistant (alt). Not sure about needing to re-register apps, but the one I do have registered transferred without hassle using Migration Assistant.

 

[Buzz Bumble]

The downloaded applications might be a problem since you don't have a record of the serial number. (If they emailed it to you, then you might be able to retrieve it from the backup, or the original computer's hard drive using an external case). If you're still using the same email address, then the companies might have a record of your original registration and can re-send the serial number.

There are almost always problems when upgrading operating systems and/or computers with some things no longer working. Some people have complained about older printers no longer working in Snow Leopard, but it would depend on how "old" the printer is as to whether or not the company releases updated driver software for it. Some problems will be fixed by downloading free patches / updates, while other might require upgrading to a newer version. Of course, you may have no problems at all - it's simply a case of luck with whatever extras you've got installed or plugged into your computer.