|
|
Yojimbo 1.5 from Bare Bones Software: Your effortless, reliable
information organizer for Mac OS X. It will change your life,
without changing the way you work. Download the demo or buy it
today! <http://www.barebones.com/products/yojimbo/>
|
![[F]](/Images/i7/site.gif) TidBITS  TidBITS TidBITS Talk
Moving my e-life to a new machine![[Rubinstein, Ben]](/webx/?30@@1) Ben Rubinstein - 12:30pm Feb 16, 2005 PSTI'm waiting for a new PowerBook to be delivered, my first in several years. And now I'm wondering what to do when it arrives. This is the first time I've moved machines since I upgraded my current TiBook to OS X. In the past, in classic days, I knew what to do: I basically just dumped everything except the System Folder from the new machine, copied over everything from the old machine (my disk size was invariably being upgraded at the same time), and then worked my way through the two system folders, moving all the third party extensions and preferences into the new system folder, trashing all the Apple items from the old folder, generally ending up with a little rump of the System Folder that I would keep around for while (probably until the next machine upgrade) just in case I needed anything in it. But doing the same thing between two OS X machines seems more daunting to me (and there doesn't seem to be a Take Control book about this yet!). I feel very unsure about what things have gone where over the last few years of installing software, setting preferences etc. I wish I was one of the clever road warriors who keep everything somewhere on the net, and can pick up or lose generic hardware any time they like - but I'm not, I keep my entire e-life (well backed up) on one machine at a time. And in the old days my apps all lived on a bookshelf, on floppies or CD-ROM; now most of them have been downloaded at some point or other, and have no physical instantiation. Two possible strategies occur: 1) use Software Update on both machines to get them up both to the same OS version; and then just use CarbonCopyCloner or similar to replicate old to new, then cross fingers and hope the new hardware didn't need anything in the system that wasn' installed on the old. This seems deeply dodgy, unless anyone tells me otherwise. 2) or, a variant of my old technique. I think this latter means that I would:
- name the new hard disk like the old, to keep paths consistent
- create user accounts on the new to match those on the old
- mount the old machine over firewire in target disk mode, and move all the contents of 'Users' over
- move 'Applications (Mac OS 9)' over
- work through old and new 'Applications' folders, attempting to merge them [I think you could just copy the contents of the old Applications into the new one, choosing not to replace things with the same names. -Adam] Is this on the right lines? What kind of things am I going to miss by this approach - things in those interesting top level folders like /private, /usr, /bin? Suggestions, pointers etc gratefully received! [We've gotten lots of requests for doing this as an ebook, but since my Take Control of Buying a Mac ebook hasn't set any sales records, it didn't seem that Take Control of Moving to a New Mac would do much better. However, I'm thinking that once I finish my iPhoto 5 VQS, I'll do a major upgrade to TCo Buying a Mac that would incorporate this kind of information. Perhaps I'd even rename it to Take Control of a New Mac. :-) -Adam] Ben Rubinstein | Email: benr  cogapp.com
Cognitive Applications Ltd | Phone: +44 (0)1273-821600
http://www.cogapp.com | Fax : +44 (0)1273-728866
Jeff Porten (apparently)
-
Feb 16, 2005 2:57 pm
(#2 Total: 21)
|
 |
|
|
|
| Posts: 342 |
Re: Moving my e-life to a new machine
On Feb 16, 2005, at 2:30 PM, Ben Rubinstein wrote:
> 1) use Software Update on both machines to get them up both to the
> same OS version; and then just use CarbonCopyCloner or similar to
> replicate old to new, then cross fingers and hope the new hardware
> didn't need anything in the system that wasn' installed on the old.
> This seems deeply dodgy, unless anyone tells me otherwise.
I would do something along those lines. Here's my procedure:
1) make sure there's nothing on the new Mac you want to keep. Ever
since I nuked 200 megs of shipping MP3s that were NOT on the install
DVDs (copyright issues, apparently), this has been a religious thing
for me.
2) mount the new PB in Firewire target disk mode.
3) clone old system to new (after upgrading old system to suitably
recent OS)
4) boot new system. If this step fails, you haven't lost anything and
can rethink the approach.
Best,
Jeff
|
|
 | |
Nigel Stanger (apparently)
-
Feb 16, 2005 2:57 pm
(#3 Total: 21)
|
|
|
|
via email - Dunedin, New Zealand |
|
|
 |
| Posts: 422 |
Re: Moving my e-life to a new machine
On 17/2/2005 8:30 AM, "Ben Rubinstein" <benr_ml cogapp.com> spake thus:
> Two possible strategies occur:
Actually, neither of these strategies is necessary any more, thanks to the
new "Migration Assistant" in Panther. The first time you boot up a new
machine, it asks you if you have an existing machine that you would like to
copy stuff from. You boot the old machine up in FireWire Target Mode, plug
it in to the new machine, and click "yes". It then asks what you would like
to copy (applications, users, etc.). Check the stuff you want, set it going
and go for coffee. Some time later (how long depends on the amount of data
--- it took me about half an hour for about 6--7 GB worth) your new machine
will be basically identical to the old machine, apart from the OS version.
I've done this twice now, and the experience is almost flawless. In fact, it
probably is flawless if you only use GUI-based software. Mine was a little
more involved because I use a lot of command-line stuff. The assistant does
copy across any Fink installation that you have (which surprised me), but
doesn't copy across either the Developer Tools or your X11 installation
(which also surprised me :) Any additional Unix software installed in
/usr/local will also not be copied. Fortunately, these three are relatively
easy to fix --- installers for the first two items are easy to get, and the
last item is simply a matter of copying the correct files across.
My experience has been that you can do a total migration and be up and
running with almost exactly the same environment as before within 2--3
hours. It used to be more like a week in the Bad Old Days (I used to use a
procedure very much like yours). My second migration did take a bit longer,
but that was because the technical people screwed up and registered the
wrong Ethernet address, resulting in no network for five days :( Nothing to
do with the migration assistant.
Happy migrating :)
--
Nigel Stanger, < http://www.business.otago.ac.nz/infosci/>
Dept. of Information Science, < http://public.xdi.org/=nigel.stanger>
University of Otago, Dunedin, NEW ZEALAND. +64-3-479-8179
|
|
| |
Curtis Wilcox (apparently)
-
Feb 16, 2005 3:39 pm
(#4 Total: 21)
|
|
|
|
|
| Posts: 354 |
Re: Moving my e-life to a new machine
Does Migration Assistant copy application components not in /Applications/
like kernel extensions and StartupItems?
/System/Library/Extensions/
/System/Library/StartupItems/
/Library/StartupItems/ (does not exist by default but is honored by OS)
|
|
| |
jwblist (apparently)
-
Feb 17, 2005 7:37 am
(#5 Total: 21)
|
|
|
|
|
| Posts: 768 |
Re: Moving my e-life to a new machine
On 2/16/2005 13:57, "Jeff Porten" <civitan jeffporten.com> wrote:
> 1) make sure there's nothing on the new Mac you want to keep. Ever
> since I nuked 200 megs of shipping MP3s that were NOT on the install
> DVDs (copyright issues, apparently), this has been a religious thing
> for me.
I was careful about that when I rebuilt my new dual 533 G4 (having read in
one or more Mac sites that the iTunes sampler was not on the CDs). But then
I had to throw most of the tunes anyhow (modern screechy stuff). Hint: I
muted the TV when Apple's U2 iTunes ad was on, and I deliberately tuned in 5
minutes late to last season's Monday Night Football.
--John
|
|
| |
Nigel Stanger (apparently)
-
Feb 17, 2005 7:37 am
(#6 Total: 21)
|
|
|
|
via email - Dunedin, New Zealand |
|
|
|
| Posts: 422 |
Re: Moving my e-life to a new machine
On 17/2/2005 11:39 AM, "Wilcox, Curtis" <cwilcox esm.rochester.edu> spake
thus:
> Does Migration Assistant copy application components not in /Applications/
> like kernel extensions and StartupItems?
>
> /System/Library/Extensions/
Don't know, I don't have any :), or at least none that I'm aware of. I
suspect probably not, given it's within the /System hierarchy. Plus there's
also the possibility that the systems on the two machines are not identical,
so copying kernel extensions from one to the other isn't necessarily a
sensible thing to do anyway. This almost certainly falls into the category
of "unusual circumstances". The simplest and safest solution is probably to
reinstall the items that require those extensions. Compared to the process
that we used to have to go through to switch machines, this isn't
particularly onerous (at least, I hope not :)
> /System/Library/StartupItems/
Don't know, but again probably not. In my case I haven't touched any of the
startup items in /System at all.
> /Library/StartupItems/ (does not exist by default but is honored by OS)
Yes. I was very pleased when booting up the G5 the first time to see it
start up PostgreSQL, Apache 2 and VNC.
What it seems to boil down to is that the migrator will copy anything that
falls into the category of "normal user space" (i.e., things that a normal
user would have and be normally expected to modify). That's why I was
somewhat surprised to see it copy over my Fink installation. From experience
so far, things that fall outside normal user space include the /System
hierarchy (probably), /usr/local, /usr/X11R6 and the Developer Tools. All of
these are things that most average users would not have or not normally
modify, so I think Apple has done a pretty good job in this respect.
--
Nigel Stanger, < http://www.business.otago.ac.nz/infosci/>
Dept. of Information Science, < http://public.xdi.org/=nigel.stanger>
University of Otago, Dunedin, NEW ZEALAND. +64-3-479-8179
|
|
| |
Jeff Avery
-
Feb 17, 2005 7:37 am
(#7 Total: 21)
|
|
|
|
 |
| Posts: 8 |
Re: Moving my e-life to a new machine
Isn't it a problem, though, that you get to use FireWire Target Mode only the first time you boot and yet you likely don't own a FireWire cable?
It sounds like a great feature but would be better if there was a FireWire cable included in the package.
Or am I missing something?
.....Jeff
|
|
| |
Lewis Butler (apparently)
-
Feb 17, 2005 7:37 am
(#8 Total: 21)
|
|
|
|
|
| Posts: 989 |
Re: Moving my e-life to a new machine
On 16 Feb 2005, at 14:57 :01, Nigel Stanger wrote:
> On 17/2/2005 8:30 AM, "Ben Rubinstein" <benr_ml cogapp.com> spake thus:
>> Two possible strategies occur:
> Actually, neither of these strategies is necessary any more, thanks to
> the new "Migration Assistant" in Panther.
This will not copy System Preference Panes that were installed system
wide, nor any 3rd party drivers you may have, nor the frameworks that
some apps require. Not unless this Migration Tool has gotten a lot
better recently. Hopefully it has, you mention that it copied your
fink installs is promising. Is it correctly copying things out of
/Library/?
|
|
| |
Lewis Butler (apparently)
-
Feb 17, 2005 7:37 am
(#9 Total: 21)
|
|
|
|
|
| Posts: 989 |
Re: Moving my e-life to a new machine
On 16 Feb 2005, at 12:30 :35, Ben Rubinstein wrote:
> 1) use Software Update on both machines to get them up both to the
> same OS version; and then just use CarbonCopyCloner or similar to
> replicate old to new, then cross fingers and hope the new hardware
> didn't need anything in the system that wasn' installed on the old.
> This seems deeply dodgy, unless anyone tells me otherwise.
Unless you are buying a brand new model this is almost certainly the
way to go. And even if you were buying a mini, there's been an OS
update since its release (10.3.8) so you're fine. Makes sure the old
machine is up to snuff, hook up the new machine in Firewire Target
Mode, and CCC (Or ASR) to it.
> Is this on the right lines? What kind of things am I going to miss by
> this approach - things in those interesting top level folders like
> /private, /usr, /bin?
All of those directories should be identical on both machines. if you
are a CLI monkey, you will want to cp -rp /usr/local to catch anything
you've installed like ncftp, LaTeX, etc.
> Suggestions, pointers etc gratefully received!
I would go the CCC route in target mode, myself, if I wanted duplicate
systems. I do have a iBook and a desktop machine and the iBook doesn't
have all the apps and extras my desktop machines does. iDVD, iMovie
for example, or World Book, Encyclopedia Britanica, &c.
|
|
| |
Nigel Stanger (apparently)
-
Feb 17, 2005 7:37 am
(#10 Total: 21)
|
|
|
|
via email - Dunedin, New Zealand |
|
|
|
| Posts: 422 |
Re: Moving my e-life to a new machine
On 17/2/2005 4:41 PM, "Google Kreme" <gkreme gmail.com> spake thus:
> Is it correctly copying things out of /Library/?
It got all my Preference Panes and Startup Items. Don't know about other
things.
--
Nigel Stanger, Dunedin, NEW ZEALAND.
http://public.xdi.org/=nigel.stanger
|
|
| |
Curtis Wilcox (apparently)
-
Feb 17, 2005 12:03 pm
(#11 Total: 21)
|
|
|
|
|
| Posts: 354 |
Re: Moving my e-life to a new machine
Isn't it a problem, though, that you get to use FireWire Target Mode only
the first time you boot and yet you likely don't own a FireWire
cable?
I'm
not sure what you mean by "only the first time you boot." You can use a Mac in
Target Mode whenever. If you're referring to only being able to use the
Migration Assistant on first boot of the new computer, my guess is that's not
the case. New Mac owners, care to report on whether you can use the Assistant
later?
It sounds like a great
feature but would be better if there was a FireWire cable included in the
package.
Or am I missing something?
A 3' FireWire cable is about $3.50 retail. Even if Apple could get them
in quantity for, say, $2 each, that's still a significant additional cost for
each new Mac and one that, realistically, won't be used by many, probably the
majority. The Assistant program sounds great and is an excellent
experience-improving tool but I don't think the number of people buying a new
Mac to replace one already running OS X has reached the point where including
extra hardware in the box is warranted. A good sales person (or web site) will
suggest the purchase of the cable along with a new Mac and briefly explain
what it's good for.
|
|
| |
Ben Rubinstein (apparently)
-
Feb 18, 2005 12:54 pm
(#12 Total: 21)
|
|
|
|
|
| Posts: 11 |
Re: Moving my e-life to a new machine
Thanks to everyone who replied. The PowerBook arrived, the Migration
Assistant indeed was offered, and worked great (at least as far as I've
found so far. Seems to have got my all my preferences, startup items etc -
only thing I've spotted missing is MySQL from /usr/local, as Nigel and Matt
predicted. Also no 200MB of iTunes sampler - dunno if they're not shipping
that anymore, or whether the migration assistant trashed it for me when it
saw I already had some iTunes music.)
Took perhaps 3 hours (for 60GB) - completely painless, and *almost* got me
straight up and running again. A real boon, and the first thing that's made
me praise Apple in ages. Nice to know that they're not concentrating all
their effort on 'switchers'!
Sadly, this warm glow was pretty thoroughly dissipated by the *almost*; the
ten minutes which it took me (after the Migration Assistant finished) to get
past the registration screen: although I'd selected UK in the initial setup
screen before getting to the Migration Assistant, although it had correctly
imported my settings for the registration screen from the old machine, it
now decided that it didn't like some of those old details; now I had to have
a US state, and a US phone number. (Aren't people in the US who don't have
a phone allowed to own PowerBooks?). It was also very picky about my lies -
hence the 10 minutes and loss of glow by the time I was finally allowed to
use my excellently set up new machine (without, naturally, registering,
since it didn't have a connection anyway). Bah humbug, as we say here in
the not-US.
Still, when I let that (unconnected) item go, this is a really nice feature:
big props to Apple for it.
Ben Rubinstein | Email: benr cogapp.com
Cognitive Applications Ltd | Phone: +44 (0)1273-821600
http://www.cogapp.com | Fax : +44 (0)1273-728866
|
|
| |
Jeff Porten (apparently)
-
Feb 21, 2005 11:44 am
(#13 Total: 21)
|
|
|
|
|
| Posts: 342 |
Re: Moving my e-life to a new machine
On Feb 18, 2005, at 2:54 PM, BenRubinstein wrote:
> Sadly, this warm glow was pretty thoroughly dissipated by the *almost*; the
> ten minutes which it took me (after the Migration Assistant finished)
> to get past the registration screen
There's no UI to tell you this, but you can quit out of that with
Command-Q. After that, there's someplace where you delete the
registration alias that launches it on startup, can't remember where.
Best,
Jeff
|
|
| |
kevinv (apparently)
-
Feb 21, 2005 11:44 am
(#14 Total: 21)
|
|
|
|
|
| Posts: 1344 |
Re: Moving my e-life to a new machine
> I'm not sure what you mean by "only the first time you boot."
> You can use a Mac in Target Mode whenever. If you're referring to only
> being able to use the Migration Assistant on first boot of the new
> computer, my guess is that's not the case. New Mac owners, care to
> report on whether you can use the Assistant later?
I can try on my new mini when I get back home but it will be several
days before
that occurs.
> It sounds like a great feature but would be better if there was a
> FireWire cable included in the package.
> Or am I missing something?
If you're wanting to migrate using firewire then you already own a first mac
with firewire. If you own a mac with firewire you probably have a firewire
cable already. And if you don't, then when buying a second mac the migration
question have crossed your mind already.
The only time this would be an issue is if you own a mac already, don't
own any
firewire devices, and don't know about the firewire migration method until
you've turned your new mac on. I'm not sure this justifies including a cable
with every mac. Maybe some sort of Mac migration kit would include one. Not
sure what else it would include though.
My migratation from PowerBook to mini required purchase of an external 2.5"
firewire case to mount the drive from the PB into. The PB motherboard
was shot
so target mode wasn't an option.
Additionally I only bring data files over. I prefer re-installing
applications
to migrating them. I can check for lastest bug fixes, wean out old apps I no
longer use, etc.... Yes setting preferences back can be a pain, but it does
remind me of what preferences are available and I can experiment with new
settings.
|
|
| |
baltwo (apparently)
-
Feb 21, 2005 11:44 am
(#15 Total: 21)
|
|
|
|
|
| Posts: 31 |
Re: Moving my e-life to a new machine
On 02/17/05, Jeff Avery [mailto:jeffz8user yahoo.ca] wrote:
Isn't it a problem, though, that you get to use FireWire Target Mode only
the first time you boot and yet you likely don't own a FireWire cable?
According to < http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25773>:
I transferred a bunch of data, and it worked like a charm. Now I want to
transfer more data from my older computer. Can I?
Sure, just open Setup Assistant! You can transfer anything except
FileVault-protected accounts, as discussed above.
|
|
| |
Ben Rubinstein (apparently)
-
Feb 21, 2005 11:44 am
(#16 Total: 21)
|
|
|
|
|
| Posts: 11 |
Re: Moving my e-life to a new machine
on 19/2/05 3:46 pm, kevin vanhaaren.net wrote
> Quoting BenRubinstein <benr_ml cogapp.com>:
>
>> Sadly, this warm glow was pretty thoroughly dissipated by the *almost*; the
>> ten minutes which it took me (after the Migration Assistant finished) to get
>> past the registration screen
>
> Too late to help you, but during registration hit command-q to quit. It will
> ask you if you want to skip registration. Say yes, and it will continue on.
> You get a reminder that you should register at the end, but that's it.
>
> Registration really annoys me too.
Thanks for the command-Q tip - could I ask you to email it to me again just
before I next install a machine, as I'll have forgotten by then? Thanks!
:-{
I've always found registration annoying (and never gone through with it, ie
never given it access to the net at the time, always trashed the alias
afterwards); what made it even more annoying this time was the US-centric
aspect, ie thanks to the Migration Assistant it pre-filled the registration
screen with my correct data - but as soon as I hit continue, marked the
'state' and 'phone' details with angry red marks and refused to let me
continue until I'd changed them for nonsense. This althought the first
screen in the process had taken my choice of UK English, and so on. Just a
bug, but an annoying kind of one.
Whereas not telling the users about command-Q (like the choices on the .mac
screen, which don't allow you to say "never", but only "I'll sign up later")
are deliberate choices - and also annoying.
Ben Rubinstein | Email: benr_ml cogapp.com
Cognitive Applications Ltd | Phone: +44 (0)1273-821600
http://www.cogapp.com | Fax : +44 (0)1273-728866
|
|
| |
dpointer606
-
Feb 22, 2005 7:15 am
(#17 Total: 21)
|
|
|
|
|
| Posts: 1 |
Re: Moving my e-life to a new machine
I have successfully used the Assistant, but had trouble getting it to sense my wireless network, until I quit out and it automatically sensed it. It virtually cloned my whole machine over, applications and all. I am very pleased. I simply checked all four boxes (basically "move everyting".
NOW what I want to know, for a friend of mine, is how do you do this when the prior machine, running OS X does not have firewire?
|
|
| |
Nick Lightbody
-
Feb 22, 2005 7:15 am
(#18 Total: 21)
|
|
|
|
|
| Posts: 1 |
Re: Moving my e-life to a new machine
I was amazed at how easy the automatic Migration from old to new was
last week with a new G5. I was such a joy to my old desktop back with
zero effort.
I tried to use the same utility to then copy the same setup on to an
older machine Twin Boot G4 having reformatted its HD but it was not
playing, only seemed to work on the new G5.
--
Nick Lightbody
DESKspace
====================================================
DESKspace: Professionals' Integrated Data Systems:
please visit http://www.deskspace.com for more information.
tel: +44 (0) 1444 412997
email: nick.lightbody deskspace.com
====================================================
|
|
| |
Martin
-
Feb 22, 2005 11:41 am
(#19 Total: 21)
|
|
|
|
|
| Posts: 1 |
Re: Moving my e-life to a new machine
I moved from an iBook G3 to an iBook G4 using CCC and almost no
problems. A thread that started yesterday, F 21, in MacIntouch got me
thinking that all was not well and it was not me.
My new iBook connects slowly or not at all to sites. Downloads stall
and I stop, restart them and maybe it works. The time to download just
keeps increasing. I use Safari, Firefox, wireless and wired. All give
poor performance. The writer at MacIntouch thinks a G3 setting may be
left over and interfering with the G4.
I have re-installed 10.3.8, Safari, Airport, removed webkit (suggested
because of contextual menu problems) since it seemed to have some
connection with Internet processes. All with no improvement.
Martin Cooper
iBook
iMac
|
|
| |
dano (apparently)
-
Feb 22, 2005 11:41 am
(#20 Total: 21)
|
|
|
|
|
| Posts: 81 |
Re: Moving my e-life to a new machine
At 6:15 AM -0800 2/22/05, dpointer606 wrote:
>I have successfully used the Assistant, but had trouble getting it
>to sense my wireless network, until I quit out and it automatically
>sensed it. It virtually cloned my whole machine over, applications
>and all. I am very pleased. I simply checked all four boxes
>(basically "move everyting".
>
>NOW what I want to know, for a friend of mine, is how do you do this
>when the prior machine, running OS X does not have firewire?
As part of my job I do a lot of data transfers on OSX. I've found the
assistant to work adequately for cases where the account is fairly
simple and all data is in ~/ (even if there is a lot of it) and not
much software is installed.
On the other hand, I usually feel more confident about the quality of
the data transfer if use System Preferences > Accounts > Delete
account to .dmg file. Then transfer the resulting disk image to the
new machine and put the files into the appropriate places.
In the case of a complex data transfer - where I have to reinstall
apps, either in /Applications or in ~/Applications, I find this
method to be much preferred, albeit slower.
If you're using a machine that does not have Firewire then you're
probably limited to this latter method, and you can physically move
the dmg by Ethernet.
|
|
| |
kevinv (apparently)
-
Feb 23, 2005 7:20 am
(#21 Total: 21)
|
|
|
|
|
| Posts: 1344 |
Re: Moving my e-life to a new machine
--On February 21, 2005 10:44:42 AM -0800 BenRubinstein <benr_ml cogapp.com>
wrote:
>> Quoting BenRubinstein <benr_ml cogapp.com>:
> Thanks for the command-Q tip - could I ask you to email it to me again
> just before I next install a machine, as I'll have forgotten by then?
> Thanks! :-{
Well I managed to remember it 3 years after I learned it (pretty much the
same way you did, complain to someone after the fact then be told about it
8-)
Command-q is a standard Apple command for quitting programs, so when
registration pops-up and you think "I wish I could quit this" it should act
as a mnenomic for the command to come to mind.
As much as I dislike Apple's registration, it's still way above Microsoft's
"prove you aren't a thief" mandatory activiation (Microsoft follows the
required activation with registration which is optional like Apple's, and
they are just as vague about getting out of it.)
Kevin
|
|
|
TidBITS TidBITS TidBITS Talk Moving my e-life to a new machine
|
|
