So I excitedly broke open my new 20" iMac box today and dug in. My previous Mac is a G4 dual 867 PowerMac I bought 3.5 years ago. I was
ready for a new machine.
So I'm getting everything set up and it's all going swimmingly. Went through the Migration Assistant and transferred all my old files over. Finished the install, then went through the system update process. I was ready to play!
Well, the first thing I noticed I was missing email. And documents. And photos. What happened?
I quickly realized that the data that was transferred came from the wrong drive in my PowerMac! Several months ago I installed OS X on a fresh drive (I have 4 internal drives in the PowerMac) and started booting from that by default. I did not physically move any of the drives though. What I didn't realize is that the Migration Assistant, when accessing the other machine via Target Disk Mode, only accesses the master drive on the primary bus. Oops!
So I rip open the PowerMac, move the drives around, and reconfigure the jumpers. Then I thought I'd just go ahead and wipe the iMac drive and start from scratch. Might as well start with a clean slate.
So I reboot with the OS X install CD, wipe the drive, and start the install process again. Well, halfway through the 2nd install disk, I get the dreaded "there was an error installing the software, please try again." Ugh. So I tried it again with the same results.
Jump on the phone with Apple. They ask me about my RAM. I tell them I did install 2G of 3rd party RAM before I even booted the machine. "Pull the RAM, put the original 512 back, and try again." So I do. With the same result. So I put the 2G back in and try again. Same result. Now I'm thinking I have a bum 2nd disc.
So I call Apple for a replacement disc, which they promise to mail out. This is where it could have been tragic - if I had to wait for a new disc to arrive in the mail. There would have been tears.
Fortunately my brother also purchased an 20" iMac (that he received the same day) so I was able to borrow his disc and save the evening. Now everything seems to be up and running fine.
So that's 3 RAM installs, a PowerMac hard drive reconfiguration, two Migration Assistant runs (which take forever), and multiple OS install attempts (which take forever).
Had I wanted an all-day computer setup, I would have bought a Dell!
Lesson learned: Migration Assistant is slick, but an idiot
can manage to mess it up.
This was my longest new Mac setup yet. Hopefully it's smooth sailing from here.
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