[jedimstr]

I'm migrating from a two month old 1.25Ghz 15" with SuperDrive to a 1.5Ghz 15" with 4xSuperDrive and 128M VRAM.

I have my account on the "old" 15inch setup just the way I want it with 10.3.3, Pro Apps (Final Cut, DVD Studio Pro), Office, etc. and tons of other apps and utilites, including some that don't necessarily just live in the Applications folder (scripts, etc.).

Question is, can I just use Carbon Copy Cloner or Disk Utility to re-image the older 15inch to the new one without messing anything up (i.e. specific installed drivers for then new PowerBooks, registration/licensing keys, etc).... or should I go ahead and copy over what I can from a new account on the new one and reinstall the rest (which would suck)?

BTW- yes I know it's such an incremental jump but...
1. I found a buyer for my "old" 15" PB... close to the price I payed for it.
2. I'm a tech nut that just HAS to have the latest stuff
3. I actually need the speedier CPU and SuperDrive so I can crank out stuff at work.

[JHromadka]

Not sure about CCC, but Apple has a KB Article on how to move your stuff from one Mac to another.

[jedimstr]

Originally posted by JHromadka:
Not sure about CCC, but Apple has a KB Article on how to move your stuff from one Mac to another.

I'm well aware of the methods Apple suggested in moving individual stuff over, which is why I asked the question above whether it would be better to just clone the drive from one to the other so I wouldn't have to go through the hassle or should I go ahead and do things piecemeal as the KB article lists. My concern being anything specific to the new Powerbook not being recognized (specific drivers factory installed that's not on the 10.3.3 release of Panther on my current PowerBook) and whether anything funky would occur with my registration keys and licenses (tied to hardware ID's?).

[bighead]

Mirror the hard drive over, then do an archive and install of the OS from the new PowerBook's master DVD. You'll have your goodies set up, a clean working (updated) system, and you might have to reconfigure or reinstall an app or two. It's the fastest way to get up and running.

[ibulldog]

Bighead--would you mind giving some more details on mirroring the hard drive over? I'd appreciate it.

[bighead]

Since you're using Panther, I'd say use the Disk Utility and the restore function to just copy the entire drive contents over. I'm paranoid, so I always zero a new hard disk, even in a new computer. But after "restoring" from the old PowerBook to the new PowerBook hard drive, performing the archive and install will allow for the machine to be supported while still maintaining most of the system's apps and configuration.

[ibulldog]

Thanks Ian. I'm not sure I'm going to go this route or not. I may simply zero the new HD and reinstall the apps I need.

[Tomster]

There are many ways to duplicate a Powerbook drive. Target disk mode and CCC are the fastest and easiest way to do so. Or from the Terminal, there are several utilities - asr, ditto, rsync(the new one that does hfs+), and dd.

The important thing is to recreate all of the hardlinks and bless the system, otherwise all your data will be there, but the machine will not boot.

[jedimstr]

This is what I ended up doing...

I did a clone using CCC and Firewire800 Target Disk Mode from my 1.25Ghz 15" with 10.3.3 to the new 1.5Ghz 15" and used the new PB's Restore DVD to Upgrade the cloned drive with the updated build of 10.3.3.

Note: I used Upgrade and not Archive and Install... doing it this way allowed me to have a working identical setup without having to re-install most of my software (even my Pro Apps - Final Cut and DVD Studio Pro - came across without a problem). Just had to fix a few preference settings and re-install Stuffit.

After all that, tried out all apps, and ran cocktail's pilot suite to clean up permissions and run the cron jobs... everything's purring along perfectly.