[stenz77]

I currently have a 15" Al 1.25G Powerbook and am very likely going to be getting a 17" Al 1.5G Powerbook in the next week or so. I have 2 GB of RAM in this laptop and I know that I can "easily" (the screws are not easy) swap out one of the cards into the 17" (which has a single 1GB card in it now).

But I have a ton of things on the HD that is in my current laptop. Is there an easy/fast way to transfer everything over to the laptop - ideally so that it literally boots up the same as this one and is essentially like swapping the HDs between the two?

That said, I don't feel comfortable actually physically swapping the hardware between the two.

I know that I can just reinstall software on it and move files over the network, but that is far more tedious that I would like to have to deal with.
I am willing to buy an external drive and move files out to that since I had been wanting to do that soon anyway - is there a way via that?
And would that work with programs and such? (obviously it would work with "regular files", but I am guessing not with programs)

This seems like something that must come up frequently, but in Google searches and searches on this site I can't anything about it - perhaps I don't have the right phrase(s).

[mgehman]

Originally posted by stenz77:
I currently have a 15" Al 1.25G Powerbook and am very likely going to be getting a 17" Al 1.5G Powerbook in the next week or so. I have 2 GB of RAM in this laptop and I know that I can "easily" (the screws are not easy) swap out one of the cards into the 17" (which has a single 1GB card in it now).

But I have a ton of things on the HD that is in my current laptop. Is there an easy/fast way to transfer everything over to the laptop - ideally so that it literally boots up the same as this one and is essentially like swapping the HDs between the two?

That said, I don't feel comfortable actually physically swapping the hardware between the two.

I know that I can just reinstall software on it and move files over the network, but that is far more tedious that I would like to have to deal with.
I am willing to buy an external drive and move files out to that since I had been wanting to do that soon anyway - is there a way via that?
And would that work with programs and such? (obviously it would work with "regular files", but I am guessing not with programs)

This seems like something that must come up frequently, but in Google searches and searches on this site I can't anything about it - perhaps I don't have the right phrase(s).

It's actually really easy. If you are going to have both the laptops at the same time, you just need to attach the 2 with a firewire cable. Start up the 15 inch wait for the start to conclude. Now start up the 17 inch while holding down the "T" key. This will mount the 17 inch as a hard drive on the 15 inch desktop. Now you will need a program called "carbon copy cloner" You can find in on versiontracker.com Select the origin disk, the 15, and the destination, the 17, start it and once it is done there you are.
If you are not going to have them both, you will just need a firewire disk and have to repeat the project in reverse when you copy from the firewire to the new 17. Hope this helps. Let me know if I've confused you.

[stenz77]

Originally posted by mgehman:
It's actually really easy. If you are going to have both the laptops at the same time, you just need to attach the 2 with a firewire cable. Start up the 15 inch wait for the start to conclude. Now start up the 17 inch while holding down the "T" key. This will mount the 17 inch as a hard drive on the 15 inch desktop. Now you will need a program called "carbon copy cloner" You can find in on versiontracker.com Select the origin disk, the 15, and the destination, the 17, start it and once it is done there you are.
If you are not going to have them both, you will just need a firewire disk and have to repeat the project in reverse when you copy from the firewire to the new 17. Hope this helps. Let me know if I've confused you.

Thank you so much, this is so helpful!

I should have both of them at the same time. I just need to look to see if I can get a firewire cable here or not, might have to go online and get it shipped.

I will get that "carbon copy cloner" program now.

Stupid question but, will this work with everything? Programs will work the same and not know the difference?
My main concerns are Photoshop, Illustrator, Office, Alias Pro Sketchbook, BBEdit, and iTunes.

[mgehman]

Originally posted by stenz77:
Thank you so much, this is so helpful!

I should have both of them at the same time. I just need to look to see if I can get a firewire cable here or not, might have to go online and get it shipped.

I will get that "carbon copy cloner" program now.

Stupid question but, will this work with everything? Programs will work the same and not know the difference?
My main concerns are Photoshop, Illustrator, Office, Alias Pro Sketchbook, BBEdit, and iTunes.

Everything will get transfered, with the only exceptions being the s/n of many of the programs. You may have to re-enter them when you use the program for the first time. Hope all turns out ok.

[stenz77]

Originally posted by mgehman:
Everything will get transfered, with the only exceptions being the s/n of many of the programs. You may have to re-enter them when you use the program for the first time. Hope all turns out ok.

That should work great then! I was mainly worried that iTunes would not let me use it on another machine - but I think you are allowed a few (just not many)?

Thanks again!

[mgehman]

Originally posted by stenz77:
That should work great then! I was mainly worried that iTunes would not let me use it on another machine - but I think you are allowed a few (just not many)?

Thanks again!

Before you get rid of the 15 make sure you de-authorize it in iTunes. I forgot to do that a couple of times and ran up against the limit allowed in the accounts.