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JMII · Dec 19, 2005, 08:02 AM

I got a Mac mini for my parents for Xmas and this weekend I tried do them a favor by copying everything over from their old B&W G3 tower to the new Mac mini... but you can't boot the older B&W into Firewire Target Mode

So I was wondering: Can you just tell Mirgration Assistant to use a secondary drive?

For example I've got backup of the old G3's users folder on an external Firewire HD. Will Mirgration Assistant access this drive or does it only look for a complete computer to upgrade from?

I thought Mirgration Assistant would only pull info off a boot drive with OSX installed on it... anyone know for sure?

OreoCookie · Dec 19, 2005, 09:37 AM

Sure you can. But AFAIK you have to use the original drive: in other words, you have to put your PowerMac's drive in the firewire enclosure and then use the migration assistant to transfer all the data and applications.

JMII · Dec 19, 2005, 11:09 AM

OK I'll give that a shot... just not sure if the Firewire enclosure uses the same interface as the G3s current drive. If all else fails I'll just Carbon Copy Clone the entire G3 drive to the FW backup then run the assistant. Still bummed about not being able to boot into Target Mode

but the G3 is over 6 years old so its a bit dated

JMII · Dec 23, 2005, 07:34 PM

Thanks again! The old HD went into the Firewire enclosure without issue, that made the whole upgrading process a piece of cake

20 mintues later the Mac mini was up and running. I'm now a big fan of Migration Assistant, glad to see it transfers not only the user folder and networking settings but applications as well... very nice.