[Ruahrc]

I am looking to move to a different mac. Previously, I thought the process was simply to hook up both macs using a FW cable, and run the "Migration Assistant". Problem is, I cannot find the Migration Assistant on my computer. Nor can I find the "Setup Assistant" either which apparently can transfer a user onto a new mac.

I was thinking of doing the following:

-Create a new user on the new mac, with a name identical to my current user name.
-Copy my old "home folder" (remember, the name of the folder is identical to the newly created one) onto the new mac, overwriting the new one.
This should accomplish the same task, yes? You should note that the hardware on the two macs are different (Both are PM G5's but have different hardware specs)

Also, one compuer is running Tiger (old mac I'm currently on), the other is on 10.3.9 (new mac I want to move to). Migration Assistant and Setup Assistant can not be found on either computer. I am thinking of upgrading the new mac to Tiger, at which point it will run the setup assistant?

Additionally, if I do upgrade the new mac to OS X Tiger, would the following scenario work:
-Upgrade new mac to Tiger using complete format & reinstall
-During new mac's setup assistant run, have it transfer the acct. from the old mac.
-This should simultaneously create a new account on the new mac as well as install all the apps I had on the old mac onto the new mac, right? Because it transfers the Applications folder during the user account transfer? (At least there is an option for this)

Ruahrc

[CatOne]

It's /Applications/Utilities/Migration Assistant

My suggestion is to install Tiger clean on the new machine, and then run Migration Assistant at first run. Once you've done that run software update and download the 500 MB of updates or whatever ;-)

You can just copy your entire home directory over with the same short name, and if you have the same uid you won't need to chown it. I don't really feel like typing out the whole series of terminal steps, though it's pretty straightforward. It's how I used to do it before MA came about. MA has been around since 10.3.6 or thereabouts.

[Ruahrc]

I thought it would be in Apps/Utilities too, but it's not there. Spotlight (or the Panther find) doesn't find it when I type in "migration" (or "assistant") and search the entire disk either.

Possible that it never got installed? Can it be extracted from the system restore disks (a la Pacifist or something?)

I think the most elegant way would be to install Tiger and then use migration assistant to migrate the user account (w/Apps folder) onto the new machine. But will it "break" any apps with regard to registration or serial numbers, etc? Or does it depend on what apps in particular are being transferred.

Ruahrc

[CatOne]

I wouldn't migrate the apps folder. That could make a real mess.

Some applications may break in moving over, w.r.t. serial numbers. You'll have to re-enter them. Adobe CS2 is one of the worst here -- but since it uses activation I'd recommend deactivating on the old machine and then re-activating on the new one, via a full install. Maybe their UB version will have a cleaner install and setup, as they're going to have to do a lot of code reworking in the effort.

No idea why MA never got installed. There are ways to do partial installs on 10.4; I don't think you need pacifist. I'd have to Google it, though, so I'll leave it as an exercise for you ;-)

[milhous]

migrating from tiger > panther could be catastrophic.

on computer you're moving to, reinstall tiger from the disk. once that's done, you'll see the migration assistant and follow the directions. as otherhs have said, some apps may break, but you may able to find updates for them after you've brought everything over.