[John_Engels]

I've just bought one of the new iMacs, and have OS X on my G4, evolved over a long time, with lots of bells and whistles by now. How do I move it to the new computer...or what parts of it must I move? Can I simply overwrite the iMac's OS X with the G3's via ethernet file transfer? Or must I reinstall all my apps and system prefs, etc?

[Ibson]

It is possible to completely re-write the iMac's hard drive with OS X as long as you copy the invisible files. If you've just done minor hacks, the User and Library folders should be enough. However, if you've done some UNIX hacks, or other low-level system hacks, copy the UNIX and System folders. Just insure you copy all the invisible folders--leaving out one could seriously screw up your system.

[Macanoid]

Copying OS X to another computer normally is quite impossible (I think anyway!) Thanks however to one little programm that was released recently, it's now a
piece of cake - just download CarbonCopy Cloner:
http://software.bombich.com/ccc.html.

Connect your two Macs via a network or crossover cable. Run carbonCopy Cloner, select disk to copy and target disk, and that's it!! Your new Mac will be identical to the one you had

[scaught]

is there a mac version of symantec ghost?

[jcarr]

Originally posted by scaught:
<STRONG>is there a mac version of symantec ghost?</STRONG>

Yes. It's called Apple Software Restore

This is the mechanism Apple uses to distribute the restoration CDs that come with new comptuers.

[dspaude]

It looks like Apple Software Restore is for Mac OS 9.x and older. Does it actually work for OS X?

[John_Engels]

The CarbonCopy app doesn't work on a network...It says so in the "Read Me" and I just experimented, using my PowerBook and my G4 with an ethernet connection. It will only clone to a local disk...Are there any other solutions out there?

[himself]

Try connecting your iMac to your G4 via firewire (target disk mode)... target disk mode is available for mac desktops, isn't it? Anyway, once you're connected, CarbonCopy should work. Or, you can copy to a disk image, save it to a CD (or two, if its too big), or network the image over to the other machine, mount it, and CarbonCopy it once again to the iMac... i think you get the idea.

[ 02-15-2002: Message edited by: himself ]

[Big Mac]

It's a truly unfortunate fact of OS X that we will never be able to simply copy over one system folder in order to backup/restore our system software. I truly hope that future versions of OS X provide a simple backup utility that can make a rescue OS backup in a couple of clicks.

[zazou]

Originally posted by dspaude:
<STRONG>It looks like Apple Software Restore is for Mac OS 9.x and older. Does it actually work for OS X?</STRONG>

As long as 9 boots on you computer (they all do for now) and the image you want place i small enough to fit on your media (Cd-rw, etc) it works fine.

Use 9 to image the X drive/Volume.
When you want to restore the image, use 9 to boot and run the restore app.

bootable 9 = apps is going to be the ultimate X utility, mark my words.

Zaz

[BTP]

It's not that hard.

Copy the apps you need to the Applications folder one the new iMac. The harder part is grabing all the preferences. It is not really that hard, but you likely need to grab them from 2 locations: ~Library/Preferences AND ~Users/(yourusername)/Library/Preferences. It is easiest to copy the contents of each to the destination folder in the new computer. I have noticed, but do not know why, some pererernces are stored in one vs. the other.

That should cover your preferences for the system, registrations and bookmarks. I cannot forsee you needing to copy invisible files, but if you have any startup items in either Library folder you should move those to the corresponding locations on the new computer.

You can also copy the contents of the folders in your 'home' folder to the corresponding folders on the iMac. For example, I think that you want to copy the contents of the Music folder fromt the old to new and NOT copy the folder itself. I think that may result in a permissions issue, at least that is what I was told and I never did it that way. It takes the same amount of time in any case...

I think that should cover it. If there are some things missing in the new iMac, let me know, i'll help you track them down.

[motti]

Isn't it possible to copy the whole os x partition from a 9 partition?? The invisible files are visible from there, so is there a problem i oversee?

I wanted to make new partitiions today and for this copy everything over firewire to my friend's g4, i don't want to install my system on his g4.

[Simon X]

!!!!!

[fitter]

This is oriented more toward people running labs, but it's perfectly feasible to use between two home computers:

http://rsug.itd.umich.edu/cgi-bin/cvsweb.cgi/radmind/
(see http://rsug.itd.umich.edu/cgi-bin/cvsweb.cgi/ for instructions on how to set up anonymous CVS.)

The University of Michigan has developed a series of command line tools that back up/restore/copy the file systems of UNIX machines, and recently added support for Mac OS X, including HFS+ support (i.e., resource forks, finder info). This isn't ready for the average user yet, as you'll need to know how to edit Makefiles, and unless you've manually installed a number of things, including openssl headers (why doesn't apple include them?), it won't compile. There's a package I think available through darwinfo.org called missingdarwinfiles.tar that installs the needed things.

There's no documentation for radmind yet, but I have it on good authority that it will be coming soon.

[ 02-18-2002: Message edited by: fitter ]

[motti]

Originally posted by Simon X:
<STRONG>
So be warned. Did I make an obvious mistake? I don't know. Was it a pain in the ass? Yes.</STRONG>

There could be one, did you use DiskCopy to move your folders onto the 26gig? I think simply copying lets out the invisible .files. I'll try this afternoon, i'm prepared for everything :-) I'll tell you how it went.

[Kate]

You cannot simply copy the System from either system be it 9 or X.
You need to respect file permissions, which get scrambled by a simple Finder copy.
You need to copy the invisible files.
You need to restore the symbolic links of Unix.
You need to be aware of resource forks.
In case some files are locked this may cause trouble too.
For these reasons a simple copy does not work from 9 or X.

Using one of the above mentioned utilities like CarbonCopy Cloner do the trick because these avoid the above listed traps.

[ 02-22-2002: Message edited by: Kate ]

[P]

Originally posted by Kate:
<STRONG>You cannot simply copy the System from either system be it 9 or X.
You need to respect file permissions, which get scrambled by a simple Finder copy.
You need to copy the invisible files.
You need to restore the symbolic links of Unix.
You need to be aware of resource forks.
In case some files are locked this may cause trouble too.
For these reasons a simple copy does not work from 9 or X.

Using one of the above mentioned utilities like CarbonCopy Cloner do the trick because these avoid the above listed traps.

[ 02-22-2002: Message edited by: Kate ]</STRONG>

Carbon Copy is just a GUI for some command line programs in the OS, but it does the job of copying one entire partition . If you only want to copy part of your partition and get both res-forks and UNIX permissions, you can use a tool like hfspax:
http://www.versiontracker.com/redir.....gz-binhex.hqx