[bbales]

So I got my new imac this afternoon. Got it hooked up -- and started the migration process. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, the new machine migrated everything from an older hard drive (the original one on my G4 tower) and didn't see the new internal drive I put in in January 2005. So hey -- it worked great, if I wanted to set the wayback machine to 2005. I tried to do the target mode trick again, and the new machine still does/did not see the new drive.

I restarted the old machine and the drive is there.

So -- any ideas on how I can get the imac to see the drive? More importantly, can i get the new machine to transfer the information, to keep settings, etc. intact? Obviously, I can drag files, folders, etc. over, but I wanted to do it the sleek, seamless way. Now I'm looking at an evening spent restoring all kinds of files, instead of enjoying my very fine new machine.

Thanks.

[TETENAL]

I would swap the drives physically in the G4 tower and then try target disk mode and Migration Assistent again.

[bbales]

Originally Posted by TETENAL 

I would swap the drives physically in the G4 tower and then try target disk mode and Migration Assistent again.

Thanks! I was also thinking that, if I had to, I could take that drive (my "good one," I mean) and put it in a firewire case and transfer info over that way.

I'm just aggravated, b/c it seemed like everything was going so smoothly. And now, of course, things have turned into a hassle.

[Art Vandelay]

IIRC, TDM only sees the first drive in a Mac. Hence, your problem. Switching the drives should suffice.

[bbales]

Well, first we just switched the ribbons (that was my husband's idea) -- and that didn't work. So we tried switching the drives, but as far as I can tell, it's still seeing the original drives, and not the newer one. I tried calling Apple Care, but it was too late. Is it easy to mix up the ribbons or the jumper cables? Is it possible my cable settings are wrong?

I think -- since there's nothing new on the new computer except what's been migrated -- that I'm going to start over with that and restore it to its out of the box condition, before I try any more migrating.

It would also be possible for me to clone the whole darn drive onto a firewire drive and do things that way.

It's just aggravating. But thanks everyone for the replies. It really did help, though it hasn't worked out ... yet.

[Art Vandelay]

Actually, I should have said to either disconnect the original drive or change the jumpers on both drives. Changing the cables or position on the cable won't have any effect. One drive is set to be the master and the other is set to be the slave. TDM won't share any slave disks. I believe simply disconnecting the original (master) disk will suffice so you won't have to mess with the jumpers.

[bbales]

Oh - and I misspoke, too -- originally we just disconnected the original Apple drive, but left them in the same position. Then, when I tried to do the target mode, the computer (my original one) shut itself down. That's when I called Apple, and the tech guy said, no, you have to change positions and cables.

At the moment, both drives are connected and the cables are both in. Should I just take out the Apple drive and leave in my newer one? I have an idea the jumper cables are set wrong.

[Art Vandelay]

In that case, remove the original and set the new one to master (there should be a diagram on the drive to follow) and place it in the same position that the original used to be in.

It's been a while since I've had to do this. I think some newer G4s were more flexible.

[bbales]

I'll try that tomorrow. Thanks so much. My G4 is 6 1/2 years old, so "flexible" is probably not the word to use...

I may have to look up some info on slave and master, too. Then, I'll just restore the new computer and start over. Easier to to it now, than piecemeal everything later. I had no idea that TDM was so fussy about slaves and masters.

[bbales]

Ok, we've swapped drives and changed jumper settings. (Turns out the old drive had the jumper, not the new one.)

and now -- I have a gray screen. It won't recognize EITHER drive. I believe we have everything set up the way it's supposed to be so I'm absolutely clueless as to why it's behaving this way. And I'm pretty frustrated, too.

Would it be a good idea to take out the original drive all togethre and try it that way?

[bbales]

Another question -- and at this point, this is probably the wrong forum. There is only one jumper. Do I need to have a second one, for the slave drive? And -- since I don't have one, where would I get one?

[Mediaman_12]

Maybe, easy solution without all the swapping about, but first a question. Are both drives over half full, if yes then this wont work.
If no then you could try this, use Disk Utility on the G4 to create a disk image of the second drive, this should then be copied over during the migration process.

[bbales]

Mediaman -- What a good idea. But yes, both drives are more than half full.

For quite a while I had nothing -- either a gray screen or no power at all. We finally put everything back the way it had been, and the G4 works -- but with the original drive still as master. I do not understand why what we did didn't work.

But it didn't. However, I still have the migration issue. The original drive (according to the profile) is listed first, so is the master. How can I do the migration. I really don't want to reinstall everything.

Two options that I see: clone the Seagate to an external, and migrate from there. Or: put the Seagate into an external enclosure and again, clone from there.
Anyone have any other ideas?
Thanks.

[Thinine]

Connect machines using Ethernet.
Enable sharing on the new iMac.
Log in to iMac from old machine, dragging files over that you need.

[bbales]

Thanks -- My thinking in doing the migration assistant is that everything would show up in its proper place without my doing my dragging and copying.

I have a complete backup on a new external drive. So I have plenty of options at this point, just not sure what my proper method should be.