[Jordan]

I've just sold my PowerMac on eBay but am going to hold off buying the replacement Mac for a few weeks and for the first time I'm going to buy an iMac. Considering 99% of my time is on email and web, it's getting harder to justify an 8 core processor for that.

The guy is coming to pick up my PowerMac in a few days so I need to get everything off it. For the last year or so, I've had a Mac mini driving my TV but since moving to Paris I haven't bothered setting it up so it's just sitting there. My plan is to temporarily use the Mac mini for a few weeks then migrate to the iMac once I buy it (after MacWorld just in case!!!). The problem lies in the drive capacity of the three systems. My home folder is 159Gb with the Music folder 98Gb and the Pictures folder 38Gb. The Applications folder is 10Gb. Here are the spec's of the systems (all on Leopard):

PowerMac: 2 x 250Gb internal drives + 500Gb external Time Machine backup drive
Mac mini: 80 Gb drive
Future iMac: 1Tb drive

Today I just went out and bought a 1Tb WD My Book drive.

Here's what I was thinking of doing but wanted a peer review of this...

Phase 1: Take-off
1. Attach 1Tb My Book to PowerMac
2. Move the Music and Pictures folders out of my home folder to the 1Tb drive but leave aliases to them keeping things like iPhoto and iTunes oblivious to the change. (That will reduce my home folder down to a more respectable 23Gb)
3. Move Applications, Users and the "external" Music and Pictures folders to the 1Tb drive

Phase 2: Holding Pattern
1. Attach 1Tb drive to Mac mini
2. Copy Applications and Users folders to Mac mini then delete from 1Tb drive
3. Test all applications (some will need preferences and licence keys moved I realise)
4. Decommission PowerMac and remove all personal information by changing the Finder Setting to securely delete trash and moving personal files into the trash. Also deauthorise it from iTunes
5. Grumble about how much slower the Mac mini is than the PowerMac for 3-4 weeks

Phase 3: Landing
1. Copy Applications & Users folders to 1Tb drive
2. Plug 1Tb drive into brand spanking new iMac
3. Copy over Applications & Users folders
4. Remove aliases for Music & Pictures from home folder
5. Copy Music & Pictures folders back into home folder
6. Test all applications moving again licences keys and prefs where needed
7. Be marvelled at how much faster the new iMac is than the Mac mini whilst simultaneously forgetting the performance of the PowerMac 4 weeks ago.

Does anyone see any problems with the above or can they offer any improvements?

Also, what will happen to my Time Machine backup. Can I just unplug it from the PowerMac and plug it into the Mac mini and it be oblivious to the change as all the user names are the same? Or, will I lose all my Time Machine history and have to start from scratch again?

Thanks in advance.

Jordan

[Veltliner]

I once found a to-do list for manual migration.

So I won't take credit for it.

But this is the old post where I published it here.

You need to flush the Safari cache, too, that's what's missing on the list.

Originally Posted by Veltliner 

I finally did the manual migration.

And you know what? It's 24 Gb less data. 24! About 5 Gigabytes were files I forgot to erase before migration, but the rest...

I was using this list for manual migration, that I found on apple.com (bringing it over from the other thread, so everything is together)


THE MANUAL MIGRATION LIST OF FILES TO TAKE WITH YOU TO YOUR NEW MAC:

Basically the instructions you should follow are:

1. Backup your data first. This is vitally important in case you make a mistake or there's some other problem.

2. Connect a Firewire cable between your old Mac and your new Intel Mac.

3. Startup your old Mac in Target Disk Mode.

4. Startup your new Mac for the first time, go through the setup and registration screens, but do NOT migrate data over. Get to your desktop on the new Mac without migrating any new data over.

4. Copy the following items from your old Mac to the new Mac:

In your /Home/ folder: Documents, Movies, Music, Pictures, and Sites folders.

In your /Home/Library/ folder:

/Home/Library/Application Support/AddressBook (copy the whole folder)
/Home/Library/Application Support/iCal (copy the whole folder)

Also in /Home/Library/Application Support (copy whatever else you need including folders for any third-party applications)

/Home/Library/Keychains (copy the whole folder)
/Home/Library/Mail (copy the whole folder)
/Home/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist (* This is a very important file which contains all email account settings and general mail preferences.)
/Home/Library/Preferences/ copy any preferences needed for third-party applications

/Home /Library/iTunes (copy the whole folder)
/Home /Library/Safari (copy the whole folder)

If you want cookies:

/Home/Library/Cookies/Cookies.plist
/Home/Library/Application Support/WebFoundation/HTTPCookies.plist

For Entourage users:

Entourage is in /Home/Documents/Microsoft User Data
Also in /Home/Library/Preferences/Microsoft

Credit goes to another forum user for this information.

If you need to transfer data for other applications please ask the vendor or ask in the Discussions where specific applications store their data.

5. Once you have transferred what you need restart the new Mac and test to make sure the contents are there for each of the applications.

[Art Vandelay]

The simplest thing for you to do is to clone your PowerMac to your new external drive. Then just plug that drive into your mini and boot from it. Then once you get your iMac, you can clone the external drive to the iMac or use Migration Assistant.

[Jordan]

Thanks Veltliner. That's really good. I new about Mail but forgot about Address Book and iCal. There are some other gems there too.

One correction, I don't think iTunes stores anything valuable in the Library folder anymore. Music (& videos) are now stored in the Music folder.

It's better to do what you have suggested than just copy over all the sub-folders in the home folder as you tend to accumulate a lot of cr@p in things like Library and it's good to start fresh from time to time.

I'm guessing this was written a little while ago. For anyone else that is interested here are a couple updates post Leopard (and Tiger).

Widgets
/Home/Library/Widgets
Spelling (any "Learn this" words you've added to your dictionary)
/Home/Library/Spelling

[Jordan]

Originally Posted by Art Vandelay 

The simplest thing for you to do is to clone your PowerMac to your new external drive. Then just plug that drive into your mini and boot from it. Then once you get your iMac, you can clone the external drive to the iMac or use Migration Assistant.

Art Vandelay. Thanks for you reply. Sometimes I overlook the simplest solutions!!! What would you recommend as the best way to clone the drive?? Also, can I clone both the internal drives?

This is probably how I will move from the PowerMac to the Mac mini. However, when it comes to moving to the iMac I'm going to be a little more selective and follow Veltliner's instructions as I've essentially had this home folder since Mac OS X 10.1 came out and really want to purge some stuff.

[Jordan]

Art Vandelay. Could be a problem with your suggestion...

While all the systems are on the latest version of Leopard the PowerMac is a PowerPC G5 and the Mac mini is an Intel (as per my sig.) Will this cloning stuff work when I'm changing families of processors?

[Art Vandelay]

Disk Utility works well. You can partition the external drive and then clone your two internal drives to the two partitions.

[Art Vandelay]

Yes, Leopard is a Universal OS.

[Art Vandelay]

If you will never use your new external drive to boot a PowerPC Mac, then format it as GUID. Otherwise, format it as APM. However, if it is APM, you won't be able to directly install the OS from a DVD while booted on an Intel Mac. The installer won't let you even though an Intel Mac can boot from an APM disk.

[analogika]

Originally Posted by Art Vandelay 

If you will never use your new external drive to boot a PowerPC Mac, then format it as GUID. Otherwise, format it as APM. However, if it is APM, you won't be able to directly install the OS from a DVD while booted on an Intel Mac. The installer won't let you even though an Intel Mac can boot from an APM disk.

I thought this difference was irrelevant since Leopard?

[Jordan]

My PowerPC days are over so I'll format it as GUID.

For others that may read this in the future. To clone using Disk Utility, select the source Volume then select Restore.

[Art Vandelay]

Originally Posted by analogika 

I thought this difference was irrelevant since Leopard?

No, it's a function of the firmware. OpenFirmware needs to be updated to handle GUID disks. EFI can handle both.