[MacNNUK]

My new Apple Desktop Computer, iMac, Intel Core i5, 2.5GHz, 4GB RAM, 500GB with 21.5 Inch Monitor arrives today.

I will be migrating from my older iMac, as sig.
Older iMac having screen disturbance problems, though since I ordered the new iMac .... no problems !!

Approx 120gb to migrate, approx how long will this take, ethernet, firewire or wireless.
Which method is fastest ? And most comprehensive.

Is it better to migrate from Time Machine backup, just done, so as not to tie up old iMac for however long ?

How long for 120gb migrate from Time Machine ?


If I do migrate from Time Machine, does this transfer everything iMac to iMac would do.

After a Time Machine migrate, can I "top-up" any missing items and settings from old iMac.

I've read the Apple Support, and other web pages, but the above questions do not appear to be answered.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4413
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4889
http://www.macworld.com/article/1621...a_new_mac.html

Thanks for your experiences and advice.


Also, best way to keep them both in sync ?
http://www.maciverse.com/two-macs-an...-together.html

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally Posted by MacNNUK 

Approx 120gb to migrate, approx how long will this take, ethernet or wireless.

Figure an hour or two over ethernet, and overnight and half a day via wireless.

Originally Posted by MacNNUK 

Is it better to migrate from Time Machine backup, just done, so as not to tie up old iMac for however long ?

That depends upon whether it's better not to tie up the old iMac for however long. Do you care? If yes, yes.

Originally Posted by MacNNUK 

How long for 120gb migrate from Time Machine ?

Figure an hour or two via Firewire.

Originally Posted by MacNNUK 

If I do migrate from TimeMachine, does this transfer everything iMac to iMac would do.

Yes.

Originally Posted by MacNNUK 

After a TimeMachine migrate, can I "top-up" any missing items and settings from old iMac.

What "missing" items and settings?

Your new iMac is still just a computer with a hard drive. You can dump anything in there at your leisure.

Originally Posted by MacNNUK 

Also, best way to keep them both in sync ?
How to Keep Two Macs in Sync | Maciverse

iCloud for Address Book and Calendars.

rsync, chronosync, or a number of other solutions for syncing a bunch of other stuff, or just put everything you need synced in a DropBox folder.

[MacNNUK]

Spheric, as always, quick and thorough expert advice, thanks.

Only an hour or two, I'll go the iMac to iMac using Ethernet route.

I have also noted the requirement to set Energy Saver to Never whilst Migrating, which I've now done in preparation.

[Waragainstsleep]

In my experience Firewire is usually faster. Might depend on what networking kit you have between them.

[MacNNUK]

Originally Posted by Waragainstsleep 

In my experience Firewire is usually faster. Might depend on what networking kit you have between them.

Side by side, no network, direct connection for the Migration.

System info shows
FireWire Bus:
Maximum Speed: Up to 400 Mb/sec

Ethernet
Built-in 10/100/1000BASE-T (Gigabit)

[MacNNUK]

My new iMac arrived.
OK, Migration is supposed to be simple and easy .... problems.

Initially I connected both iMacs with an Ethernet cable, recognised OK, Energy Saver on old iMac set to never, ran Migration Assistant.

Initial estimated time was around 2 hours, so I went away and left the process working.

However, upon coming back later, the new iMac screen was black, and estimated time showing on source iMac was 52 hours !! (Should have realised then what it was)

Tried again a couple of times, same thing.

Then I had a realisation, despite the new iMac first of all asking if I wanted to migrate, it actually had it's own Energy Saver set low !!!

I would have thought it should arrive with ES set to never ....
AFAIK You cannot access ES until you have migrated, or...

I set up the new iMac as a user, bypassing Migration, then set ES to never. It was set on 15 minutes.

Went back and Migrated, but wary of a long estimated duration, I Migrated from Time Machine USB.

Again, same initial estimate of 2 hours, then that went up to several hours, so I went away again.

When I came back, the migration had actually taken only 1¼ hours for 120gb transfer.

Then presented with two users, so I deleted the temporary one, with some trepidation.

Now the new iMac screen and facilities resembled the old iMac.

Just two problems, BBC iPlayer had to be deleted and re-installed to work, but a more serious problem with Excel spreadsheets.

They would only open in read only, (alleged different owner) I got round this by I info, unlock, set to read-write, save as a couple of times, then replace locked copy with new unlocked copy.

An annoyance, but at least I found a way around it.

Happy Bunny now, with the widescreen I can now watch BBC iPlayer and webpages at the same time.

Thanks everyone for your help.


Good decision.

And would you believe, the old iMac has behaved perfectly since ordering the new iMac.

OSX 10.7 as supplied, updated.

I like the Launchpad, and just getting used to the wireless mouse wipe scrolling.

I have discovered wireless keypad Page Down/ Up, and Page End / Start delete etc fn's
Miss the numeric keyboard though, my fingers cover up numbers on the new keyboard whilst entering them.

Update: I've given up on the wireless keypad after a day.
Gone back to my white Apple USB keyboard.

The needing to use the fn key for many common functions (for me) and the fact I keep on hitting it instead of Control, is annoying, and the lack of numeric keypad, I do input a lot of numbers into my spreadsheets, made the choice for me.
And I prefer the buttons on the USB keyboard. My fingers know where they are.

The wireless keypad fn buttons still work though, so a place on my table for both.

Annoyingly though, as an example, screen brightness no longer is controlled by the USB keyboard.
(Not that I alter it )


XBench Results comparison:
XBench iMac Intel Core i5, 2.5GHz, 4GB RAM.....= 360.1 New iMac 150212
XBench iMac 2.0ghz Intel Core 2 Duo...................= 101.17 090811
XBench iMac G3................................................ ... = 11.32 260807

[MacNNUK]

Originally Posted by inkjetstore 

I am loving this discussion. I just purchased my imac a few weeks ago and hopefully when i finally get it, i will be able to configure the things discussed here.

That's one reason I have gone into detail !

This is an excellent forum with many knowledgeable and helpful members if you are new to iMacs, possibly not if you will be migrating, but certainly new to Macnn.

[Doc HM]

Given the option I would always migrate using Migration assistant and firewire.

It's by far the fastest method, using a TM backup via USB is also fine, it just takes longer.

Migrating using ethernet and/or wireless is just a mess. I've never had it not fail to complete. Usually one mac or other drops off the network connection at some point. It's just not reliable, and its slooooooooooooooooow.

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally Posted by Doc HM 

Migrating using ethernet and/or wireless is just a mess. I've never had it not fail to complete. Usually one mac or other drops off the network connection at some point. It's just not reliable, and its slooooooooooooooooow.

Never had more of an issue with Ethernet migration than with Firewire (I've had Firewire migrations "hang" with no change for fifteen minutes; after forced restart, it turned out that the GUI had been stuck, but the migration itself had been well underway).

[Waragainstsleep]

I've always preferred firewire myself. Only one OS to get in the way and usually a brand new one without any crap jamming it up and making it flaky.

[SAW419]

Question - when I migrate, does the info COPY to the new iMac and remain on the old iMac as well?

[Spheric Harlot]

Yes.

[MacNNUK]

I have been using the SD slot card reader on my new iMac, previously I used a USB SD reader.

Using it a lot, today I placed a SD card into the slot for the third time ....... without looking..... I had placed the SD card into the DVD slot.

Oops. Panic.

I was able to gently rotate the SD card out of the DVD slot, after a while with very thin tweezers, panic over.

Obviously I will be more careful in future, but I do consider it to be a design flaw to have the two slots adjacent, out of sight.

(I have yet to fit a DVD into the SD card slot )

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I have a funny with 10.7.3, after migration, I was unable to save many files, created under 10.6.8, and before,
especially spreadsheets, wrong permissions or something. I could only open them as read only.

Some if not all were password protected, perhaps p/w protecting them locked them to my old iMac too ?

Privileges locked to my user name in Excel under 10.6.8, but it's the same Excel user name here after migration to new iMac 10.7.3, iMac with different user name.

The way round it was to unlock the file in information, "save as" into a folder, delete original file, then move saved file to where the old one was located, then problem was solved.

Similarly today, using QT to view and trim short video having directly copied from SD card, then having to "save as", it would not save to desktop, as I used to in 10.6.8, but again had to save into a folder !

However, if I imported video or photo, only using Image Capture as default, I could save trimmed to desktop, go figure.

[MacNNUK]

I had to re-install via recovery, the end of the saga is here.

http://forums.macnn.com/90/mac-os-x/...e/#post4153356


Time Machine is not a good choice for transferring data to a new machine, or account.

[steve626]

MacNNUK -- your sagas make good reading. Mine's a lot shorter. Obtained new Macbook Air for daughter. Ran Migration Assistant via USB to old 10.5 iMac's Time Machine.

[Apple Store said to use USB or Firewire, that's how they do it when customers pay them to do the transfer. Macbook Air has only USB, no Firewire, so used USB. Apple Store also said Time Machine migration is "very reliable" for them.]

Transfer too a few hours (200 GB). No issues. Restarted once. Had to reinstall updated Canon printer/scanner driver. Otherwise nothing else was needed. No complications. Had good experience with migration using Time Machine backup.

[MacNNUK]

Excellent.

If I hadn't had the screen disturbance issues, and some incompatibility, my initial migration with Time Machine would have been good too !

10.6.8 from old iMac to 10.7.3 on new iMac

[SierraDragon]

Thanks for that Steve!

-Allen