[Ralpho]

I want to get one of the new iMacs this year but am worried about the hassle of transferring all relevant information from my old iMac G5 (purchased three years ago) to the new iMac. I'm not worried about moving text files and pictures. That takes time, but at least I know how to do it.

What I want to know is this: Is there an easy way to transfer things like Safari bookmarks, address book contents and (most importantly) all that real confusing stuff the computer needs to know to connect to my router and the internet?

Knowing Apple, I imagine they have made this a relatively easy process, but I have never heard about it.

[Simon]

Migration Assistant.

When you start up the new Mac it will ask if you are migrating from another Mac. You say yes, select what to transfer (apps, files, settings, accounts, etc.) connect the two Macs with a FW cable, and it will do everything automatically from there. You can then log into your transfered 'old' account on the new Mac as if nothing had happened. Seamless and very Apple-like.

[mduell]

Some users have had issues after using Migration Assistant from a PPC system to an Intel system. It's a good first try, but if you end up with issues, you could try again by booting the G5 in target disk mode and copying the files manually.

[Cold Warrior]

I recommend manual copy. I migrated my brother this Christmas from a TiBook to a new MacBook and avoided the migration assistant out of concern for the PPC-to-Intel system issues. So far, so good.

[MacinTommy]

What are the odds that they will do any updates to the iMac at Macworld?

[Pierre B.]

Originally Posted by Cold Warrior 

I recommend manual copy. I migrated my brother this Christmas from a TiBook to a new MacBook and avoided the migration assistant out of concern for the PPC-to-Intel system issues. So far, so good.

This is the first time I hear about that. What issues could you run into and why? This is just a settings and non-system data transfer.

[Cold Warrior]

Originally Posted by Pierre B. 

This is the first time I hear about that. What issues could you run into and why? This is just a settings and non-system data transfer.

Only anecdotal experiences. To me, it's like an upgrade-install to Leopard vs an archive-install, where the archive-install option results in few to no issues, while I see routinely see many issues with an upgrade-install. Somewhere, in some way, settings get transferred for convenience yet result in system or user account flakiness later.

Again, just anecdotally, and my 2 cents based on my individual experience troubleshooting upgrades, installations, and transfers.

YMMV.

[mduell]

Originally Posted by MacinTommy 

What are the odds that they will do any updates to the iMac at Macworld?

Low. Probably not until about April, IMO.

[Simon]

Since the OP is migrating form another Mac he basically already has a "backup". He can try the MA straight away. If any problems pop up he can still go back, do an A&I, or even a clean install and manually migrate.

Personally I think that's the way to go. There's no need going into lengthy and boring procedures because problems might occur. Start with the easiest first and escalate only if necessary.

[Veltliner]

I also had trouble. I also think that using the migration assistant pulls a lot of useless files across.

I saved 15Gb of space by manual transfer.

I posted a list of things to pull across (from safari bookmarks to iCal entries, etc.) which I found somewhere on the web.

You can find it by using the search function, and entering "migration assistant or migrating". Time: around September 07.

Worked nice.

I had to flush the Safari cache for some reason, but that was the only issue I had after the manual transfer.

[JKT]

The reason some people have had issues with MA from PPC to Intel is that it can pull over apps and third party extensions that are not compatible with the Intel architecture (e.g. if all your installs are not up-to-date, or the app/extension is obsolete). This is less likely to happen now, assuming you have updated all your apps, as most applications, etc. are now Intel compatible, whereas when people first started doing this shortly after the first Intel iMac was launched, many (obviously) were not.

Personally, I used MA to pull over all my documents, preferences, etc but not my Apps which I installed manually, making sure they were the latest versions and Intel compatible first.

[Woebgon]

I may be wrong, but if you buy your new iMac at an Apple Store they will transfer your files for free.