[pjmurphy]

I attempted searching for an answer..couldnt find any on this forum..sorry if there is a thread for this!

I will be the proud new papa of a 1Ghz PowerBook in the next couple of weeks. I have had a 17" iMac for about 3 months now and hoping to find an EASY way to move my data/programs over to the new PowerBook. Moving from a WinXP to Mac is WELL documented.. how canI do this?

Thanks in advance!

[Thain Esh Kelch]

Get a crossover cable and just copy the files over the network.

[Raining Down in Texas]

Originally posted by pjmurphy:
I attempted searching for an answer..couldnt find any on this forum..sorry if there is a thread for this!

I will be the proud new papa of a 1Ghz PowerBook in the next couple of weeks. I have had a 17" iMac for about 3 months now and hoping to find an EASY way to move my data/programs over to the new PowerBook. Moving from a WinXP to Mac is WELL documented.. how canI do this?

Thanks in advance!

Firewire target disk mode is the quickest way to move files between machines. Power off one of the machines, connect a Firewire cable between them, and start up the powered-down machine while holding the "T" key down. That machine will appear as a hard drive to the other machine, and you can copy files back and forth with the Finder. Make sure to eject the disk when you're done.

I think this is the most undersold capability of modern Macs. I recently set up a dual GHz Powermac at work using files from my iBook, and even the PC users in the lab were pretty impressed at the simplicity of it.

[KidRed]

Originally posted by Raining Down in Texas:

Firewire target disk mode is the quickest way to move files between machines. Power off one of the machines, connect a Firewire cable between them, and start up the powered-down machine while holding the "T" key down. That machine will appear as a hard drive to the other machine, and you can copy files back and forth with the Finder. Make sure to eject the disk when you're done.

I think this is the most undersold capability of modern Macs. I recently set up a dual GHz Powermac at work using files from my iBook, and even the PC users in the lab were pretty impressed at the simplicity of it.

What he said

[tomfrog]

If you want to copy everything, including OS and user files, you can use Carbon Copy Cloner (bombich.com)

[pjmurphy]

thanks for the various tips. Remembering I come from the windows world, when I see a program file in OS X (like quicken 2003) in my applications directory, can I just copy that entire file and move it to the new machine? In WIN, the program intergrates itself EVERYWHERE (registery, WIN32..etc) in the system..preventing you from moving applications so easily.

Hopefully the answer is yes and this is just another confirmation for me making the switch to MAC!

[Raining Down in Texas]

Originally posted by pjmurphy:
thanks for the various tips. Remembering I come from the windows world, when I see a program file in OS X (like quicken 2003) in my applications directory, can I just copy that entire file and move it to the new machine? In WIN, the program intergrates itself EVERYWHERE (registery, WIN32..etc) in the system..preventing you from moving applications so easily.

Hopefully the answer is yes and this is just another confirmation for me making the switch to MAC!

Generally, on the Mac you can just move the applications to where you want them and copy them between machines. In OS X, most applications are actually bundles of files that contain everything they need to operate.
I switched from PCs about three years ago because of this very issue. I had it with the fragility of Windows. I am the "expert" that most of my friends and coworkers come to when they have computer problems. I finally had a problem with Windows 98 Second Edition that I could not debug or solve - I had to reinstall the OS. Under OS 9 on the Mac, I never had a problem that I could not debug and solve. Same under OS X so far, although I will admit that I am a long-time Unix user.

[Christina]

Can a B&W G3 work in target mode? Holding down the T key doesn't seem to work, I've tried it a few reboots but it always loads up into OS X...

OOPS, editing now... Apparently my new TiBook does target mode fine, so I'm just mounting it on the G3 and copying, instead of the other way around.

Thanks,
Christina

[iamnid]

"Can a B&W G3 work in target mode? Holding down the T key doesn't seem to work, I've tried it a few reboots but it always loads up into OS X..."




I'm not certain, but if you have a newer mac you could make that mac go into target disk mode and mount it on the B&W's desktop -- that should work.

[Christina]

Sure seems doubtful. Just do things the other way around (provided the other machine is new enough to do this anyway).

Originally posted by iamnid:
"Can a B&W G3 work in target mode? Holding down the T key doesn't seem to work, I've tried it a few reboots but it always loads up into OS X..."




I'm not certain, but if you have a newer mac you could make that mac go into target disk mode and mount it on the B&W's desktop -- that should work.

[Visnaut]

Originally posted by Thain Esh Kelch:
Get a crossover cable and just copy the files over the network.

Although its already been established that Firewire Target Disk mode is faster (I just did that the other day with my gf's new Ti, actually), I just thought I'd like to mention that recent Macs DO NOT need crossover cables! They're smart enough to cross the pins inside the circuitry. Take a look for yourself:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=42717

Even first-generation Ti's could do this, as I've had the pleasure to discover

[chris.p]

you might want to copy over application support folder too- its in your user directory in the library folder. Things like Photoshop have a paddy when it isnt there (it either doesnt start, or on startup it tells you it can find certain files and so wont work properly)