12-07-2007, 02:35 PM

I just bought a new iMac with Leopard (yahoo!) and I want to transfer all of my files/apps over to it from my old G4. On my G4 (running 10.2.8) I added a second hard drive about 2 years ago and I use that one as my start-up disk and all my current files, apps etc.

The problem is that when I connect them with firewire and use Migration Assistant, only the old hard drive shows up not the newer one which I really want migrated over to the iMac. I tried all different ways to get to the newer drive without luck.

How can I get this to work???
Thanks

12-07-2007, 02:41 PM

I don't know if this would work for you or not, but what I did in a situation like yours was put the drive in an external Firewire case and plug it in to the new Macs Firewire port. It found it and migrated everything over.

12-07-2007, 02:44 PM

Welcome to Mac-Forums, AJF.

If I were you, I would not, repeat, absolutely not blindly use Migration Assistant to carry over to your new Mac those applications and files running on Jaguar. More than likely, maybe 75% or even more of those will not work in Leopard not to mention you were on a PowerPC Mac and are now on an Intel-based Mac: some of those programs might not even run under Rosetta emulation.

I would make a clone backup of the fresh Leopard install first then reinstall the old applications one by one on your new Mac and, in a test user account, import the files using a USB key or something, see how they open up, etc. If anything should go wrong and incompatibilities mess the system really hard, I would revert to the backed up system.

It might look like tedious work but Leopard on its own has a few problems, reimporting in it very old data like that is playing with fire IMO and taking precautions like that would give you the best chances of succeeding this moving on to a new Mac and the latest OS version.


Edited to add:

Oops! Sounds like I might be too pessimistic. Trav says the apps would work. Follow Trav's advice.

12-07-2007, 02:48 PM

MHC, that is an excellent point on the old Apps on Jaguar as some will not even work. His documents, Pics and other items though could be copied over at a later time.

12-07-2007, 02:50 PM

Yep files (especially non-proprietary files like .jpegs, .gifs, text documents, etc.) might be ok but I personally would not import applications.

12-07-2007, 03:28 PM

What took you guys so long to reply ? I was going to check back tomorrow and HOPE I got 1 reply! Thanks for the help.

I guess I really only need to import:
Word documents ( can I download Office from it's disc and then update?)
Bookmarks for Safari & Firefox
iChat buddy lists (for the kids of course)
Pix in iPhoto
Address book
Emails
itunes library (most importantly)

How do transfer these over? Also, do I use Time Machine to make a clone back-up? I'm afraid that I'm not a power user; so please speak slowly and in a clear voice.

12-07-2007, 03:38 PM

The best backup application is, without a doubt, SuperDuper! (correct spelling for google) but it hasn't been updated for 10.5 Leopard yet (although it should be any day now). The second best would be Carbon Copy Cloner.

And those files should be ok. Copying over applications would not be a good idea but you can always try out the files, see what you can open them up with. Bookmarks, music files, images, etc. should be good to go.

As for Office docs, maybe you could try either OpenOffice or NeoOffice: just haven't checked to see if either work well under Leopard though.

Time Machine is not a true blue cloning-booting-from-backup app and you cannot boot from it unless you pop in the Leopard install disk in the optical drive, I seem to recall having read somewhere.

12-07-2007, 03:48 PM

Got it. I can just copy the files to a thumb drive. But what about itunes though, I have a lot of songs and many are DRM'd . What's the best way transfer all of those files? Do I lose them on the old computer?

12-07-2007, 03:56 PM

What service do your children use for iChat? AIM accounts (AOL Instant Messenger) should be fine, the buddy list is stored on AOL's server so you should be able to just log in with your normal iChat info and everything will be there. I don't have a .Mac account, so I don't know if those buddy lists would be the same way or not.

iTunes stores its music in the Music folder, there should be an iTunes folder that has your music. Each user account has a music folder, so if you have multiple users with each having their own library, you would need to copy from each account. The full path would be /Users/username/Music/iTunes

12-07-2007, 03:56 PM

I used the Migration Assistant when I moved my stuff from my old G4 iMac running Panther (10.3.9) and the new (back then) iMac G5 running Tiger (10.4) I had just bought.

If I recall correctly, you can choose in the Migration Assistant options what you want to import. You could try choosing files and user data like Bookmarks and Address Book entries.

Since I have done this quite a while ago, hold on just a bit to see if anybody else could verify this for you.

12-07-2007, 04:04 PM

Originally Posted by AJF

Got it. I can just copy the files to a thumb drive. But what about itunes though, I have a lot of songs and many are DRM'd . What's the best way transfer all of those files? Do I lose them on the old computer?

You can copy to a thumb drive if you have enough room. You could also burn the files to CD or DVD if you have a burner.

DRM'd music from the iTunes Store is fine, Apple's FairPlay allows you to have 5 (I think) authorized computers that you can have the same song on. When you import them into iTunes and try to play them for the first time, it should ask you to sign in to your iTunes account to authorize the new computer. Alternatively, in iTunes, you can manually select the "Store" menu and then "Authorize".

You may also want to Deathorize your old computer if you do not plan to keep it, so that it is not using up one of your authorizations. Just choose "Store" then "Deauthorize".

12-07-2007, 04:06 PM

Yes they use AOL IM. I transferred files from my Mac laptop to my G5 at work (I'm a photographer) and I was sorry I did because it transferred EVERYTHING! All kinds of stuff I didn't want on a nice new computer. So I'm a little leery about doing it anyways if you can't choose what it loads. So I'll try it as you suggested, it's safer.

Just wondering tho, why do you think the second HD on my old G4 isn't showing up?

12-07-2007, 04:15 PM

It's been a while, I forgot about having to authorize your computers. Thanks

12-09-2007, 10:12 AM

Just wanted to say thanks! I was able to download all of my iTunes songs, photos, documents, passwords etc. to an external HD (MyBook) and load them onto my new computer. It took a while but I think it was a lot safer than using Migration Assistant.

12-09-2007, 10:45 AM

Excellent news! At least this way you're giving all the chances for your system to work well.