05-04-2012, 11:40 PM

Considering buying a new laptop but it will inevitably come with Lion and I'm still using Snow Leopard on my 2009 Macbook Pro. Has anyone had any problems booting from Time Machine on a harddrive that saved everything from Snow Leopard?

I have lots of editing software like Final Cut Pro and Adobe stuff that I don't want to spend a long time downloading and installing or buying again, will it migrate if I boot it on Lion?

Insights appreciated

05-05-2012, 02:10 AM

There should be no problem using Time Machine to migrate from a machine running Snow Leopard to a new machine with Lion. The idea is to do the migration the first time you turn on the new machine and it asks you if you wish to copy data from another Mac. Choose Time Machine, attach your external hard drive. I've done this myself several times without incident.

05-05-2012, 07:56 AM

There are only two potential problems that might come into play. I don't think it will involve a large number of programs.

1. If you have any programs left over that were Power PC only, (G5 and before), they will probably restore with an international "no" symbol over them. These programs will not run under Lion.
2. There may be a few programs that need to be reinstalled rather than migrated. I am not sure but I think Photoshop and Microsoft Office behave this way.

05-05-2012, 10:25 AM

I had office 2011 from Microsoft and didn't have to re-install. I did have to re-authenticate but the copied over Office worked.

Depending on the license scheme of software you may have to do this for other apps. Last time I dealt with Adobe - I think I had to de-authorize one computer before doing the restore. I believe the same is true for iTunes - you should de-authorize the original computer if you aren't going to be using it anymore.

My favorite comment from my wife was - she didn't have to do anything when she got her new computer. She was actually kind of bummed that she didn't have to do "that new computer setup that you do with windows when you get a new one."

06-04-2012, 08:11 AM

Just upgraded to Lion on my Mac Pro and got these n"No" messages on my office software. What do I have to do now?

06-04-2012, 09:29 AM

Which version of Office are you running? I don't think Microsoft ever made Office 2004 work with Lion. 2998 is supposed to work though there are some issues with installation Install Office 2008 on Lion. The Mac-related Microsoft blog also discusses some of these issues. A search they're may help.

06-05-2012, 03:59 AM

Thanks for pointer. Unfortunately I am on 2004 Office so I guess that means buying new version??

06-05-2012, 10:02 AM

Depending upon what your Office needs are you might want to try Apache OpenOffice - The Free and Open Productivity Suite, NeoOffice Home, or Home » LibreOffice. All are either free or significantly cheaper than Office.

I transfer documents between NeoOffice and the PC version of Office regularly with few issues though my formatting needs are pretty basic. I also can't comment on how well any database work transfers.

06-05-2012, 12:48 PM

Originally Posted by lamstones

Thanks for pointer. Unfortunately I am on 2004 Office so I guess that means buying new version??

Office 04 is, indeed, a PowerPC native application. It won't run on Lion.

06-07-2012, 02:16 AM

many thanks for both replies. unfortunately i do work sometimes from home and work is all MSFT Office so documents need to be fairly compatible. looks like no escaping paying MSFT...

06-07-2012, 10:02 AM

If the formatting is not you complex the other programs might do the trick. It might be worth downloading one and trying a few files to see if there are issues. Use backups of your files of course.

I may go back to MSFT myself. I have a few Excel documents with macros that are not working with NeoOiffice. At this point I am not sure if the problem is a bug in the macros or a problem with NeoOffice not running the macros properly.