Migrating from G4 to Intel

Has anyone here done this?

If so, did you use Migration Assistant? Were there any problems?

Cheers.

Hmm... I don't think there should be much trouble, as the migration assistant only transports files. You can transport all your applications as well, but most of those will be PowerPC native, and will potetntially slow down a wee bit on the Intel machine.

The more spicy question is: What are the operating systems (OS X versions) your migrating from/to?

I migrated all my old stuff from a G4 iMac to an iMac G5 so not exactly the same thing as you are wondering about. But, nonetheless, looking back there are a few things I would avoid knowing what I know now...

I asked for all my stuff to be migrated to the new iMac. Mistake because some of those apps didn't work on Tiger (my old iMac had a Panther system). Not only that but it brought in a lot of orphaned files from apps I had previously installed and gotten rid of, so my Preferences folder and Application Support folder was full of these.

I should have asked to only migrate my settings as I really really really hate, for instance, setting up my email accounts, ISP and the like. That would have made for a much cleaner system to begin with. What I did eventually was I sat down and cleared all the old stuff that didn't work in Tiger, tried to delete the old orphaned Application Support folders/files and pref files.

So before you do a mass migration of all your data, make sure you choose the right setting for this procedure. I gather you are migrating from a Tiger system to a Tiger system so apps not working right will be at a minimum in your case: you will only need to worry about the ones that don't play nice with Rosetta.

I migrated a iMac G3 to an iMac intel for a friend which went fine apart from the same thing as what Macheadcase says that it copied everything. I ended up going through the hole harddrive and deleting all the non intel programs and library junk from programs long deleted + the non intel program resources. The system however worked fine :headphone No problems to report with that.

I upgraded my wife from a G4 iMac to an Intel iMac with no issues whatsoever. Much of the software she had was already Universal so it was not a real issue there.

Thanks folks. It would be a migration from Tiger to Tiger, and I think most of the apps I use are universal, except Office, and even there I can use NeoOffice as an alternative to Excel. Word will be the only one under Rosetta.

I might just migrate the settings, as you suggest.

As I said in the other thread I started regarding fresh installing, I did move my Microsoft User Data folder, so might have to move that manually.

Would it be possible to drag and drop apps from the G4 to the iMac if I mounted the former as a disk?

Some yes, some no, but you can choose to migrate the Apps in Migration assistant so do it that way.

Right, so migrate apps and settings - but not everything, yes?

Migration assistant will move everything you need from the old computer to the new one, so that when you boot the new one all your stuff will be where it was, all the Apps should work and even your desktop picture and screensaver will be the same. It moves the entire user profile to the new machine.

Thanks, baggss.

Your username makes me think of Bagpuss.

http://www.smallfilms.co.uk/bagpuss/

Just one other question: if I migrate my apps, would I be correct in assuming that it wouldn't replace the new universal ones with the old PPC ones?

Hmm. It might make duplicates. I'm not sure on this. That's why I would just import my user settings (for email and ISP settings) and reinstall the apps from scratch.

Retrieving bookmarks and old emails are pretty easy to do.

Bookmarks for Safari are stored here: Macintosh HD ---> Users ---> Your user account ---> Library ---> Safari ---> Bookmarks.plist

Copying over this folder would bring back your emails, I think: Macintosh HD ---> Users ---> Your user account ---> Library ---> Mail

Let us check this out first...

Am I right in saying the emails are stored there? Macintosh HD ---> Users ---> Your user account ---> Library ---> Mail folder?

Ooooh... I've been reading up on this (probably not the best idea, too much information and all that...) and now I'm worried about printer drivers, duplicated apps, stuff that's in my System Preferences (such as Macaroni)...

Ooohhh...

OK, I've placed my order! I feel as excited as I do guilty!

I'm still not sure about this Migration Assistant, though. I've read both good and bad stories about it.

I think as MacHeadCase suggests, I'll just transfer settings. Then I can mount my backup drive and drag files/folders as I need them from there.

I migrated everything from a G4 Power Mac to an Intel Core 2 Duo iMac.

It worked perfectly - everything from web bookmarks, to passwords to programs copied over fine.

The only exceptions were Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. These wouldn't run as they were missing a couple of files and had to be reinstalled.

You will need to replace your PPC apps with Universal programs where possible however - they'll run, but more slowly than if you were using the Universal version.