No Time Machine on G5 iMAC? say it ain't so

[cognus]

I'm trying to move stuff from a G5 iMAC to a 2011 intel i3-based iMAC on which I just upgraded to Yosemite. I'm stumped at every attempt to just move the stuff. This should be easy

I have searched high and low for any mention of "backup" or "time capsule" or "time machine" on the old mac. nada. There is an old version of Migration Assistant... is Time Capsule/backup/machine a subfunction of Migration Assistant on the old?

On the new, in theory one should be able to fire up Migration Asst under Yosemite, have it find the G5 on the network, and just suck everything over, but it fails. I have both on the net, both are able to poke around in the other's files [have sharing enabled on both], but Migration Assistant cannot achieve coherence.... it just sits there eternally looking for 'servers', time capsules, or "other Macs",, and finds nothing. I tried manually assigning the other Mac as a server, and that too failed. I input the exact ip address and it seemed to swallow it find [I don't know if it actually establishes communication at that stage], but again, Migration Assistant spins the dial just trying to find something, and never does.

so I am at a standstill.

The G5's config: OS/X 10.4.11, and that is supposedly the last update available for that model.

 

[Raz0rEdge]

Unless I'm mistaken, Time Machine functionality came in around OS X 10.5 Leopard which also was the last version of OS X that worked on a PowerPC based Mac, so your G5 should be able to be upgraded to that unless it doesn't have the right hardware specs to support Leopard.

And, of course, finding a copy of Leopard is a different (and expensive) story..

While Migration Assistant is a convenient feature to transfer data from one Mac to another, in your case I wonder if it might be easier for you to identify the set of folders/files that are needed on the G5 and then copy to them the newer iMac through USB flash drive or something..

I haven't used Migration Assistant or moved data around Macs, so I'm not expert when it comes to this..

 

[pigoo3]

I'm trying to move stuff from a G5 iMAC to a 2011 intel i3-based iMAC on which I just upgraded to Yosemite.

The G5's config: OS/X 10.4.11, and that is supposedly the last update available for that model.

Raz0rEdge has it right. OS 10.5 was the first Mac OS version to include Time Machine. So if this iMac G5 has OS 10.4.11 installed on it…then it doesn't have Time Machine. Also OS 10.4.11 is not the newest OS an iMac G5 can run. All iMac G5's can run OS 10.5.8.

Migration Assistant is what you want to use (due to running an old OS like 10.4.11)…it's your automated Apple option.

One thing you need to be VERY VERY aware of. Pretty much none of your applications are going to work on a newer iMac running OS 10.10 Yosemite. You can transfer your other files (photos, music, MS Office files, videos, etc.)…but your apps. from an G5 iMac running OS 10.4.11 are almost guaranteed not to run.

- Nick

 

[vansmith]

That difference in version, as noted, is likely the culprit. The G5 is six iterations behind and asking for t to work smoothly is asking a lot. You might have to do this manually by transferring files the old fashioned way of simply moving them across the network or through an external HD.

 

[harryb2448]

Well I shall say it for you ~ it ain't so!

Have a read of this link managing Time Machine on Leopard OS X.5. Of course you had to activate TM and run it via say an external hard drive or partition. It did not simply run itself:-


Mac OS X 10.5: Using Time Machine and troubleshooting Time Machine issues

 

[pigoo3]

Well I shall say it for you ~ it ain't so!

Thanks Harry! After just rereading the thread title...I should have said the same thing!

- Nick