Re: Transferring hard drive comtents between Macs

Michelle Steiner wrote:
In article <Ofj6i.59864$V75.29395@edtnps89>,
Robert Montgomery <info-block@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


Then load the separate files from your previous Users Folder including any new fonts you like and last load the previously saved back-up copies of your personal files and bookmarks.

Is that the point at which I should run Migration Assistant? I thought Migration Assistant will run the first time I start the new computer, but you wrote that when I first start the new computer, to first install the applications from the original disks.


Let me take a stab at it. There are two situations here: (1) when you first start the computer, right out of the box--and (2) any time after you ran the setup utility.

In case 1, when you run the Mac for the first time, the Setup utility offers you the opportunity to transfer files from your former Mac; if you say yes, it will run the Migration Assistant.

In case 2, you run the Migration Assistant yourself; it is in the Utilities folder.

In both cases, Migration Assistant tells you step by step what to do, which is essentially to connect the computers with a Firewire cable and start up the source computer in Target Disk Mode, then continue with the Migration Assistant.

Migration Assistant is smart; it knows not to transfer older versions of software on the computer you're copying to. It knows to transfer software from the old computer to the new computer if that software is not on the new computer. It knows to transfer user folders. If I recall correctly, it lets you choose which user folders to transfer.

Thanks for taking a stab at it, Michele.

In Migration Assistant on the new iMac, will there be an icon of the contents of my old drive that I can click on to choose the entire contents of that drive to transfer globally (minus anything the Assistant automatically in its wisdom deems as unnessary or harmful)?

Or do I have to laboriosly choose various folders to copy, such as my Desktop folder, my Robert Folder, my Applications folder, my TIFF projects folder (which is inside my work projects folder and also needs to be transferred), my Macintosh HD drive contents?

(I've got 62 gigs of data altogether on the old computer, so there's a lot of stuff there to copy!)

Robert

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