Re: Best/Easiest Migration to New Mac

Norm <NOSPAM@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

We just got a new Mac. MBP with Leopard.

My wife has a G3 PB with Leopard. And I have a G3 with Tiger.

I assume you mean your wife's G3 has Panther (10.3). You can't run
Leopard (10.5) on a G3.

Taking new Mac on a trip and trying to figure out what is best and
easiest (and fastest) way to migrate/transfer all our documents, etc to
the new Mac.

Migration Assistant is included with Tiger (10.4) and Leopard (10.5). It
allows you to migrate user accounts from one computer to another one,
via a Firewire connection. It takes care of the details like creating a
new user account and managing the user IDs.

Migration Assistant requires Firewire if migrating from older systems.
It specifically requires Firewire Target Mode, so the question is
exactly which model your older computers are.

The only G3 model which supports Firewire Target Mode is the "PowerBook
G3 (Firewire)", also known as the "Pismo". Older PowerBook G3 models
don't have Firewire ports at all.

The "Power Macintosh G3 (Blue & White)" has a Firewire port, but it
doesn't support target mode.

So unless both your older computers are a PowerBook G3 with Firewire,
you will need another method of copying your data over.

Can I just copy the contents of the folders within each of our User
folders? But I assume I shouldn't copy the Library folder in our User
folders?

You need to copy the entire home folder, including the Library folder,
but this won't be particularly easy to do by hand.

If you leave out Library, you will lose important things like your
e-mail, address book and calendar data (if you are using Apple's Mail,
Address Book and/or iCal), as well as bookmarks for web browsers,
preferences for all applications, etc.

We should be able to come up with a solution, but some more details on
your existing Macs would be a useful place to start.

--
David Empson
dempson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
.

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