[X4U] New Computer........

[Neil Laubenthal]

On Feb 11, 2012, at 10:09 AM,2/11, LAL wrote:

> I have heard that there are no more discs that come with the computer and that installation of a virgin LION system software requires a visit to the app store. (But if one can't do that, then........????)
> 
> (cannot tell U how many times needed to reinstall system software on the G4....)
> 
> Someone have a hint here...
> 
> And, since this is as factory fresh as one can get, what is the collective wisdom of this group as to what are the first things I should do to maximize the probability of this one operating as designed....
> 
> If there is something you wish you did when starting up with a new laptop and did not, but are willing to share, please do.


If you bought Lion separately . . .you can download the installer and make a bootable USB key out of it. For machines that ship with it installed . . .I wonder how this works . . .there must be a way to get the actual installer for backup purposes but I don't know what it is.

When Lion is installed it creates a separate recovery partition which is a minimal installation . . .just enough to get the computer booted and connected to the network. In an emergency you can boot from this partition and redownload Lion . . .but again if there is a way to do this then I would imagine that you could download the installer and burn a USB key as noted above.

The recovery partition option doesn't work if you don't have network access . . .hence I believe it is a less than fully satisfactory option. I burned a USB key as well as a 10 GB partition on a FW drive for reinstalls when needed.

Since you're coming from a non Intel machine . . .I would not use Migration Assistant to move everything over . . .create new users, reinstall applications/add-ins/etc from scratch. The drawback to this is that you don't get your old home directory. The only things you likely really need from there are iCal and Address Book entries which can be exported, copied, and imported and Mail info . . .which can be exported or put onto an IMAP server and redownloaded. I haven't tried but I think if you just move ~/Library/Mail and ~/Library/Mail Downloads over to the new machine you can just import the contents into a new mailbox.

If absolutely necessary . . .I would migrate only your user account and homedirectory . . .but would not use Migration Assistant to do this. The first account you create on your new machine will be an admin account, make sure to name this differently from your every day account on the G4. After logging into the new one with the admin account; copy the homedirectory for your every day account on the G4 to the new one. Now create the same username on the new one and tell it to use the existing directory when you get the homedirectory prompt . . .this will fix the permissions so that they work correctly. Finally, make the every day account on the new machine admin or not as you prefer . . .I recommend against doing this for my clients. I also turn off automatic login and set all the security stuff, enable Filevault 2, turn on the firewall in stealth mode, set screensaver and wakeup password required, etc.

Time Machine or Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper or whatever you use for backup and cloning purposes set up later after the new one is configured.

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There are only three kinds of stress; your basic nuclear stress, cooking stress, and A$$hole stress. The key to their relationship is Jello.

neil