[iBook] NT: Moving from one Mac to another

[Charles Pearce]

On Jun 29, 2005, at 2:44 PM, Richard McKay wrote:

> On 29/6/05 14:57, "Scott Warren" <sw at shelton.org> wrote:
>
>
>>   and the not so obvious username\library folder that contains:
>> --"applications support" containing your address book
>> --"mail" folder that holds your Apple Mail (if you use that)...
>>
>
> I tend to move the entire ~/Library folder over to the new computer  
> and
> place it inside a new folder on the desktop for a few weeks to  
> ensure that I
> didn't miss something. For example the Keychain file that holds all  
> the
> posswords one needs or the mbox files from Mail.app.
>
> You may wish to also include certain folders from the 'Your HD  
> name'/Library
> folder as well (for example from the /Fonts folder any fonts that  
> you have
> acquired...legally of course).
>
> But really the best thing to do would be to make a complete backup  
> of the
> old systems drive and then *actually* check to see that it works and
> everything is there before you migrate so that if you do indeed notice
> something irreplaceable is missing you can still recover it!

I took Brian's advice and used the migration utility that Apple so  
graciously provides. All my email settings came back. Let's see about  
iCal ----- yup, they're right where I left them. How about iTunes  
---- oops, it didn't know where to look for the library; a quick fix.  
iPhoto, same as iTunes. Everything else is good. It copied over all  
my Safari and Firefox bookmarks, as well as all my Mail app settings,  
mailboxes, archives and so on. I'm very, very happy.

Sure, it took a bit under four hours to make the switch, but I could  
use my trusty iBook while waiting.

The migration utility comes up automatically as an option when you  
boot the new machine. It asks if you have a Macintosh you want to  
transfer files from. There's also an option for going from a  
partition to another. Clicking on the "other Macintosh" option takes  
you to a screen that tells you how to connect to your old machine via  
Firewire and then waits patiently while you boot it, holding down the  
"T" key. There are some other options that come up and ask what all  
you want transferred. I clicked just about everything and it started  
doing its business.

You gotta love a company that provides for this in the operating system.

Whoohoo!

Charles Pearce
charlesp at ksu.edu