A few questions before my new iMac shows up today.....

[BruiserBear]

Hi Everyone. I'm completely new here. Love the site and forums.


I'm awaiting delivery on my new 20" 2.66ghz iMac today. This will be my second Mac purchase, and my first was a 13" G4 iBook from a few years ago. I've got a few quick questions that I'm wondering about as I prepare to set up my new machine.


1) Is it always a good idea to buy an external hard drive that is the same size or bigger, than the hard drive in your computer? My new iMac is gonna have a 320gb drive in it, but I have a 250gb external. As of right now the hard drive on my current ibook is only at 55gb full. What' the best advice on this topic?


2) Will my new iMac ask me if I want to copy over data from my iBook upon setup? I'm obviously wanting to transfer over iTunes and iPhoto. I'm kinda scared about doing this though. I'm rather limited with my knowledge in this area.

3) Can I use a feature like "Time Capsule" with this external Western Digital drive that I have? I'd really like to be more forward thinking when it comes to backing up data from now on. I never did anything with my iBook I've had these past few years. I got lucky that I never encountered a problem.


4) Any other last minute tips I should known before setting everything up today? I'd just rather not find out later that I forgot something, or should have done things another way.


Thanks for any help!

 

[soberbrain]

1) If you use Time Machine, you will eventually need more space than your drive for incremental back ups or if you have more data than your external can handle. Double your internal drive is what I've seen.

2) I believe Migration Assistant can help with that as long as you have a firewire drive to connect both computers.

3) Time Capsule is wireless router + back up drive. An external drive can definitely work as a back up drive. Actually, if you hook up an external (preferably a larger one) you can back up your iMac + your iBook. You just need to share the external with your iBook thru the iMac.

4) Be sure to test everything. All the apps you use to see how it can handle your daily activities. And test all the hardware you can screen, burn DVD/CD, bluetooth, etc.

Congrats and have fun!

 

[BruiserBear]

So the iMac alone doesn't have a program built into it that allows for migration from one computer to another?

 

[bartelby]

It should have Migration Assistant (or something). I've probably got this wrong but I think you'll need a 6 pin to 6 pin Firewire to do this. I can't remember if you can use usb or ethernet.

 

[MacGeek7]

1) Is it always a good idea to buy an external hard drive that is the same size or bigger, than the hard drive in your computer? My new iMac is gonna have a 320gb drive in it, but I have a 250gb external. As of right now the hard drive on my current ibook is only at 55gb full. What' the best advice on this topic? It depends on how much space you need


2) Will my new iMac ask me if I want to copy over data from my iBook upon setup? I'm obviously wanting to transfer over iTunes and iPhoto. I'm kinda scared about doing this though. I'm rather limited with my knowledge in this area. Yes, there is an option to transfer information from another Mac

3) Can I use a feature like "Time Capsule" with this external Western Digital drive that I have? I'd really like to be more forward thinking when it comes to backing up data from now on. I never did anything with my iBook I've had these past few years. I got lucky that I never encountered a problem. You can't perform a wireless back up like you can with Time Capsule but you can still use Time Machine

 

[BruiserBear]

Yes, there is an option to transfer information from another Mac

You can't perform a wireless back up like you can with Time Capsule but you can still use Time Machine

Oh thank you. That is exactly what I was wanting to hear. Hopefully this darn UPS truck shows up soon.

 

[dbam987]

Hopefully this darn UPS truck shows up soon.

Your next post should be written using your new iMac.

 

[cocky jeremy]

Your next post should be written using your new iMac.

And it should have pictures.. to further motivate my PC using self to hurry and get my 24" iMac!!! lol.

 

[BruiserBear]

I've got my iMac hooked up and working fine now. Everything looks perfect cosmetically. Haven't noticed any screen issues, and I'm very happy about that. I was a bit worried hearing all the stories.

I've got a few more questions though.

I'm about to run out and get a firewire cable to transfer the data from my old mac later tonight. I was wondering what files I really need to transfer.

For example. I really only want to transfer my itunes music, and my iPhoto pictures. That's it. Can this be done through the system related transfer? I ask because it was giving me four options to transfer.

Files under my name - about 36gb of data- I'm assuming this is my iTunes music, but is it also my photos?

Network files - not concerned about those.

Applications - not sure what this was, but I believe it was 6gb of data.

Folders and Files - not sure what this was. But it was about 500mb of data.


So can some tell me the easiest way to just transfer my music and photos?


Also, when starting up iTunes for the first time, it's asking me if I want to set iTunes as my default for handling "internet audio content". Can someone tell me what that means?