iMac Migraton Questions

[roland.g]

I have a new iMac that I want to migrate data from my Mini to. I also still have my G4 tower that I never finished migrating from but that's another story. I think I have 4 total drives between my Mini, miniStack, G4 drive, and 2nd G4 internal.

I know how to use target disk mode w/ FW or network (ethernet or Airport) to access all the data.

I also used my .Mac syncing to bring my Address Book, iCal, Mail, Safari Bookmarks, and Keychains across from my Mini to my new iMac. And I know I can copy my iTunes library across to the iMac drive and then copy the library files over to bring all my playlists, etc over. Not sure if this is a problem for my Apple TV or iPhone, but I would think that this data is also contained in the library file.

Is the Migration assistant worth using at all, and do you have any control over exactly what it copies and doesn't. What I really need brought over seamlessly is my iPhoto library. Didn't know if that was as simple as the iTunes. Drag the library data across into the pictures folder and then launch. What is the keyboard command set for rebuilding iPhoto and iTunes libraries upon launch? Option-Command+Launch App? And what does this actually do?

Any suggestions would be great. I wish their was a guide for the best way to manually migrate data. I don't want full migration b/c my data is not as organized as I want it so docs and movies and such I will do more piecemeal as well as Apps that I want most of, but not all.

Thanks.

 

[mad jew]

The iPhoto library is as simple as iTunes to migrate manually. Also, your Apple TV and iPhone won't know the difference between the new machine(s) and the old. Their sync settings are retained in the relevant library file.

Migration Assistant is okay but it's not great for some of the more complicated aspects of the system. For what you've been talking about, it should be fine. However, I think it'd be quicker and easier to simply do it manually. Plus there's less chance of error this way. For what it's worth, Migration Assistant gives the user a few different choices when it comes to what gets synced, but it's not terribly comprehensive.

 

[roland.g]

The iPhoto library is as simple as iTunes to migrate manually. Also, your Apple TV and iPhone won't know the difference between the new machine(s) and the old. Their sync settings are retained in the relevant library file.

Migration Assistant is okay but it's not great for some of the more complicated aspects of the system. For what you've been talking about, it should be fine. However, I think it'd be quicker and easier to simply do it manually. Plus there's less chance of error this way. For what it's worth, Migration Assistant gives the user a few different choices when it comes to what gets synced, but it's not terribly comprehensive.

I copied both my iTunes and iPhoto libraries over and lauched the apps to use the respective data and library files, as well as syncing all my .mac from my mini to .mac to the iMac for mail, safari, address book, ical. I have yet to plug my phone in to the new iMac but when I launched iTunes it did not see the Apple TV. So I fear that I will have to re-sync it which took quite some time over my g based Airport router.