Would like to merge two iMacs (different users) into one. Most complete method?

[Bernie Steak]

Looking for a little help. Tried searching the forums here and Google but not found much specific help, probably due to fairly generic keywords.

I'm looking at reducing our families iMac count from two to one.

Ideally, I would like to move all the content, programs, everything over from my iMac to my wife's (slightly newer, higher spec) iMac. In a perfect world, on the "new" machine, we would both have our own user accounts, with our current set-ups intact.

We use a time machine to back up both our systems regularly, and I have access to external hard drives if that would be helpful during the process.

I was wondering if I could move my hard drive from my iMac into my wifes without too much fuss, then create a new account on that system for my wife, and import all her accounts/data/files into that new account.

We do use almost exactly the same software, so losing any of her programs is not an issue, as long as data and documents are fine, then all is good.

Or, if there's an alternative method, I'd love to know!

Any help much appreciated.

Thank you!

 

[AppleNewton]

I'm pretty certain Migration Assistant will be a good choice to try in this instance.
It is in your Applications > Utilities folder.

If your other iMac is connected via FireWire, Ethernet or AirPort (prefer FireWire or Ethernet for fastest transfer speeds).

basically connect the mac to the mac you want to transfer it to, if you use firewire, boot the source mac (old mac) into firewire disk mode (or target disk mode) by holding down the T key during bootup, a firewire icon will appear and the hard drive should show up in the finder of the destination Mac.

Next launch Migration assistant, choose From Another Mac, then choose the connection type you want to transfer over to, if you used FireWire Disk Mode (Target Disk Mode) select FireWire.

Then you should see a window that has Users, Applications, Settings, etc.
Select the user(s) you want to transfer and anything else you want to preserve.

Then it should take it over automatically and be good to go from there and after its done will be like what was had on the previous Mac plus the current accounts, applications and settings already on the iMac.

heres some Apple knowledge base resources too:
http://support.apple.com/kb/index?p...ase.search&locale=en_US&q=MIgration Assistant

 

[Bernie Steak]

Thanks, that's a really good help.

Will my "step one" of my plan, simply taking my 1gb hard drive out of my iMac and dropping it into the other iMac work without any issues?

Mine's a 24" mid 07 model (2.8 ghz), the machine it'd go into would be a 24" early 08 model (3.06 ghz).

 

[AppleNewton]

In theory it should if its updated to the latest OSX, sometimes it might not operate properly if running a different build of the OS than the destination machine has.
but then again swapping out drives in the aluminum iMacs are fairly involved unless youve done it before, but definitely doable.

the migration process will simply add the user(s) you want from the old iMac to the new one in conjunction with the existing users already there on the new iMac.

i think it might be easier instead of swapping drives out of two iMacs to migrate them into one and be of less hassle that way.

 

[Bernie Steak]

One of the first things I did when I bought my iMac was swap the disk out for a larger model, no fear here.

Seriously considering just using my slightly older Mac as the main machine though, it's been going without a hiccup since new and it's got more RAM than the other machine. Not sure I'd notice any performance boost?

That and the fact I'm a bit lazy.

 

[AppleNewton]

thats another option, is the memory compatible with the other iMac?
there might be a slight increase going from the 2.8ghz to the 3.06ghz but probably not enough to notice doing most tasks.
id look at over all specs, cpu, graphics card & video memory, size/speed of hard drive and decide which one you may want to consolidate to, but either method you want to try should work (swapping drives or migrating to the other iMac).