iMac Replace/Restore Question

[jyl]

Hey, a question for the Mac guys.

1. If I buy a new iMac, can I restore all my user data (iTunes/iPhoto libraries, documents, etc) over from a Time Machine backup of my old G5 iMac? Even though the old iMac was G5/Leopard and the new is Intel/SnowLeopard? So that I have new machine w/ new O/S and new apps, but all the original data.

2. The old iMac was set up with multiple users, each with their own libraries. How will I handle that? Will I have trouble restoring data if the new iMac is not set up exactly the same way?

3. Will I be able to restore a selected app as well (Office X)? I have long since lost the CD, in 3 house moves. If I have to buy Office again, its not a big deal I guess.

I think I can do this using Migration Assistant - but wanted to be sure. Would it be feasible/better to manually import the libraries and files from the Time Machine backup (not sure I can do that).

My G5 iMac appears to be dying after 6+ faithful years. Got sluggish, frequent freezing. Finally wouldn't boot up. Apple store guys booted it from an external drive, and suggested I do an archive/reinstall from my Leopard DVD. Which I did, after successfully verifying the hard drive using Disk Utility on the DVD. Then the iMac would boot but got kernel panic within minutes. I tried another archive/reinstall and got a message saying Installer failed. I tried again and this time Installer wouldn't give me the option of archive/reinstall, but said my only option was to erase/install. I've booted from the Leopard DVD and tried verifying the hard drive, message is "Filesystem verify or repair failed". The machine won't boot from the hard drive any more.

So,

4. Should I simply replace the hard drive and try installing Leopard on the old iMac and restoring the old iMac from Time Machine? I kind of want to buy a new machine, but would like to get the old iMac working as a spare machine.

[stomachmonkey]

HD's are cheap enough these days. Give it a shot, if it does not work use as a an additional BU device for the new machine.

Sounds like the HD's logic board is failing.

The best tool I have found for backing up Macs is Super Duper. Will create an exact clone of your old HD so apps that don't check the hardware ID of the machine will remain active, won't need serial number re-input.

FWIW, Adobe apps check hardware id so they know when they've been moved.

[Sapporo Guy]

I'm gonna agree with somachmonkey, sounds like your HD is pooched!

The biggest problem with migration is that you import all kinds of junk over a fresh install and "might" have permission problems.

You could buy a new internal hard drive and plug it into an external box, use a program like super duper, clone etc and move your files to a new install on the new drive, pull out the old drive and then move the the new drive that was acting like an external into your machine.

Yeah, I know sounds all round about and such but you won't have problems with speed issues by only depending on the external.

I've migrated a few PPC/G5 machines to intel recently and found that clean installing and then moving only documents/itunes worked the best. The other stuff in your user folder is probably full of all kinds of files from software that you tried and then trashed and what not.

As for Office ... Older version was giving problems with printing on 10.6. Got me a deal on a newer version and solved that. However, I have been trying to move more and more of my documents to pages or OpenOffice. Excel is the deal breaker though.

I tend NOT to use backup software and do things by hand.
items to remember:
- mail
- images/movies
- address book
- documents
- itunes
- calendar

file structure: (for each user)
-- library --- application support --- addressbook
-- library --- calendars
-- library --- keychains
-- library --- mail
-- library --- mail downloads

The above are the major items I move anything else I leave on my backup (time machine might be great for this) of the system just in case I forgot something or screwed up.


IF you do move to an intel machine most applications will work and the speed hit is not so bad. However some will just spew (recently had problems with a version of AppleWorks) and had to look for versions that work or other work arounds.

[jyl]

Replaced HDD and installed Leopard. iMac works fine now. Thanks! (But, gosh darn it, I really kind of wanted a new iMac . . . )

So now I need to get my data/apps back. I'm torn between simply restoring from the TimeMachine backup (easy but mucks up my fresh install) and manually importing libraries (sounds tedious, there's a lot of data to remember/find, plus need to go get all the apps and buy Office or find an alternative). I dunno . . .

[gr8fl4porsche]

I always start fresh.

The only thing I ever transfer to a new OS install is music and software.

I use online email (Gmail) so there is nothing to transfer.

My favorite software all gets stored in a list. When I create a new system, I review which software actually gets used and then download the latest version.

[jyl]

I tried to do a Restore of the "repaired" iMac using Time Machine. Keeps stalling at 13% done and 9 hours to go. Have tried twice now. Planning to buy a second external drive, use the MacBook to copy the Time Machine backup from the external drive it lives on to the new external drive (just in case I have a developing hardware problem), then try the "fresh" route. Ideas?

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by jyl

I tried to do a Restore of the "repaired" iMac using Time Machine. Keeps stalling at 13% done and 9 hours to go. Have tried twice now. Planning to buy a second external drive, use the MacBook to copy the Time Machine backup from the external drive it lives on to the new external drive (just in case I have a developing hardware problem), then try the "fresh" route. Ideas?

How long have you let it sit at 13%?

You are restoring a .nix system so there are 100's of thousands of really small files that screw with the ability to predict actual time left.

Copying a single 10 gb file takes less time than copying thousands of 4k files.

The progress bar probably has low system priority.

All those little files need to be found, compared to (if the same file already exists in the destination) and a decision to either replace or not, needs to be made then copied and the directory structure updated.

Lot of stuff going on under the hood.

[jyl]

The first attempt to restore went on for 13 hours or so. The second, for 18 hours. I'm trying once more with the external drive connected directly to the iMac (it was going through a powered USB hub before, which I'd overlooked until just now.)

[jyl]

Well, the third restore attempt "appears" to be stalled at the same 13% after 2-3 hours. I tried using a different restore point, about 1 day earlier. I'm going to let it chew away all night.

[jyl]

[Swear word] this is ridiculous. There is zero disk activity going on (I put my ear to the external drive and to the iMac.). I think the Restore has genuinely stalled. At the exact same point (13%) as before.

[Sapporo Guy]

I've never used time machine.
Normally, you can drag and drop applications to the new drive.
But you will probably need to get some of the files in Application Support and Preferences.

My previous post may be hard to understand but those are the major directories you need to look into.

Keep posting back and we'll do our best to help

[jyl]

I've failed in four attempts to restore the system using the automatic process - Restore system from Time Machine or Migration Assistant. Very disappointing as Restore has always worked for me before - that's how I've replaced the drives on my iMac and MacBook the last three times.

Have re-formatted the iMac's drive, Verified it using Disk utility, reinstalled Mac OS X and run Software Update, Verified the external drive (where the Time Machine backup lives). No joy. The process keeps hanging up. Read all sorts of threads on the support groups and tried all those suggestions - doing the Restore or Migration before Setup, after Setup, etc etc.

So I have to do it the manual way, as you guys suggested all along. I formatted and reinstalled OS X on the iMac's drive (for the 4th time), ran Software Update, set up our family's four user accounts. Time Machine sees the old backups and I am restoring the data files and applications, one by one. It is working so far (I got 160GB of photos back and iPhoto sees them fine).

I see how much junk had accumulated in the 6+ years of this iMac's existence, and guess it will be nice to get a nice clean system. But, boy, is this a slow process.

Thanks for telling me where the info/data is located. That's what I need.

Will report back.

[jyl]

Interesting. Trying to restore iTunes folder via Time Machine , it kept hanging at the same place and freezing the iMac. I figured out it kept hanging when it got to a particular song on a particular album by a particular artist. Tried restoring just that song, and sure enough, hangs. So I am skipping that song and proceeding. Hopefully there aren't too many of these problems.

[jyl]

I found another file that hangs auto-restore or migration every time. It is a movie file. Jeez, seems like the OS should be more graceful about "problem files". Thank goodness there wasn't a fatal problem with something like the email messages.

It was a PITA to manually restore the iMac by picking and restoring individual files/folders/applications, but IIRC I couldn't have done this at all with a Windows box, don't you have to find dozens of files for each application?

[Sapporo Guy]

The file(s) in question are corrupt. Meaning that some where the HD blew a bad block and the file went bad. Yep, 1 stinkin file hangs and yep the OS should just allow you to move it.

As for applications. Most of them come packaged in the .app form so you just move 1 magical file instead of hundreds. The other files you are tracking down are settings, extensions and such normally not a problem to run the program. I have never moved Office by hand but with a little googling you might find the directories you need to grab.

I realize that this is a pain to do by hand but you'll be happier in the long run knowing that you don't have pounds of dirt hiding in your fenders