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Drive Cloning - Page 2

post #31 of 47
6/24/09 at 3:18pm

Re: Drive Cloning

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ronald Epstein
When in doubt write the author of SUPERDUPER....
Well Dave is certainly well known in the Apple/Mac world so if that's his advice, I'd certainly follow it!
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post #32 of 47
6/24/09 at 9:13pm

Re: Drive Cloning

Migration Assistent is *the* tool to use when moving from one Mac to another. Simply connect the Mac you want to copy from via FireWire (FW800 if available) and boot it in Target Disk Mode (e.g. via System Preferences/Startup Disk).

Then, during the finishing touches of the first startup of the new Mac, Migration Assistent will ask you whether you want to copy user settings and programs from a different Mac or disk. Just select what applies to your situation.

You could even use a Time Machine backup that's on a networked drive, like a Time Capsule.

This is the fastest way, as you don't need to copy the OS.

Alternatively, you can also just setup your new Mac first, then download all the latest updates etc. and then run Migration Assistent manually. You can find it in /Applications/Utilities.

It really is as straight-forward as it sounds .

-Christian
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post #33 of 47
6/24/09 at 9:49pm

Re: Drive Cloning

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ronald Epstein
Shane,

This is EXCELLENT information!

Okay, so all I need to do first thing after unboxing is apply a software
update and then use SUPERDUPER to copy the entire contents of my
15" over to the new 17".

Glad to hear there will be no ill effects with this process.

Actually it's backwards. You would want to clone the existing drive to the new machine and THEN install the specific OS build for your new machine, Unfortunately, if you decide to use this trick you'll have to do a clean install because the installer can't update the operating system if the OS levels (e.g. 10.5.7) are the same on your old setup and the installer disc.
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post #34 of 47
6/25/09 at 2:04am

Re: Drive Cloning

Christian,

Is it almost guaranteed that with Migration assistant almost every
program that now exists on one hardware kit will work on the other?

I mean EVERYTHING?!


Michael,

Thanks for the correction. Now that I look at it, I was backwards.
Probably will not use that method anyway.
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post #35 of 47
6/25/09 at 5:25am

Re: Drive Cloning

Holy Smokes! Who woulda thunk it? This is one hot topic, but having just done this, I found (both now and in the past) that the best way to do this is keep the new system on the new MBP, eradicate everything off of that you don't want, then migrate everything else except the old system.

Then, and I understand that many want to avoid this part, re-install all of your drivers. I bet you will find a bunch that you do not want or need. This way you get a stream-lined system with only the things you want on it.

I know this is simplistic and you have to take a bit more time for the drivers, but I can guarantee you that it will save you time in the long run, because every time I have just transferred everything over, something at some point goes awry and you'll find yourself up a river without a systems disk.

After all, you don't want to have everything crash just as the Playboy Bunny is handing you another congratulations at Tao!
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post #36 of 47
6/25/09 at 8:46am

Re: Drive Cloning

My wife is excited about Migration Assistant. She was worried about transferring 5yrs of stuff and preferences and etc to a new computer. This sounds promising.

I have a spare cable stamped "1394b"; would this be a compatible FireWire cable? It's sort of USB sized (like the bigger "hub" USB connector), but definitely not USB.

1394b is a FireWire 800 cable.
Quote:
FireWire 800 (FireWire 1394b) is the new version of the popular FireWire interface which doubles the throughput of the original IEEE-1394a FireWire interface from 400Mbps to 800Mbps!

While we're talking such things: Is there any big benefit to a FireWire external drive for TimeMachine or SuperDuper backups? They're about double the cost of USB2 drives, so I'd rather stay with USB. But if FW is a big deal...
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post #37 of 47
6/25/09 at 8:49am

Re: Drive Cloning

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ronald Epstein
Christian,

Is it almost guaranteed that with Migration assistant almost every
program that now exists on one hardware kit will work on the other?

I mean EVERYTHING?!

I have not had much luck with Migration Assistant and some third party apps...primarily Adobe Creative Suite apps. I had to re-install them.
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post #38 of 47
6/25/09 at 8:55am

Re: Drive Cloning

Okay. Game Over. That just put a stop to my excitement
about using Migration Assistant. I'll just reinstall everything.

Not a huge ordeal.
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post #39 of 47
6/25/09 at 9:17am

Re: Drive Cloning

Migration Assistant Instructions
Migration Assistant FAQ

We'll try it anyway, and hope for success with CS
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post #40 of 47
6/25/09 at 10:31am

Re: Drive Cloning

Don't blame Apple on that one. Adobe are such colossal idiots on how they install CS4 that any and all blame is on them.

Dear Adobe

Quote:
When I install Photoshop, that is all I want to install. I dont want the other shit.
Gripe #4411 has no replies and is filed under ‘Photoshop’. Add Reply
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post #41 of 47
6/25/09 at 10:59am

Re: Drive Cloning

Yeah, I'm not surprised to hear that Adobe CS would not work, their installer is known to be the worst in the Mac market. Same goes for bootcamp, of course. Migration Assistent will not move your Windows bootcamp installation either.

Those two items aside, I'd wager it would still save you considerable time to use Migration Assistent and only re-install CS.

Dave,

I'm not sure where you look for drives, but FW is not typically double the price of USB drives. However, FW800 *is* more than double the speed compared to USB2. What matters is the sustained data rate, and USB2's nominal 480Mb/s is only good for bursts, not over a longer period of time.

If I didn't have already an easy to open case with all the interfaces, I'd get one of the docks that OWC offers. This way you can just buy bare drives and don't have to worry about enclosures.

-Christian
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post #42 of 47
6/25/09 at 7:45pm

Re: Drive Cloning

Looking at 1TB external drive, OWC's external FW800 drives are $220 while USB2.0 external drives at BestBuy are $119. So my quick search showed FW drives being nearly double that of USB. EDIT: I was looking at OWC's high end drives. I see they do have FW800 1TB for $165.

I bought a USB enclosure to re-use a PATA drive. I wasn't really impressed. The whole affair died after a year or so and was noisy. The external drives I've since bought are silent and have lasted longer.

A doubling of speed for TimeMachine use isn't worth an extra $100 (for me or my wife). It might be worth $40.
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post #43 of 47
6/25/09 at 7:51pm

Re: Drive Cloning

Quote:
Originally Posted by DaveF
Looking at 1GB external drive, OWC's external FW800 drives are $220 while USB2.0 external drives at BestBuy are $119. So my quick search showed FW drives being nearly double that of USB. EDIT: I was looking at OWC's high end drives. I see they do have FW800 1GB for $165.

I bought a USB enclosure to re-use a PATA drive. I wasn't really impressed. The whole affair died after a year or so and was noisy. The external drives I've since bought are silent and have lasted longer.

A doubling of speed for TimeMachine use isn't worth an extra $100 (for me or my wife). It might be worth $40.

Even at $119 a 1GB drive is a complete ripoff. Now a 1TB drive...
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post #44 of 47
6/25/09 at 8:19pm

Re: Drive Cloning

Indeed...

Thanks to the edit button, I have no idea what you're talking about
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post #45 of 47
6/25/09 at 8:46pm

Re: Drive Cloning

One thing I will vouch for owc's enclosures is that they use oxford chipsets which are iron clad and high performing. I've benchmarked my owc enclosure bs another FireWire 400 extrnal with the same rpm HD inside and the owc enclosure was 15-20% faster in cloning my 150gb of data.
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post #46 of 47
6/25/09 at 9:40pm

Re: Drive Cloning

Quote:
Originally Posted by Carlo Medina
One thing I will vouch for owc's enclosures is that they use oxford chipsets which are iron clad and high performing. I've benchmarked my owc enclosure bs another FireWire 400 extrnal with the same rpm HD inside and the owc enclosure was 15-20% faster in cloning my 150gb of data.

I used to think that way as well, Carlo. I have two OWC drives that have performed flawlessly for years. But this last enclosure I've bought from them has turned into a real lemon. I have had to send it back twice because I am unable to boot into a Mac via the FireWire connection. Both times they claimed to have replaced the Oxford bridge and tested it on a G5 (hello...no Intel machines to test on?) and sent it back and both times it didn't work. This last time I called and said I wanted the enclosure replaced outright instead of "repaired" and they agreed to that.

Fast forward to two weeks later and I still have no enclosure. I called today and at first they told me they couldn't replace it because they no longer sell the drive enclosure I'm having a problem with...even though it still shows up for sale on their web site and "in stock." Then they transferred me to their tech people who tried to blame my FireWire cable (no...it works with every other drive I have), my partitioning scheme (no...I know to use GUID) and Apple's supposedly poor FireWire driver support (total BS, as I can boot a machine off of any other FireWire equipped drive I have. So he said they would send it back to their lab for more rigorous "stress testing" on an Intel Mac. If I don't get a satisfactory resolution soon, I may wind up filing a complaint with the local BBB.
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post #47 of 47
6/25/09 at 10:28pm

Re: Drive Cloning

Wow Michael, sorry to hear that! Clearly that's no way to deal with an issue like that, no matter what. Hopefully they'll do you right soon!

-Christian
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