Mac Mini disc cloning problem....

[The Dude]

For the Mac/Unix experts.

I've just taken delivery of a new Intel Mini. I mistakenly thought I could just clone the drive from my old one (using Carbon Copy Cloner) boot the new one and I'd all my stuff ready to go. Tried it last night resulting in a dead Intel Mini. Obviously, now, some parts of the system software are specifically for the PPC models and so won't work on the Intel ones. I know, I'm a muppet.

So, I've now reinstalled the OS on the MacIntel, and all is working again.

What I need to know is, which folders I need to clone from the old machine in order that I can transfer all the software etc. and get it working without the need to reinstall stuff from scrach.

Some are obvious:

Applications
Users

But what about:

Library
bin
mach_kernel
private
sbin
usr

I have an understanding of what the folders are, but not sure if there's any system specific stuff in the unix folders (bin, sbin, private, usr, mach_kernel)? My presumption being, device drivers etc should all be in the System folder and therefore the unix folders are safe to ignore.

Anyone?

[wildeep]

Why not use the OS X migration assistant to do it all for you, just boot your old mac up in target firewire mode (hold down T at boot) and connect it to your new mac with a 6 pin FW cable then run the assistant software in the utilities folder. It should have given the option to do this when you first booted the new mac mini. It will copy all apps, user folders and network settings that you need.

>> Edited by wildeep on Friday 10th March 08:34

[The Dude]

wildeep said:

Why not use the OS X migration assistant to do it all for you, just boot your old mac up in target firewire mode (hold down T at boot) and connect it to your new mac with a 6 pin FW cable then run the assistant software in the utilities folder. It should have given the option to do this when you first booted the new mac mini. It will copy all apps, user folders and network settings that you need. >> Edited by wildeep on Friday 10th March 08:34

I did not know that.



Edited to say : Hang on, does it copy or move stuff? Copy, good. Move, bad.


>> Edited by The Dude on Friday 10th March 08:57

[wildeep]

The Dude said:

Hang on, does it copy or move stuff? Copy, good. Move, bad. ]

It copies it.

HTH

[The Dude]

wildeep said:

The Dude said: Hang on, does it copy or move stuff? Copy, good. Move, bad. ] It copies it. HTH

I'll give it a whirl later. I always presumed the migration tool was just to copy personal data (your .Mac details for example). I've just ignored it in the past.

[robbieduncan]

General Point: You cannot clone a disk from a PPC Mac to an Intel Mac as they use different disk partition formats (so even with a Universal install of the OS this will not work). The migration assistant can do it, or just boot the old Mac in Target Disk mode and copy the stuff you want yourself.

[The Dude]

robbieduncan said:

General Point: You cannot clone a disk from a PPC Mac to an Intel Mac as they use different disk partition formats (so even with a Universal install of the OS this will not work)

I wish I'd found that out before last night....

[zumbruk]

robbieduncan said:

General Point: You cannot clone a disk from a PPC Mac to an Intel Mac as they use different disk partition formats

It's "worse" than that - they're different endian chips of different architectures, so not only will executables not, but your data will be the wrong way round, too...

[The Dude]

zumbruk said:

robbieduncan said: General Point: You cannot clone a disk from a PPC Mac to an Intel Mac as they use different disk partition formats It's "worse" than that - they're different endian chips of different architectures, so not only will executables not, but your data will be the wrong way round, too...

Bugger. Really?

So, essentially, forget Carbon Copy Cloner for this task? Presumably the Migration Assistant will transfer your stuff correctly?

[zumbruk]

The Dude said:

zumbruk said: robbieduncan said: General Point: You cannot clone a disk from a PPC Mac to an Intel Mac as they use different disk partition formats It's "worse" than that - they're different endian chips of different architectures, so not only will executables not, but your data will be the wrong way round, too... Bugger. Really?

Yep. That's why there's a "network endian" standard, so that machines of different endianness can successfully transfer data across the network. When you clone a disk, you don't get that.

The Dude said:

So, essentially, forget Carbon Copy Cloner for this task? Presumably the Migration Assistant will transfer your stuff correctly?

I guess. I know next to nothing about Macs, other than that the Intel chips are little-endian and PowerPC is big-endian.

[The Dude]

zumbruk said:

The Dude said: zumbruk said: robbieduncan said: General Point: You cannot clone a disk from a PPC Mac to an Intel Mac as they use different disk partition formats It's "worse" than that - they're different endian chips of different architectures, so not only will executables not, but your data will be the wrong way round, too... Bugger. Really? Yep. That's why there's a "network endian" standard, so that machines of different endianness can successfully transfer data across the network. When you clone a disk, you don't get that. The Dude said: So, essentially, forget Carbon Copy Cloner for this task? Presumably the Migration Assistant will transfer your stuff correctly? I guess. I know next to nothing about Macs, other than that the Intel chips are little-endian and PowerPC is big-endian.

Hmmmm. This should be an "interesting" weekend then.

[wildeep]

The migration assistant will work fine. All your old apps which are not universal binaries will work under the Rosetta emulation which is invisible to the user.

[The Dude]

wildeep said:

The migration assistant will work fine. All your old apps which are not universal binaries will work under the Rosetta emulation which is invisible to the user.

That ties in with what I've been reading.

I don't run anything critical on the Mini anyway, its just a server for my music collection, basically.

I think i just rushed head-long into buying the dual core one because it offered more power, without really considering the processor differences. Having worked with computers (Apple and PC) for over 15 years I should've paid more attention. I just ordered it and took my eye off the ball.

[zumbruk]

wildeep said:

The migration assistant will work fine. All your old apps which are not universal binaries will work under the Rosetta emulation which is invisible to the user.

Rosetta does not run the following:
# Applications built for Mac OS 8 or 9
# Code written specifically for AltiVec
# Code that inserts preferences in the System Preferences pane
# Applications that require a G4 or G5 processor
# Applications that depend on one or more kernel extensions
# Kernel extensions
# Bundled Java applications or Java applications with JNI libraries that can't be translated"

BTW, a "universal binary" is just a file which contains both a PPC and an Intel executable. The Mac program loader "knows" which one to execute. (I expect you knew that!)

[tog]

I've always been told that some apps don't like being copied with the Migration Assistant and it is better to install freshly on the new machine. That was on PPC Macs, so presumably the same applies but more so with Intel Macs. Also don't forget that on the Mini, Apple's own apps, like Mail, iTunes, Safari and so on, will possibly not be the exactly same versions that you had on the old Mac.

[robbieduncan]

The endianness issue really isn't all that it's cracked up to be. All "standard" file formats transfer over fine without endian switching. I know: I did this a couple of weeks back. JPEGs, MP3, AACs, movie files, Word docs etc are all save in a particular endianness no matter what the underlying data endianness of the machine is.