Making the switch: iBook to MacBook

January 31, 2007 3:56 AM

Upgrading to MacBook... how do I move my email and especially my applications over from my iBook?

I'm thinking of upgrading to a MacBook. I'd like to keep the programs I have with their authentication and my email. Some of these programs, such as Snak, NewsFire, MarsEdit and Audio Hijack Pro were Web-based purchases and I might not easily be able to recover any related keys. Is there an easy way to do this? Anything I should worry about and the like?

Regarding email, I'm using Mac's Mail client. What files do I need to successfully transfer to the MacBook?

Would something like .Mac be useful for this entire enterprise?

posted by missed to computers & internet (9 comments total)

After starting your Macbook for the first time, you should be prompted with the Migration Assistant, which asks if you have an older Mac that you would like to transfer information over from. The process involves starting the iBook in target disk mode--attach the computers via firewire and start up the iBook while holding the 't' key down. The Macbook should recognize the iBook as an external disk and begin transfering all of your old information over. (If you want to be selective about what you migrate, you can use target disk mode without the help of the migration assistant and manually drag and drop files.) I have used the migration assistant before and it has transferred all of my mail (and settings) and applications, many of which I purchased registrations for online and continue to work.

However, I don't know how the Power PC --> Intel move might affect this process (I don't think it will, but you never know. I have only done PPC to PPC moves.)
posted by cosmic osmo at 4:15 AM on January 31, 2007

Migration Assistant works fine for intel-ppc transfers. have done it a buch of times with no problems.

Migration Assitant one of the best things apple has ever written.
posted by ShawnString at 4:24 AM on January 31, 2007

WOW. Amazing. Thanks for the quick and excellent answers :D
posted by missed at 4:29 AM on January 31, 2007

A word of caution
posted by hariya at 5:31 AM on January 31, 2007

I just switched over (Powerbook to MacBook Pro) and everything went fine. Remember to deauthorize your iTunes before you switch.
posted by miss tea at 6:05 AM on January 31, 2007

I used Migration Assistant just two days ago to move from PPC to Intel hardware and I would describe my environment as "somewhat heavily customized." I've done PPC-PPC migrations in the past without a hitch but this was my first platform migration. I opted to migrate only my rather large 44 and a half gig home directory -- as I keep an ~/Applications directory there with all non-Apple stuff -- and elected not to migrate anything outside it.

Prior to the migration process I took a sniff around for applications that were PPC-only and hunted down Intel or Universal builds of them. I wound up only needing to update about three things, so I fired up in Target Disk Mode, whipped out my firewire cable, and started the migration process.

It took around an hour and went pretty much swimmingly. Two things that I noticed:

1. During the rather slow migration process, the MBP seemed to fall asleep. I reached over and woke it up every few minutes. It turns out that Intel hardware turns on the glowy doze button when only the display is off.

2. Since I'd elected not to migrate anything outside my home directory, I needed to reinstall a handful of things. APE was first and most noticeable when the dock came up and had that ugly white background. Privoxy was second as Safari had my local proxy settings, but the Privoxy proxy wasn't actually moved over.

Apart from those two very minor issues I'm amazed at how smoothly things went and I'm predictably highly pleased with my MBP.
posted by majick at 6:24 AM on January 31, 2007

After you switch to your new machine, you might want to start saving your authorization/registration codes for your software somewhere safe. If you use the Keychain Access application, you can add a secure "note" and just type all the pertinent info in. Easy peasy and safe as houses!
posted by bcwinters at 6:40 AM on January 31, 2007

The Migration Assistant has worked wonderfully for me several times now (I'm still running apps I installed on my 2002 powerbook 3 computers later, now on my 2006 Mac Pro).

I've done the platform migration twice now (from a g5 imac to a macbook and from the g5 imac to a power mac), and the only thing that I've found weird is that Photoshop and Illustrator need to be re-installed for some reason. Half the functionality of Photoshop CS2 was missing after getting on intel, and Illustrator doesn't even start up. Once re-installed, they work fine.
posted by mathowie at 10:27 AM on January 31, 2007

What? It's even easier. boot the old machine in Target Disk Mode and just copy over /Users/YOU/Library/Mail into the new machine.

I just did that when I got my new MacBook Pro at work. My mail copied over without a single hitch.

As far as the apps, I just reinstalled the imporant ones after making sure I had the most current version.
posted by drstein at 11:33 AM on January 31, 2007