[meepzork]

Good morning fine Apple folks. I have a project coming up and Im not quite sure what the best way is to go about it. I am upgrading my mom from a G4 600mhz Powermac to a new 1.83 Mac Mini. Heres what I want to do:

1. Her Powermac currently has dual 200GB disks in a mirrored set (raid 1). She probably has only used about 40gb of that.
-I want to break the mirror,
-copy the data/settings from one disk to her new mini (see # 2) ,
-reformat that disk and use it as an external backup drive with time machine.
The 2nd 200GB disk will go to a different computer im working on...

2. Migrate her current account/files/settings from her old computer (tiger/iLife06) to the new one (leopard/iLife07) so that she will have to re-setup as little as possible. It is especially crucial to maintain iPhoto settings and because thats her main thing.

I am not sure about the best way to migrate the data between machines/operating systems. Also, all of the articles I have read seem to say that if I break the mirror I will lose the data on both disks. This seems dumb since thats the point of raid 1.

Thanks

[ghoti]

Simply put the G4 in target disk mode and connect it to the Mini while setting it up. It will ask you if you want to migrate data from your old machine - if not, you can run the Migration Assistant manually to do that. If all her data is under her user directories, that should copy over all data and settings (though not applications). After that is done, you can do with those disks whatever you want.

[meepzork]

wow... it cant possibly be that easy. the migration assistant will transfer all the proper account security... as well as import her data from iphoto 06 to iphoto 07?

[ghoti]

well the 06->07 will happen when she first runs iPhoto 07, the Migration Assistant only copies files (including photos and everything else under /Users/mom ) and settings. The only thing to look out for is any additional applications. And you should probably keep the old data around for some time until she has used all her programs again and you know it's all there.

But yes, it is that easy.

[meepzork]

alright, glad to hear it. ill give it a shot and report back if i have any trouble.

thanks