[geeks] Swapping hard drives in a G4

[Lionel Peterson]

>From: Brian Dunbar <brian.dunbar at liftport.com>
>Date: 2006/09/05 Tue PM 09:15:25 CDT
>To: The Geeks List <geeks at sunhelp.org>
>Subject: Re: [geeks] Swapping hard drives in a G4

>Mike Hebel wrote:
>
>> 
>> Run the first laptop in Firwire Target Mode then run the Setup 
>> Assistant on the second.  Not sure how that will work going from 
>> 10.4->10.3 or less but it's probably the easiest if you're not going to 
>> just swap drives.
>> 
>> IIRC that has the option to pull all the old user information and files 
>> and apps over to the new system and have it almost literally be a clone 
>> of the old system.
>> 
>> I found this out when taking the data from my 10.2 clamshell to the 
>> 10.3 G5 iMac.  In fact it copied more than what I wanted because I 
>> wasn't paying attention.
>> 
>> At least I think it was the Setup Assistant that I used - it's been a 
>> little while.
>
>Ah - that's the bit I was missing.  If Setup Assistant can 'clone' the
>apps and data to the healthy laptop, that's all I need.

Asuming this is the same tool as Install uses (no reason to think it isn't), then I've used this recently on a G4 desktop mac, and by mistake I went and copied *everything* - you have the choices of:
 - applications
 - users & files
 - settings

I mistakenly transferred users & files in my case, so now I'm going to re-install OS X to only clone the applications (I don't want the random users and settings from this surplus system)...

>Of course I need a firewire cable and since the nearest Frys is 18 hours
>away that will simply have to wait until tomorrow night.

Don't forget, these are almost common place - I've seen them in many mainstream retailers, including WalMart, Big Lots, and other similar retailers...

Lionel