I need to temporarily transfer everything to a laptop...

JPigford

JPigford

I'm awesome...seriously..
I've got all my apps, files, etc etc on my G5 and have for a couple of years now. This next week I'm going on a fairly long business trip and will be renting a PowerBook for the time I'm gone. Ideally I'd like an exact duplicate of what's on my G5 as far as apps, settings, data, etc etc so that I'm basically just picking up where I left off on my G5. I'm running Tiger and the PowerBook does too.

Is there a decent way to go about this?
 
Carbon Copy Cloner (freeware) as well as Super Duper (demo version works perfectly well, with some limitations only) both should do the trick.

I used Carbon Copy Cloner three times on a cutomer's machine (transferring *all* his PowerBook G4 data - including OS X, all user data, etc. - to an iMac G5). The only time I had a problem with it, was when I tried making a bootable copy of my iBook G4 to an external FireWire harddrive. (The latter did not work.)

One thing that most people seem to recommend is to start up the machine you want to "clone" with the Shift key held down (is that called Safe Boot?).

Good luck - and let us know if you need any further assistance.

patrice
http://www.patriceschneider.com/apple-osx/blog/
 
I guess the main thing I'm really concerned about is when I'm back from my trip I'd want to re-sync my now "old" copy of everything on my G5 with the "new" that is on the PowerBook...I'd just hate for things to get screwed up.
 
ecirtap said:
One thing that most people seem to recommend is to start up the machine you want to "clone" with the Shift key held down (is that called Safe Boot?).
Click to expand...
That's logging in with the login items disabled, so that they don't start up. I do that when I run a backup, sometimes, especially when I need to make the first backup of a drive, to ensure that nothing changes while the backup is running. I spoke with the SuperDuper developer (a similar product for making clones of a drive), and they said that it's not really necessary, so long as you aren't really doing anything, and the apps that are running aren't writing to the disk either. Typically, I restrict my activities, during a backup, to Web surfing, and only if I absolutely have to do look something up, or work on something.
 
JPigford said:
I've got all my apps, files, etc etc on my G5 and have for a couple of years now. This next week I'm going on a fairly long business trip and will be renting a PowerBook for the time I'm gone. Ideally I'd like an exact duplicate of what's on my G5 as far as apps, settings, data, etc etc so that I'm basically just picking up where I left off on my G5. I'm running Tiger and the PowerBook does too.

Is there a decent way to go about this?
Click to expand...
As previously suggested, Carbon Copy Cloner is a good way to make a clone of your drive. Connect the two machines via FireWire, starting up using the G5. Clone the G5 drive to the PowerBook drive. When you get back, do the reverse - startup via the PB, and clone back to the G5.

Someone else can answer my question on this - When you clone one machine, with different hardware then the second machine, will the preference files become damaged or corrupted at all so that the machine you clone to cannot use them because they came from a different model of hardware?

This isn't a terrible question to pose to the developer of Carbon Copy Cloner, actually. I'd love to know the answer, if someone knows, or if you find out. Please post it here.
 
It's not exactly the best way to do it, but I thought I might as well talk about it while on the subject.

Making an exact copy of your computer can also be done with a Mac OSX install disk and a FireWire cable. Start up the G5 with the install disk, and once that is up, start up the laptop in target disk mode with the FW cable attached. Open "Disk Utility" from the G5, and use the restore program. Select your G5's hard disk as the source and the laptop's as the destination. Once you get back home, do the opposite.

(Note: This is risky.)
 
Qion's suggestion reminds me of another Apple OS X-integrated tool: the Migration Assistant.

Format the harddrive on the PowerBook, re-install OS X (make sure you have the correct version at hand), after that is done restart, then hook the G5 up in Target Disk mode, and let the Migration Assistant do all the work for you. Again: theoretically should work. (I have to admit though that I have never used the Migration Assistant).

patrice
http://www.patriceschneider.com/apple-osx/blog/
 
ecirtap said:
Qion's suggestion reminds me of another Apple OS X-integrated tool: the Migration Assistant.

Format the harddrive on the PowerBook, re-install OS X (make sure you have the correct version at hand), after that is done restart, then hook the G5 up in Target Disk mode, and let the Migration Assistant do all the work for you. Again: theoretically should work. (I have to admit though that I have never used the Migration Assistant).

patrice
http://www.patriceschneider.com/apple-osx/blog/
Click to expand...


-- I have used the migration assiatant and it works GREAT! Amazingly well.

But the above instructions are correct.
 
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