Moving from PPC to Intel

[gil125]

I currently make a clone of my iMac G4 (OS 10.4.6) using an external FW hard drive. My new computer, an Intel iMac, will be arriving next week and I would like to move all of my information. Will I be able to boot up from my FW drive and move the data (provided I use version 2.1)?

I'm not sure if the Intel iMac will be able to boot into an installation that originated from a PPC Mac.

Thanks in advance for your help!

[dnanian]

Hi, Gil. No -- that won't work: you won't be able to boot from the drive. However, the new Mac will prompt you to "migrate" your data from your old mac, first thing. At that point, you can point it at the backup, and it'll bring the data, applications, etc right across.

[gil125]

Hi Dave-

Thanks for the quick reply.

So after I complete the migration process, will I then be able to make a fresh backup and boot from the FW drive in the future?

Thanks!

[dnanian]

That's right: it all works the same. You just can't boot an Intel Mac from a Power PC image...