Upgrade from iBook G4 to Powermac G5
 

I've used SuperDuper! with an external Firewire drive on my iBook and it's performed well. I have a question regarding the use of SuperDuper! for migration purposes. I have an iBook G4 1.33 Mhz running Tiger that I've setup the way I wanted. I just received an Powermac G5 2.5 Refurb that came with Panther and a Tiger upgrade disk. Would I be able to clone my iBook and restore it to my Powermac in Firewire mode? What are the pros and cons of doing it this way? The reason I ask is the G4 Tiger disk that came with my iBook will not let me install on my Powermac. Are there specific files that are necessary for the G5 vs the G4 or is this an arbitrary limitation that Apple built into the distribution CD's with new systems to prevent piracy? I'm willing to reinstall all my apps but I'd prefere to clone and go...

Thanks.

Joel Turner

It's an arbitrary thing, Joel. If your iBook is set up just the way you want it, and is the current build of Tiger, you can copy right to the G5's drive.

(Normally, with a new machine, I'd suggest using the Migration Assistant, but given the necessity of the upgrade disk, I'd do the straight copy.)

Hope that helps...

Thanks Dave. I did use the Migration Assistant last night and was not impressed. I asked it to move everything and 2 1/2 hours later while the apps were there many needed to have serials numbers re-inputted, preferences were missing as were bookmarks, etc..

I'm currently running Tiger 10.4.3 on my iBook so I think I'm going to do an erase and copy. I checked the Apple support pages and my Tiger build on the iBook will support the G5 model I purchased. I have a second internal drive which I'll copy the new boot drive to first just in case. I've also placed an order for a full version of Tiger to provide maximum flexibility.

That's quite surprising, Joel, as the vast majority of people I've talked to who have used Migration assistant, including myself, have had excellent results. (It's also the only way you're going to be able to update to an Intel box when the time comes.)

But -- weird. A full copy should work, though, unless there's some other issue going on...