Mac migration Using SuperDuper
 

Heres my problem...

I am just about to leave the sunny climate of UK (laugh) to live in Botswana for a couple of years.

I have an aluminium intel iMac with Leopard and I have used a Lacie Firewire external drive to create a SuperDuper clone of the whole machine (bootable).

I cant take the iMac with me so will be selling it and want to buy the new MacBook Pro for portability in Africa, however this new machine isn't out yet (expecting the redesign anytime now according to rumours).... So I will probably have to sell the iMac and get the MBP at a later stage and use migration assistant with the SuperDuper clone.

My question is... I have a bucke load of software on my iMac that has been cloned on my Lacie including programs such as Adobe Photoshop CS3, Lightroom 2, Final Cut Express 4, the latest Microsoft Office etc...

... When I migrate using Superduper to the new laptop, will all these apps just work?... or will I have to put in serial numbers etc or register them again online... The problem with Botswana is that the internet there is almost non-existent and having to be online to re-licence any apps could be problematical.

So... If I migrate using SuperDuper will my new machine act just like the old one?

Many thanks for clarification.

Any 'copy protected' applications, or those that tie themselves to the drive or Mac, will likely have to be reactivated. Certainly, Photoshop will, and likely Lightroom too. There's not much you can do about this -- but I encourage you, quite strongly, to complain to the vendors who employ this kind of customer-hostile licensing.

Thank you for the prompt reply....

I guess I will have to cross this bridge when I come to it...

Thanks again

Sure, but now's a good time to complain to Adobe, etc. If they don't hear from users their policies impact, they'll never change.

I will be sure to do that... its just going to be a massive pain from Africa if I have to contact them to let me use products I have already paid for.

As a matter of interest, would my problems be solved if I had both machines (Macs) and linked them with Firewire in the normal manner and just used migration assistant?... or is it that same as using SuperDuper from an external Drive?

It's the same issue, regardless of source.

how 'bout this...

do the back up NOW to an external 2.5 inch drive (like a 320gb-7200 rpm drive)

and boot up NOW from the external, opening the applications with KNOWN re-register issues...

then complete the registration/activation for each of those applications ON the external drive...

then when a new mbpro is purchased on the dark continent...

run FROM the external drive or SWAP OUT the internal drive with the cloned 2.5 drive...

using it externally would be a tad slower and swapping drives on these mbpros is EASY, i just did it last month.

it doesn't void the warranty to do a drive swap.

btw internet access is rapidly becoming available all over africa.

a friend just came back from 2 years/12 countries (including botswana) and seldom had a day withOUT wifi or satellite connections...

cheers
joemac

I don't think that'll work, because the computer itself will be different, and the activation might notice that.

.... nice idea though.... have already backed up to a 2.5 drive with SuperDuper... not thought about swapping it into the MBP..

I did think that due to other hardware differences on the MBP such as motherboard etc, this may not work...

I guess I am just going to have to see what happens...

Bots does have internet as you say, but I am in a safari area and the internet there is painful.