Plant my G4's internal disk in new Mac Pro? Then what?

Question

Hi all,
I'm debating how to transfer existing data on my G5 to my new Mac Pro. There are old applications & stuff I'd still like to access on the G5 but not gum up my new system. This is what I'm considering:
* Extract my boot disk from the G4 and install it in Bay 2 of the Pro & use it as a secondary drive, still bootable if needed.
* Transfer folders of data (documents, photos, etc.) onto the Pro's start-up disk.
As far as Mac apps like Mail, Address Book, iCal -- can I keep my old email on the G5 disk (as an archive, essentially) but transfer all my Mail accounts to the Pro's Mail app, then use that one for new email going forward? Can I transfer all my addresses & appointments into the new Address Book & iCal programs, or should I just copy the entire applications over?
Many thanks in advance for your help with approaching this.
Best,
Sean
G4 667mhz tower   Mac OS X (10.4.2)  

Answer 1

is there an advantage to Target Disk Mode as opposed to accessing the hard disk as a device?
Yes… you physically don't have to touch your G5 in any way.
Is it folly to try maintaining access to my current G5 disk on the new Pro?
Not at all. There are just better and worse ways to do it, especially with a PowerPC to Intel transition. You never know what type of issues you might come across. If you don't touch your G5 then you won't at least be caught short.
Should I just copy over my iCal/Mail/Address Book programs to the Pro to maintain all the data within them
No. Their preferences and data are located inside of your (other others) home directory. All you need to do is copy across the right data and there's nothing else to do. If you use use the Migration Assistant and do a data only transition there's even less to do. I would still prefer to do it manually so you don't copy more than you want to although it is far quicker this way.