Adding an existing user account from one computer to another?

hey all,
i fried my Macbook. it's wrecked.
while i save for another i plan on borrowing my sister's computer (she's going overseas for 3 months).
Now im sure the HD of my Macbook is fine, and my mum has one too. So i want to take the HD out of hers (apparently this wont void the warranty) and put my HD into it, booting it from mine, so that it is essentially my computer.
Then i want to transfer my account details to my sister's iMac - but i dont want to wipe her account off. I just want to add an account to her iMac, that account being the one that was on my Macbook (via my mum's Macbook).
How can i do this? Can i do it? Does it matter that my Macbook (and therefore my account) was running OS 10.5, while her iMac is on OS 10.4?
Id love to hear back from anyone that can help. I haven't had much luck so far... my Macbook was only a few months old, and i was literally a week from insuring it when i bumped a glass of orange juice.... you can imagine the rest : (
thanks all : )

Leopard itself, unlike Tiger, is a "universal boot" OS - it does not come in separate Intel and PPC versions. So if you can get your MacBook HD image cloned onto an APM-formatted external Firewire drive, it MIGHT still boot and run in the G5 iMac.
You said you got an external drive - did you mean a Firewire enclosure which now holds the MB HD?
If so, you could now obtain another external Firewire drive, not just an enclosure. They are quite cheap at OWC (much cheaper than another computer) and can be put to good use later for backup whatever happens.
Then the idea would be to connect the new empty drive to the G5 iMac, and use Disk Utility there to partition it as APM if it is not already that way. Then also connect the FW enclosure containing your MB HD. From the G5, use a program like Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the old GUID-partitioned MB volume (source) to the new APM-partitioned external drive volume (target).
Next try to boot from the new external drive, and cross your fingers!
Again this might not work, but an external FW drive is always a good investment for future backup.
You mentioned an eMac - if you want to try it instead of the G5, be sure it meets the requirements for Leopard.
jd

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I need to MERGE a same named user account from one mac to another.

I am a neophyte in the Mac World, seeking to move al of my son's material from hid old MacBook to a MacBook Pro that has a fresh install of Snow Leopard. I set up his user account on the MacBook Pro during the installation process. The user account on the Book has an identical name. He has used the Pro for two weeks. The need is to MERGE the accounts' information, NOT: 1) Renaming the user account to be transferred (THAT MIGHT MAKE HIM SCHIZOPHRENIC); 2) Replacing the existing user account with the one you are transferring (THAT WOULD MAKE HIM LOOSE TWO WEEKS OF HIS LIFE); or 3) Do not transfer this user account (WHICH WOULD MAKE HIM LOOSE TWO YEARS OF HIS LIFE), as these are the only options available (all unacceptable) via Migration Assistant using a Time Machine backup. If it is material, I made a backup of the Book before and after upgrading it to Snow Leopard. I attempting to migrate from the post-update backup. I'm tempted to try Ethernet migration, but suspect I will be faced with this same dilemma. I have reviewed other posts on this subject, and hope there is a better solution than putting the old User Account into the public folder of the Pro and then moving data into the new User Account.
Express Lane is closed down for the day, so this is my first experience in a discussion group. Anyone have any suggestions?

As long as the two accounts share the same username the solution is fairly simple with minor exceptions. On the new machine connect the backup drive you used. With the immediate exception of email, calendars, and contacts you can just drag the desired files from the backup drive onto the new computer putting them in their appropriate folders on the new computer - this would be the various folders in the /Home/ folder.
For email: Mac OS X Mail- How to import email
For iCal and Address Book it would be easiest to stay with the most recent data and copy these folders:
/Home/Library/Calendars/
/Home/Library/Applications Support/AddressBook/
Copy these folders to the equivalent locations on the new computer. Then you also need to copy:
/Home/Library/Preferences/com.apple.addressbook.plist
/Home/Library/Preferences/com.apple.addressbook.abd.plist
/Home/Library/Preferences/com.apple.ical.plist
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How to copy a user account from one Mac to another

If I have a main user (admin) account on one Mac, and want to copy its Home Folder over to another Mac that already has user accounts on it, what is the best way to do it?
For example, if I boot the source Mac in Target Disk Mode then connect it to the other Mac, can I just drag and drop from its Users folder into the Users folder on the other Mac? And would that then appear in SysPref/Accounts, complete with names and passwords etc, or is it not that simple?
(Actually, I just checked by launching Migration Assistant, and it seems to indicate I can use it to copy User Accounts from a different Mac - is this all I need? How would I connect the two Macs for this to work?)

Slightly confusing, that article - it talks about using Migration Assistant in Lion or Mountain Lion, but in my case both computers have used Snow Leopard. Does it still apply?
(One other observation - don't you find it confusing the way Apple defines "Target Disk Mode"? It's pretty much always the case that a computer booted in this way becomes the Source computer, while the Target computer is the one it's connected to!!)

Copy a user account from one disk to another

I replaced the hard drive in my G5 imac, and for one reason or another, using restore failed to create a bootable disk. Instead, I reinstalled Leopard. I would like to copy the old user account from the old hard drive so I can seamlessly continue using my computer. I created a secondary account on the new drive with the same name as the old one, and then copied the contents, but that didn't work very well.
Can you advise how to restore the account from an old disk for use on a new one?

Well, the desktop picture was generic, opening firefox gave me the error along the lines of "cannot open firefox, firefox is already open." Trying to download a new firefox tells me that there's no room on the disk. That's about where I stopped. Pretty much everything isn't working right.

Transferring itunes Account from one computer to another????

(I tried using the search feature but nothing came up..)
Currently I have a laptop that is set up for itunes. What do I need to do to transfer the information from that laptop to another one? Is there any step by step instruction that I can find and use to help me with this process?
Thanks!

You don’t transfer iTunes accounts.
You can transfer your purchases from the store to another computer.
Copy the /My music/*iTunes folder* from one computer to the other.

How do i move itunes account from one computer to another?

I need to move my wife's itunes account from her PC to my Mac. It will be the second itunes account on our mac. She will long in as her own user on the mac.

One way is to Drag and Drop your Entire iTunes Folder from your Old Computer, to an External Hard Drive...
Then Drag and Drop it to your New Computer...
See this Discussion...
https://discussions.apple.com/message/16049581#16049581

How do I move my itunes account from one computer to another comuter

My computer that has my itunes account is about to die. I need to move the entire account to my new computer. How do I do this without losing all my itunes library? I have several different ipods that access this account.

One way is to Drag and Drop your Entire iTunes Folder from your Old Computer, to an External Hard Drive...
Then Drag and Drop it to your New Computer...
See this Discussion...
https://discussions.apple.com/message/16049581#16049581

How do i transfer my itunes account from one computer to another?

i got a laptop a while back. i have an itunes account on our home computer, but want to transfer it to my own laptop. is there an easy way for me to do this? because i lost all my songs when i accidenly plugged in my ipod to the laptop.. how can i get all my songs back/how do i transfer all the music when i get it back to my new computer?
help!!
thanks.

Move it to the /Users/Shared/ folder and then into the new account's home folder.
(87509)

Move itunes account from one computer to another

My laptop recently died and I bought a rerplacement. I have installed itunes on the new machine. When I log on to my account none of my music, videos, podcasts or photos are showing. How do I access these on a new machine?

I also just purchased a new macbook, is there any way I can transfer my iTunes music/videos/etc. from my phone to my macbook, or do I have to transfer from my old computer? My old computer is not an apple if that matters...

How do I change my itunes account from one computer to my new one?

how do I change my itunes account from one computer to my new one?

How to move your music to a new computer:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527
About authorization and deauthorization:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1420

How do I move ITunes from one computer to another

I am trying to move my ITunes from one computer to another. I downloaded ITunes on my new computer and loged in with my account information. Then I pluged my IPod into the comuter and imported all my songs. I thought that everything would come over but none of my apps did. I want to synce my IPod up with my new computer how do I do it?

Backup everything to an external hard drive with this User Tip.
Use the same process to clone the library into a new empty iTunes folder on the new computer.
Deauthorise the old box if you don't need to access protected content on it any more.
Use SyncToy from time to time, and in particular before every iTunes update, to keep the backup up-to-date.
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Can't download song purchased from Itunes from one computer to another using same Apple ID

Hi, I am operating itunes 11 at home, using Mac OS 10.7.5.. I purchased a song at work (also a Mac, I am not sure which version of OSM or itunes). I accessed the purchase of the song in the "Purchased" menu option in itunes on my home Mac. When I tried to download the song at home so I can include it in my Library, I got the following message:
This computer is already associated with an Apple ID. You can download past purchases on this computer with just one Apple ID every 90 days.
So: just to be clear:I can only buy something from itunes from one computer and save to another with the same Apple ID only every 90 days??? And if that is the case, I have not purchased anything from my work computer within 90 days of this recent song purchase. That just does not make sense to me, since the license covers 10 devices anyway, and I am using the same Apple ID.
Let me know if I am not understanding this correctly, or am doing something wrong. It just does make not sense to me that I can't download a purchase I made from one computer to another since I am paying Apple for the music and just accessing it elsewhere, using the same account.
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Thanks for the response. Yes, my husband logged on to our computer and rented a movie for us to view. That is how we use Itunes: I purchase the music, he may purchase a movie or a rental now and then. This is new, it never happend before.
Also, I contacted customer support, both by phone and email. Not only does someone else using the home computer under a different account trigger this, but so does simply activating my own user id from a different computer (one of the 5 I am allowed to under the service agreement.)
Customer support was very helpful and lifted the 90 day ban. I called them because I purchased a season pass of a TV show and could not download the first episode because it was a "past purchase" (the episode was not even available to download when I purchased the pass, so “past” is indeed relevant.)
But I don't see the point of purchasing content from Apple now. This feature limits the accessibility of legal purchases under the service agreement. Why allow 5 computers per Apple ID if activating one of them limits the ability to download content for 90 days??
I (used to) buy movies, rentals and TV shows all the time. I don’t have cable, so Apple was the source for all “must have” shows that I couldn’t wait for. Too bad.

Copying iweb pages from one computer to another

I have iweb pages operational on a G5.
I want to transfer them to iweb on my macbook instead.
I don't want to re-create them from scratch.
I have a .mac account.
Both iweb programs are the same version.
This is a mac! There must be an easy way to copy the web pages from one computer to another!
I explored the domain file route, copied the file from my G5 to the macbook, and did not get the pages I wanted. Instead I got the start page template. My information was not there.
Any help out there?

All your information is in a single file called "domain"
By default it should be located in your
user/library/application support/iWeb/ folder.
Find it, copy it, and move it to the new computer.
The first time you use it on the new computer double click the newly moved "domain" file to start up the iWeb application. Once you do that iWeb will remember that that is the file to open on start-up.
I use multiple computers to edit iWeb and to avoid confusion as to which "domain" file is the most recent, I just keep it on a flash drive. Be sure to keep "domain" backed up safely on your computers and off (CD disks, external hard drives, etc) because if you lose that one file, you've lost all your work. iWeb cannot edit published pages.
The reason you got blank pages is that you have to double click on the newly moved "domain" file to start up iWeb. Otherwise iWeb will start from the blank "domain" file that is already on the computer. You can have many "domain" files on the computer, If you start the iWeb application by clicking the iWeb icon, it will open the last "domain" file edited on that computer, which isn't the one you just moved. There is no other way to access your work.
Good luck, David
ibook & imac Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Transferring EVERYTHING from one computer to another w/ same source

I want to transfer all my iTunes files (playlists, music, play counts, everything) from one computer to another, on account of the logic board of my old one is messed up and I want to get everything on my Mac Book Pro.
HOWEVER.
When I was using my old computer, I had my iTunes folder on an external hard drive, which would then be the source of all the music and where the new music would automatically go. So I have the external hard drive, and I can't save the playlists from my old computer because I can't use it.
So how do I transfer all the information? I've tried doing the whole "delete iTunes Data, import XML file" thing and it says it doesn't detect certain music and therefore doesn't place everything where it needs to be.
Any help?

Well the way to work around it I think would be to remove the hard drive from your broken computer, assuming of course that your broken computer is broken because of something else besides the hard drive.
Put that drive into an external enclosure. Hook up to the new computer. Copy the iTunes stuff from the old drive into the new computer overwriting the existing database files on the internal.
Now with the other external hooked up, start iTunes and see if it then sees everything properly.
Patrick

Transfer iweb files from one computer to another

Does anyone know how to transfer iweb files from one computer to another?

Change the name of the file to Domain-2.sites2 and try to copy it to the Desktop on the new Mac.
To open your domain file in Lion or Mountain Lion or to switch between multiple domain files Cyclosaurus has provided us with the following script that you can make into an Applescript application with Script Editor. Open Script Editor, copy and paste the script below into Script Editor's window and save as an application.
do shell script "/usr/bin/defaults write com.apple.iWeb iWebDefaultsDocumentPath -boolean no"delay 1
tell application "iWeb" to activate
You can download an already compiled version with this link: iWeb Switch Domain.
Just launch the application, find and select the domain file in your Home/Library/Application Support/iWeb folder that you want to open and it will open with iWeb. It modifies the iWeb preference file each time it's launched so one can switch between domain files.
WARNING: iWeb Switch Domain will overwrite an existing Domain.sites2 file if you select to create a new domain in the same folder. So rename your domain files once they've been created to something other than the default name.
NOTE: In Lion and Mountain Lion the Home/Library folder is now invisible. To make it permanently visible in Lion or Mt. Lion enter the following in the Terminal application window: chflags nohidden ~/Library and press the Return key - 10.7: Un-hide the User Library folder.
For Mavericks, 10.9, go to your Home folder and use the View ➙ Show View Optionsmenu to bring the this window:

Adding an existing user account from one computer to another?

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