Basics on transferring all my files from imac 10.5.8 to mac book pro 10.6

Question

Hello,
I recently bought a mac book pro and when I was at the apple store the explanations they gave me to transfer all my files, contacts, calendars, photos, .png files, seemed so simple - hook up the ethernet cable and I would be walked through it but NOTHING HAPPENED. I apologize if you have given these basic instructions over and over, but I have been searching for hours and cannot find anything giving me the basic step by step instructions to do this.
I'm confused, too, on if while I'm working on files in one computer if I can transfer to the next and continue the work. I thought this was going to be very easy, but I feel as if I'm in way over my head. Please help!!

Answer 1

Hi, and welcome to the forums.
There are several ways to do this, but you may have bypassed the easiest one: when you first booted up your shiny new Mac, +Setup Assistant+ should have asked if you already had a Mac, and given you the opportunity to transfer your data either directly from it, or from it's Time Machine backups.
See #19 in the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum, for details and a link to a video demo.
Once you've gone past the "Do you already own a Mac" screen, though, you can't easily start over.
But if you want to, and haven't added new data you need to keep, use the *Erase, Install, & Migrate* section of the Glenn Carter - Restoring Your Entire System / Time Machine *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.
Where it says to select your Time Machine backups, connect the old Mac and select that option instead. The rest of the procedure is exactly the same.