Does Migration Asst thwart a truly "clean" install?

I decided to do a clean install this time when 10.6 was released because one lookinside my preferences folder and libraries found a swarm of unknown, ancient or irrelevant support files. I want these gone. No amount of AppZapper will clear this stuff out if you've deleted these apps before the advent of AppZapper, etc.
I backed up my MBP's internal HD and erased then installed Snow Leopard. After realizing how much serial-number-entering I would have to do, I tried the migration assistant. What I didn't realize is that MA will pass on all the old Application Support/Preferences files you've always had whether they are relevant to your current applications or not. In short, the Migration ***'t install was a partial failure, with loads of permissions challenges (I found a KB on this, something to do with your user becoming a Standard instead of Admin user in the transfer), certain apps didn't copy and the system doesn't feel any cleaner than if I had simply Upgrade-installed. mail, iTunes and Address Book were all affected, though now fixed. This doesn't inspire confidence.
For a truly "clean" install, do I really have to go through the measures we did in OS 9 and earlier, meaning, literally download all your installers (or get your CDs handy), find support files that contain databases (Yojimbo, address book, etc), move them manually and all that? I'd thought we'd moved on from this.
Do any of those apps I've seen clean out things like old prefs and support files you're no longer using? I'm talking about OmniDiskSweeper or I believe Aladdin had one as well. I use Onyx for caches but not for all the other detritus.
Message was edited by: Daniel Pinder

Truly clean is a waste of time.
But the answer is yes, given it gives you the ability to install applications or your user home folder from an old installation. Your home folder contains preferences and data for nearly every application you run, which is incredibly helpful. Of course, if any of them are corrupt, and you don't know how to fix them, then Migration Assistant will bring them over.

Similar Messages

Does migration asst copy entire directory? or just relevant files?

hello all.
I'm about to reinstall tiger to a clean drive. I'm wondering that if I use the migration assistant, if it will actually copy over the entire disk? including irrelevant files [orphaned prefs or temporary caches for example], or if it's a cleaner process which only brings the relevant data.
I guess I'm trying to figure out if it makes more sense just to reinstall everything , the apps, recreate the user folders and bring the library items etc over manually.
also when it brings everything over, does it just copy the directory? or does it do any optimization +/ defragmenting as it passes over?
thanks very much everyone.
s
G5 Mac OS X (10.4.3)

I'm wondering that if I use the migration assistant, if it will actually copy over the entire disk? including irrelevant files [orphaned prefs or temporary caches for example], or if it's a cleaner process which only brings the relevant data.The migration assistant has absolutely no way of knowing about "orphaned prefs" so those will be copied. Temporary caches are not copied.also when it brings everything over, does it just copy the directory? or does it do any optimization +/ defragmenting as it passes over?The copy is not bit wise, so defragmentation does occur as the files are written to the destination hard drive.

How to migrate backup of Wiki to clean install of Leopard server

I've just completed a clean reinstall of Leopard server:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1871946
I'm having trouble, however, migrating the Wiki.
I've followed the instructions in the following link but I'm just getting a service unavailable 503 error:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TA25138
Any ideas?

This is what my wiki error log looks like:
2009-02-03 13:59:51+0000 [-] Log opened.
2009-02-03 13:59:51+0000 [-] twistd 2.5.0 (/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.5/Resources/Python.app/ Contents/MacOS/Python 2.5.1) starting up
2009-02-03 13:59:51+0000 [-] reactor class: <class 'twisted.internet.selectreactor.SelectReactor'>
2009-02-03 13:59:52+0000 [-] twisted.web.server.Site starting on 8086
2009-02-03 13:59:52+0000 [-] Starting factory <twisted.web.server.Site instance at 0x2efb918>
2009-02-03 13:59:52+0000 [-] twisted.web2.channel.http.HTTPFactory starting on 8087
2009-02-03 13:59:52+0000 [-] Starting factory <twisted.web2.channel.http.HTTPFactory instance at 0x2efb580>
2009-02-03 13:59:52+0000 [-] set uid/gid 94/94
2009-02-03 13:59:55+0000 [-] Traceback (most recent call last):
2009-02-03 13:59:55+0000 [-] File "/usr/share/caldavd/bin/twistd", line 21, in <module>
2009-02-03 13:59:55+0000 [-] run()
2009-02-03 13:59:55+0000 [-] File "/usr/share/caldavd/lib/python/twisted/scripts/twistd.py", line 27, in run
2009-02-03 13:59:55+0000 [-] app.run(runApp, ServerOptions)
2009-02-03 13:59:55+0000 [-] File "/usr/share/caldavd/lib/python/twisted/application/app.py", line 379, in run
2009-02-03 13:59:55+0000 [-] runApp(config)
2009-02-03 13:59:55+0000 [-] File "/usr/share/caldavd/lib/python/twisted/scripts/twistd.py", line 23, in runApp
2009-02-03 13:59:55+0000 [-] _SomeApplicationRunner(config).run()
2009-02-03 13:59:55+0000 [-] File "/usr/share/caldavd/lib/python/twisted/application/app.py", line 158, in run
2009-02-03 13:59:55+0000 [-] self.postApplication()
2009-02-03 13:59:55+0000 [-] File "/usr/share/caldavd/lib/python/twisted/scripts/twistdunix.py", line 213, in postApplication
2009-02-03 13:59:55+0000 [-] startApplication(self.config, self.application)
2009-02-03 13:59:55+0000 [-] File "/usr/share/caldavd/lib/python/twisted/scripts/twistdunix.py", line 183, in startApplication
2009-02-03 13:59:55+0000 [-] app.startApplication(application, not config['no_save'])
2009-02-03 13:59:55+0000 [-] File "/usr/share/caldavd/lib/python/twisted/application/app.py", line 400, in startApplication
2009-02-03 13:59:55+0000 [-] service.IService(application).startService()
2009-02-03 13:59:55+0000 [-] File "/usr/share/caldavd/lib/python/twisted/application/service.py", line 233, in startService
2009-02-03 13:59:55+0000 [-] service.startService()
2009-02-03 13:59:55+0000 [-] File "/usr/share/wikid/lib/python/apple_utilities/service.py", line 62, in startService
2009-02-03 13:59:55+0000 [-] SettingsManager.globalSettings.rebuildIndex())
2009-02-03 13:59:55+0000 [-] File "/usr/share/wikid/lib/python/apple_utilities/SearchManager.py", line 424, in buildAllIndexes
2009-02-03 13:59:55+0000 [-] buildSearchIndex(aPath, doRebuild)
2009-02-03 13:59:55+0000 [-] File "/usr/share/wikid/lib/python/apple_utilities/SearchManager.py", line 406, in buildSearchIndex
2009-02-03 13:59:55+0000 [-] GroupSqliteIndex.buildSearchIndex(whichPath, forceRebuild)
2009-02-03 13:59:55+0000 [-] File "/usr/share/wikid/lib/python/apple_utilities/GroupSqliteIndex.py", line 624, in buildSearchIndex
2009-02-03 13:59:55+0000 [-] metaData.saveData()
2009-02-03 13:59:55+0000 [-] File "/usr/share/wikid/lib/python/apple_wlt/GroupSettings.py", line 369, in saveData
2009-02-03 13:59:55+0000 [-] plistlib.writePlist(self.data, self.prefsPath)
2009-02-03 13:59:55+0000 [-] File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.5/lib/python2.5/plat-ma c/plistlib.py", line 89, in writePlist
2009-02-03 13:59:55+0000 [-] IOError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: u'/Library/Collaboration/Groups/executive/metadata.plist'

Clean Install of Snow Leopard - what to keep, what to toss, how to go about it?

I am having difficulty with my 1st gen Intel iMac and want to do a clean install. This is an effort to see if I can get good performance out of this machine or should I buy a new one. I am thinking about buying an external drive to move everything to, erase the internal drive, install Snow Leopard, move everything back and then use the external drive for iTunes and iPhoto. Currently they reside on the Time Capsule, but this does not work very well.
My question is, how exactly do I move everything to the new external and what stuff exactly do I put back on the internal? Do I just drag my old user folder and applications folder (which I keep in the main directory, not in the user's App folder) back? back to the internal or will this recreate any problems? What about passwords for applications, will they need o be reentered for all my apps? And Libraries, App Support and such things? I have never done a clean install before. Your thoughts and advice are appreciated.
PS: I have a MM account, so I know I can set up Mail Address Book & iCal to sync automatically.
Charles

To do a truly clean install, the only thing you should move to the new install is your personal documents. Everything else should be reinstalled from scratch. Don't import any preference files, keychains, applications, etc unless you have no other choice.
However, note that this is an extreme solution that is not usually necessary. If your problem is performance issues, then it's possible that it's just that your hardware is inadequate for the software you're trying to use on it, since you have older hardware. It's also possible that there are some issues you can solve in another way that's easier than reinstalling everything. Try looking at the Mac OS X speed FAQ.

Clean install: backing up, cloning, efficiency

I want to do a clean install of Leopard on my MBP, and have a few questions:
1. I want to make a copy of my current HD and store it on an empty HD on my Quicksilver, but when I connect to the Quicksilver via Firewire, the only drive visible is the startup drive. Is it possible to access the empty drive in the Quicksilver via Firewire.
2. I will, of course, want to reinstall my extra apps; is this merely a matter of "dragging" them back from the Quicksilver HD to the MBP clean-install HD, or will I need to reinstall from the application CDs?
3. I have read that people are using the "Migrate user" function after a clean install, but if one does this, does it not put back ALL files, including the ones I want to make sure are gone, such as preferences for applications no longer used, on the newly formatted drive?
I guess a brief primer on the best way to do a clean install would be in order, and thanks in advance.

when I connect to the Quicksilver via Firewire, the only drive visible is the startup drive
Only the Master drive is available with FireWire Target Disk Mode. You could put the MacBook in Target Disk Mode and do the copy with the Quicksilver.
I will, of course, want to reinstall my extra apps
It is safest to reinstall, rather than copy because there may be other files besides the application itself. For example, there are the receipts for the iLife applications, so Software Update can tell if they need updating. To install the applications that came on the MacBook, boot from the hard drive, install the applications from the discs that came with the computer, then run Software Update to get any update needed for Leopard compatibility.

Reformatting HD with clean install... but first a question...

So my Powerbook has been... slow since I put Leopard on it. Much, much slower than when I had Tiger on it.
I am thinking however that maybe it has to do with me just doing an upgrade rather than a clean install. So I want to do a clean install, etc.
If I do this can I still go back to my Time Machine and pull files, apps, etc back on to the machine? Or will it not allow this?
If anyone has any information I would really appreciate it (or if you think I should just go back to Tiger I'd love to hear why)!
Thanks,
Stephen

Sorry, I don't want to restore the whole thing from the time machine back up, just pull individual files/folders or apps.
Can I do that with my Time Machine Volume and a new install of Leopard or will it not recognize it as such?
For instance, could I pull Quicksilver or Photoshop over from my TM backup to my new system without having to re-install? Or old work and school files/folders?
Or if I pull the whole user over (as was suggested) would it just give me all my apps, all my settings, etc with no losses?

After a Lion clean install, how do I retrieve my data from external back-up? Following Apple advice for use of Migration Assistant did not work creating similar issues leading to clean install.

After a Lion clean install, how do I retrieve my data from external hard drive?
Following Apple advice I used Migration Assistant which crashed new system twice which is why I had to clean install Lion in the first place.
Is there a sure way of doing it?
I have only a few programs that I will have to install myself and that should not be a problem.
I just want my data, music and photos back where I can use them.

Time machine backups. I went to migration assistant a few hours ago and limited my selection to "users", no need for applications, settings and other files. Stuff started moving over at a fast pace but has now seemed to stall.
I will let it run overnight as there are lots of songs and photos as well as a few movies.
If that does not work, then I will go into TM and try restore. I have restored some things in the past such a mail files and it has worked well.
The Apple fellow at the store told me to go right into TM, he may have had a point. I'll get it eventually.

How do I migrate from a former user account on an external drive after a clean install?

This question has been partially answered before but not to my satisfaction and, from what I've found, not for Mountain Lion.
My MBPr was running fine for a week after I transfered my User account to an external drive. After some reorganization I decided to move the acount to a different external drive. I blundered and, for whatever reason, was unable to log in to any account on my MBPr. Not even my backup account - which suprised me. (I tried repairing disks, permissions, etc...) I tried to resolve it on the phone with Apple to no avail. Finally, I gave up. I booted into recovery and did a reinstall. After 12 hours I came back to find that it wasn't a clean reinstall. And I still couldn't log in to anything.
I then did an erase and reinstall. After another 12 hours I now have a clean install of Mountain Lion on my MBPr. I have an external drive with my former working user directory (Home:Users/mrmoose) on it. (BTW, It is LARGER than my internal SSD drive, it is not bootable, AND I have no backup of it in Time Machine format.)
My current user account is Macintosh HD:Users/bullwinkle
1) Is there a way to "reclaim" my user account on the external drive - possibly without even copying or migrating?
2) Can I copy the contents of bullwinkle (excluding some of my folders under Documents so it fits) to Macintosh HD Users/bullwinkle? Including the Library folder? I have audio plugins, etc...
I'd still like my User directory on an external drive. But I will settle for keeping it on the internal drive. I just want my info back.
Why, oh, why does Migration Assistant require your data to be in TIME MACHINE format only - why can one not migrate from a full copy on an external drive? Why can't it look at the darn thing and say, "Hey, that's a copy of an OSX User directory. I can migrate data from that."?
I would greatly appreciate a detailed response. THANK YOU. Lama Out.

~/Library is probably the one you don't want to move back because it may bring the issues back along with it.
All your own data you can drag & drop. You can drag the contents of any folder Movies, Music, Pictures, Documents (or as much as you want).
Rather than try to replace the Library you can take ~/Library/Application Support, Mail, Safari and any other folders you need.
To access your hidden ~/Library folder go to your Finder "Go" menu hold the option key to choose "Library".
Then you can drag it to the Sidebar for easy access.

Can I do a clean install of 10.5 and use migration assistant from backup ?

I want to install OS 10.5 on to my Macbook. If I do a clean install rather than an archive and install can I then use migration assistant to transfer my accounts and emails from the cloned Superduper backup I have made on an external drive?
Or is Archive and Install better?

I think 99.9% of the people know what you want to do by "clean" (ie, erase or reformat) and that insures there aren't any file or directory problems when you start, that the new OS is all that will be taking up space. Clean has two connotations: Windows or OS 9. There are lots of words that are "no longer used" but everyone knows what "initialize" or reformat means and does.
If you said, "Scratch that" you could mean, "scratch that idea" even though you can't actually scratch anything. And the idea isn't in stone (scratch out) or written with a pencil where you could erase the word or line. Or draw a line through words to "scratch out the line." There can be multiple meanings. Some languages have 5 words for "blue" to denote different shades of blue, and meaning.
Your drive is 60GB which is on the small side so that is one more reason to reformat.
And because installers will create and delete a lot of files, and scatter around, I would do another SD backup (and leave your old backup as is) so you have a copy of Leopard you can boot from and that would be just Apple OS (maybe after applying the 900MB of updates required to get to 10.5.4+).
Migration Assistant has posed some problems for some with how account data is imported into a new group account. Check out http://www.macfixit.com

Clean install, migration, time machine

I am not a MAC OSX specialist in any way, but I would like to share what I have found out the hard way about the clean install.
1) Never do this unless you are absolutely sure that you have complete back up. Time machine cannot restore to the latest backup status, it can only go back to full backups and those are not made very often. In my case it was July 29, 2012. What a surprise! . Do the vital backups by hand. I propose copying your home folder to an external disc or usb pen drive. Copy Application folder as well. Why? If you are fond of iWorks'09 and hate new versions and you do clean install your favourite software is gone. You may just as well erase your Time Machine disc and start backup from clean drive. I didn't do it.
2) Make copies of your mails.
3) If you purchased software outside AppStore make notes of serial codes. Mail backup helps.
4) When making USB drive bootable do it this way: http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=18081307&postcount=3 it preserves RECOVERY partition which is needed for FIND MY MAC option and it is usefull to have it anyway. Place the USB intended for clean install directly into your MAC, don't use USB hub.
5) Migration assistant never worked for me. The reason might have been that my last full Time Machine backup was done 18 months ago, and it was 10.8... I have read quite a lot about getting restore from the Time Machine, and dwelled on the subject myself.
I can't give explanation why that happened but that is found out the hard way:
- I discoverd that long name of the user should be different than the one you used before clean install.
- After doing trial and error attempts I made short user name the same as in my user before clean install, and started it with a capital letter. Why? That gave me access to my time machine. When the I had a different short user name than stored in time machine then upon entry into time machine all the backups well dimed and going back was not possible. With the same short name the backups were accessible. The system complained that I had no permissions to access the folders. But that is possible to change. When you look up Time Machine folders in Finder, those that are restricted to you have got red circle with a white line inside. Ctrl click on the restricted folder and select Get info. Add yourself as a user that has the access and change permissions to read and write. Your Documents folder appear in every back up in Time Machine. The best it is to change the permissions in the latest backup.
At the end of the day I managed to recover my mail. Data from other programs and my old MBP is up runnning again and faster. It takes however, a lot of work to make it.
The biggest pitty is that I lost my Pages v4.3 and now don't have an option to recover it.

Are you sure its not shown? It should have a yellow or green icon, and list the name of the system and HD that was backed-up, not the one it's on.
If not, try to repair the backups, per #A5 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.

Clean install and selective migration?

Hi,
First a bit of background:
I have 2 Macs, a 2009 Mac Pro and a Late 2011 MBP 17".
The Mac Pro was originally Leopard, then Snow. I decided it was getting risky and upgraded to 10.8.5. No issues.
The MacBook Pro came with Lion. I wanted to upgrate that to 10.8.5 too. Oh my goodness what a nightmare!
In brief: Upgraded MBP to ML. At the same time it did a firmware update for Thunderbolt. Ever since this, it proves very hit or miss with booting – it tends to hang before the login screen (spinning beachball of death). I have done all the SMC and NVRAM resets, and eventually did a clean install of Mountain Lion, then used Migration assistant to copy everything from the MacPro. It still seems to have issues. Apple tech support say that it cannot be software if I've reinstalled everything, but they did say I should NOT have migrated the users over. Not sure why.
Anyway, I took it in to an authorised service centre and they said it could be the HD on its way out (although SMART status is ok). They recommended that I replace the HD with an SSD. However, as I have loads of client and personal data on my HD, I cannot send my MBP away for someone to clone etc, and dispose of the old HD without me knowing how well they disposed of it.
So, I've just secure formatted the whole machine. When I came to restart, it wanted to install Lion rather than ML. I was surprised, as I'd heard that once you update the OS, the firmware gets rewritten so you can't go back. Anyway, I loaded Lion, then reinstalled ML. So now I have a clean install on the HD. I did this so that when they swap the HD for the 1TB Crucial M500, they can set me up with ML all ready to go, not give me back a Lion machine.
So, anyway, with all that as preamble, these are my questions:
1 - The Apple tech said that I should not migrate users. But I do want to get all my email history etc back. If I migrate "data", will I be able to create a new user and get it back to how it was?
2 - Applications-wise I personally would rather rebuild from scratch as my Mac Pro has got so many out of date apps that I don't really want to migrate, but what I'm concerned about is that I cannot find my MS Office 2008 disks, so ideally I'd like to migrate that. In other words, is it possible to choose which apps I migrate across using Migration Assistant?
Or am I really going to be forced to migrate users, apps and everything? And does anyone know why Apple tech think this might be the cause of the problem?
Sorry, I lknow that's a lot to read but I always think background info is useful.
Thanks in advance. I'm off to take the MBP in to have the SSD fitted, but will need your advice for setting it up when I get it back.

A few things...
1. Updating the firmware doesn't preclude loading an older version of the OS. Depending on the machine and the firmware, it may set up Internet Recovery with something different than what you're installing. For example, the firmware update may set up Lion as the Internet Recovery system, then you install Snow Leopard. You can do it, it's just that if you use Internet Recovery it'll use Lion.
2. Your problem could be the hard drive, or it could be the SATA cable. The way I normally test this is to move the drive to an external enclosure and boot from it by holding down the Option key and selecting it. If it runs fine from there, the SATA cable is the problem.
3. You really don't need tech support to do this, it's all pretty straightforward. By all means use them if you're uncomfortable doing this kind of thing, but the problem is you may get it back with the same problems. Especially if it is a SATA cable, as an SSD is only going to give you more errors than the HD did.
4. Migration Assistant gives you the option of moving Applications, Data, or Settings. You can move any or all of those categories, but not selectively. If you move Applications it'll move all of them.
5. As far as not migrating users... the reason to not do this is in case there's some software loading for the user that's causing problems. An easy way to find out if that's the case is to set your machine up with a clean install then clone it with something like Carbon Copy Cloner to an external drive. Now do your migration. If the migration causes problems, just copy the clone back onto the drive.
Here's the procedure for changing a drive in your model:
http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook+Pro+17-Inch+Unibody+Hard+Drive+Replacement/3 401

Clean install OSX+S 10.9 then migrate data from 10.6 Server?

Howdy All,
I've had OSX Server from the first release but stopped at Snow Leopard Server waiting for the "new server" to mature a bit. I think it is time now to move to OSX Server 10.9 but also for a clean install to clear out the crud that has collected over all these years.
I have two main partitions: one for the OS with the Mail store and Wikis and another for user home directories and other files. Again this is going from Snow Leopard Server 10.6.last to 10.9 Mavericks and then Mavericks Server
My question is: If I clean install Maverick and then Mavericks server on another partition will I be able to migrate data and services over manually?
Of course, I will need to setup users and directory services again from scratch (but that is part of the plan to clean out the unused stuff that has collected over the years). I don't mind setting up fileshares, Web sites, DNS, and similar again.
However, when this is done will I be able to copy the mail store (i.e. all users email) over and will it be detected, updated if needed, and work? Similarly, when I copy over the wikis, will they be detected, updated if needed, and work?
Further, when I setup the symbolic links for home directories again (onto the other partition), will the home directories be updated (if needed) and work? I'm not sure what could have changed with regards to home directories but you never know.
In summary, I guess my question is about what migration only happens when you update as opposed to what happens when an older version of a resource or service is detected after an update. Hopefully there is more of the latter than the former.
Thanks in advance for any thoughts on this.
Cheers,
Ashley.

Out of your services (AFP/SMB, Mail, OD, SWU, and web), the one with the most potential for disaster and headache is clearly mail. If you are using the same host device, cutting services over in pieces will not be possible. However, here are some suggestions and potential points of concern.
AFP/SMB file services are cake. The only thing you need to consider is the potential time to copy the data if you are moving it to new disks. The other issue will be user's GUID values and the associated ACLs. Let's take the following scenario based on what you've detailed.
• You have data on /HDD/Shares/ and you are planning on moving them to the SSD. Is the SSD drive large enough to accept this data?
• If you had a share /HDD/Shares/Data and this contained an ACL allowing the design group to have access, the design group from the 10.6.8 OD may have a different GUID than the one you create on the 10.9.1 system. If this is the case, you can purge all ACLs with a sudo chmod -R -N /path/to/data. (Server.app should remove and then add but older versions resulted in merged messes so I go nuclear on the old settings) Then you can apply your new ACLs and allow the permissions to propagate.
• If you are leaving the data were it is, you will simply need to reset permissions. However, note that if you are exporting and then importing users (via an OD backup or via standard record format) then you are maintaining GUID and should not need to touch any permissions.
Regarding SWU, I would suggest looking into Caching server. If you are moving the entire environment to 10.9 and iOS 7, SWU is no longer needed. Caching server is easy as pie, requires no client configuration, and is more economical on your internet connection and server storage requirements.
Web is pretty easy also. But, this is dependant on what you are doing with web. If html/php/perl then you pretty much just move your site folders and you are up and running. If you were using MySQL, note that Apple replaced it with Postgres. You can either perform a conversion from MySQL to Postgres or you can just install MySQL again manually. The choice is yours. If you are not doing database backed sites, the migration should be cake.
OD is one of those technologies that I always prefer to start clean. In really large environments, this can be very tough due to passwords. You can export an OD backup from 10.6 and attempt a restore in 10.9.1. If you have a lot of MCX in 10.6.8, you may run into some trouble as Apple has deprecated MCX in 10.8 and above. However, this ensures that you have everything, from password to GUID. Test, test, and test some more if you go this route. An alternate option, especially if you are embracing the move away from MCX and to Profiles, is to do a user and group export for 10.6's Workgroup Manager. This will not provide passwords but it will provide editable text files of your account data. You can strip out the MXC and other legacy values and then use the resulting file to import users into a clean 10.9.1 OD master. Once again, you will not get passwords unless you add them to the import file. You need to figure out how many accounts and how sensitive users are to password resets.
The final piece is mail. This is the one area I have very little experience. I've been burned by Apple's mails solutions from way back in the AppleShare IP days and now make it policy to use anything else but Apple's mail solution. In a perfect world, moving the mail data store to the new OS and triggering Server.app should be enough. But Apple + mail never seem to enter the realm of a perfect world.
And finally, make sure DNS is correct before you do anything. Since you are dealing with mail, you should also shut firewall port forwards to prevent new mail from coming into the server while you work on the migration. Nothing worse than stitching mail together after a blown migration attempt.
R-
Apple Consultants Network
Apple Professional Services
Author "Mavericks Server – Foundation Services" :: Exclusively available in the Apple iBooks Store

Clean install after a migration

I am doing my first migration from my G4 over the new macbook pro and I didn't move the apps, but I couldn't deselect moving the library files. I would prefer to have a clean install for FCP. Should I run FCP remover after the migration. I never had trouble with my G4, but I had all kinds of trouble with my G5 and compressor. Again I was hoping for a clean install on FCP2.

G4 Mac to Intel Mac migration? Stop.
You can do this with your user documents, photos, music etc. Don't do it with software.
Fresh install for everything else.

Clean install and migration of only one or two program

How does one do a clean install and migrate only one or two applications.

I don't believe there is a "clean install" on the Snow Leopard disk if you launch the install from your standard system boot. I believe you need to:
1) Put the SL disk in the machine drive.
2) Restart your machine.
3) Hold down the 'c' key during startup, to boot from the SL disk.
4) Once the system boots up, it starts the Snow Leopard install process. However, you have a menu bar where you can run several system utilities, such as Disk Utility.
5) Run Disk Utility and erase/reformat the main system harddisk. This will give you a "clean" disk to install Snow Leopard on.
6) After Disk Utility finishes, proceed with the install process.
7) After intallation of Snow Leopard, restore any apps/data you want from backups and/or original installation packages.
Hope this helps,
j0hn

How to migrate iTunes and iPhone info to Lion on a clean install?

Hello everybody:
I've been using Lion for a while now, and I finally want to take the leap. My idea is to migrate from SL to Lion -now I have 2 partitions, one with Lion, one with SL-, but with a clean install, so all the garbage I have in SL will be deleted, so I can get a fresh start (with my documents and other stuff, of course). My question regards my iPhone and all the things iTunes normally backups. How can I migrate those? I want to avoid that iTunes tells me that I'm on a new computer, so it has to erase everything. Is there a way to do that? Also, what about my apps? I think those that are installed through a .pkg will not work if I move the .app from one /Applications folder to another but, what about those that are Lion-compatible and are only a .app archive? They'll work, right?
I think those are my main doubts for now. Thank you in advance for your answers!
F

You may want to use Setup Assistant - available only once at the beginning of a new install - you do not really want to use Migration Assistant. Although they are essentially the same procedure, Setup sets up your account once and transports over the settings, etc.; whereas Migration Asst comes in later after you've already established an account resulting in duplicates in accounts, folders, and messed up Permissions. I used it once.
Time Machine would be a good way - youc an get some excellent info here:
http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Home.html

Does Migration Asst thwart a truly "clean" install?

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