Installation Options for iMovie HD on Snow Leopard system with iLife '09

Question

Greetings and thank-you for contributing suggestions on what is a well worn subject. I have read many of the posts existing on this topic and am trying to nip some details.
I have a late 2006 iMac that came with Tiger and iMovie HD which is now at version 6.0.3. When I upgraded to Snow Leopard (Boxed Set) I got iLife 09 but, as it was supposed to do, it left me iMovie HD which is what I have used. I have both sets of installation DVD's. (from the iMac and the SL upgrade)
Today I got a new MacMini and am plotting how to get iMovie HD on it.
I gather that I first need to remove iMovie 09 from the Mini. I do that by dragging its application bundle in finder to the trash and removing any receipt packages.
Do I have to remove all of the iLife 09 applications or just iMovie 09?
Then, I reinstall either all of iLife 06 from the iMac DVD or just iMovie HD. After that I can load iLife 09 from the SL DVD. That will leave the iMovie HD on the system but upgrade everything else.
Should I run software update from iMovie HD to try to get the 6.0.3 version or download and run the upgrade image? Does it matter?
I am good to go. Did I miss anything?
I also have a SuperDuper clone of the iMac system. Another possibility is to boot from that and clone it to the new Mini. Does anyone think this is a better idea?
Thanks again for the insights of your experience.

Answer 1

I think the issue is that if you install iMovie 06 on a system with iMovie 09 installed, iMovie 6 has no knowledge that iMovie 09 exists. Therefore iMovie 6 installs itself in the iMovie folder in the Applications Folder and assumes anything in there is old and can be trashed.
Apple fixed this with iMovie 6.04, but this is no longer available.
But if you install iMovie 6 first, and iMovie 9 second, iMovie 9 knows about iMovie 6 and will move it to a folder called "iMovie - Previous Versions".
In your case, I would uninstall iMovie 09 as you started to do, then run the migration assistant, then reinstall iMovie 09.
It should also work to create a folder on your old system called "iMovie - Previous Versions". Drag the iMovie 6 app into this folder and verify that it works. Then do the Migration Assistant. This should work, but I hesitate to recommend it because I have not tested it. Best case, it installs and you did not even have to uninstall iMovie 09. Worst case, delete the iMovie folder and reinstall iMovie 09.
For what its worth, I recently did a Migration Assistant from a SuperDuper clone (after a failed hard disk) that had both iMovie 09 and iMovie 6 installed, and it worked fine. But I have not tried your scenario.
I would use Migration Assistant because then you have the correct version of Snow Leopard for your system. You may not if you use a clone. A new machine may have microcode that is not released to the general release of OSX for several months. If your Mini is a used one and at least 6 months old, a clone should work OK.