Migrating from old MBP to new

I've just purchased a new MBP 17" i7 to replace my 2008 MBP 15". When I got my 2008 version, I just used the Firewire 800 to move all of my stuff from my iMac to my MBP. Spent a few minutes fixing some passwords, and that was that. Probably took around an hour.
So, I haven't migrated between Macs for a couple of years, and I want to find out what the best way to proceed. I use Time Machine to back up my computer, and have all of my iTunes media files on a portable 1TB hard drive (I've got thousands of songs in Apple Lossless). So here are my questions:
1. Should I migrate from my old to new via Firewire? Or is it best to restore from Time Machine?
2. Will Time Machine "start over." Will I lose 2 years of incremental backups? It's nice to know I can go digging back a couple of years to find that file I shouldn't have erased. Also, every once in a while a piece of music gets corrupted, and I've got to get it replaced by an older saved version.
3. This might not be the right place, but will I be able to point iTunes on the new MBP to my media files? I'm convinced I can, but I'm not sure.
I'm going to wait a few days to do the migration, because I want to do this right. A few years ago, I did it wrong and lost years of photos, of which 90% were lost forever.

OrangeMarlin wrote:
So, I haven't migrated between Macs for a couple of years, and I want to find out what the best way to proceed.
+Setup Assistant+ has been greatly improved for Snow Leopard. See #19 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).
1. Should I migrate from my old to new via Firewire? Or is it best to restore from Time Machine?
Makes little difference. It's a bit easier from Time Machine, since you don't have to start up the old Mac in Target Disk mode and make the connection, but otherwise it makes no difference (assuming you didn't exclude anything important from Time Machine).
2. Will Time Machine "start over."
As William says, yes.
Will I lose 2 years of incremental backups?
Depends on how much space is on your Time Machine drive.
It's nice to know I can go digging back a couple of years to find that file I shouldn't have erased. Also, every once in a while a piece of music gets corrupted, and I've got to get it replaced by an older saved version.
Yup, absolutely. If you keep the old drive "on the shelf" you can always display and restore from it via the +*Browse ...+ option, per #17 in the FAQ.
Or, if you get a new, larger drive, you can copy the existing backups to it, and continue backing-up to the same set of backups. See #18 in the FAQ. If you do that, when the first backup of the new Mac starts, you'll get the prompt in #B5 of Time Machine - Troubleshooting (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).
3. This might not be the right place, but will I be able to point iTunes on the new MBP to my media files? I'm convinced I can, but I'm not sure.
Yup. Just hold down the Option key while starting iTunes; you get a prompt to Create a library or Choose an existing one.
I'm going to wait a few days to do the migration, because I want to do this right. A few years ago, I did it wrong and lost years of photos, of which 90% were lost forever.
I'd recommend against that. +Setup Assistant+ runs immediately when you first boot the new Mac up; if you take all the defaults, it will move everything from the old Mac (or backups) except OSX. No temporary user profile, no setting-up communications, etc.
If you're nervous about losing things, and don't have secondary backups, do your final Time Machine backup of the old Mac, and turn it off. Use the backups to transfer your data, so the old Mac won't be involved at all.

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