Migration Assistant Confusion

I used Migration Assistant today to copy files and applications from my PBG4 to my new MBP. Everything looks like it came over okay but I have inadvertently set up two different accounts, the Administrator and the one that has all of the files I need to access. Is there a way to combine the two? Or can I copy the files over to the Administrator section? To be honest I don't quite understand how the two are set up. Is it like a partition? And if so can I see them side by side? Or do I have to copy them to an external drive and copy of that way?
This seems like a very stupid question but any help you can offer is appreciated.
Thanks,
Scott

Not a good idea to migrate an entire user account from a PPC to an Intel Mac. I suggest you delete the migrated account and follow some of the suggestions here:
A Basic Guide for Migrating to Intel-Macs
If you are migrating a PowerPC system (G3, G4, or G5) to an Intel-Mac be careful what you migrate. Keep in mind that some items that may get transferred will not work on Intel machines and may end up causing your computer's operating system to malfunction.
Rosetta supports "software that runs on the PowerPC G3 or G4 processor that are built for Mac OS X". This excludes the items that are not universal binaries or simply will not work in Rosetta:
Classic Environment, and subsequently any Mac OS 9 or earlier applications
Screensavers written for the PowerPC
System Preference add-ons
All Unsanity Haxies
Browser and other plug-ins
Contextual Menu Items
Applications which specifically require the PowerPC G5
Kernel extensions
Java applications with JNI (PowerPC) libraries
See also What Can Be Translated by Rosetta.
In addition to the above you could also have problems with migrated cache files and/or cache files containing code that is incompatible.
If you migrate a user folder that contains any of these items, you may find that your Intel-Mac is malfunctioning. It would be wise to take care when migrating your systems from a PowerPC platform to an Intel-Mac platform to assure that you do not migrate these incompatible items.
If you have problems with applications not working, then completely uninstall said application and reinstall it from scratch. Take great care with Java applications and Java-based Peer-to-Peer applications. Many Java apps will not work on Intel-Macs as they are currently compiled. As of this time Limewire, Cabos, and Acquisition are available as universal binaries. Do not install browser plug-ins such as Flash or Shockwave from downloaded installers unless they are universal binaries. The version of OS X installed on your Intel-Mac comes with special compatible versions of Flash and Shockwave plug-ins for use with your browser.
The same problem will exist for any hardware drivers such as mouse software unless the drivers have been compiled as universal binaries. For third-party mice the current choices are USB Overdrive or SteerMouse. Contact the developer or manufacturer of your third-party mouse software to find out when a universal binary version will be available.
Also be careful with some backup utilities and third-party disk repair utilities. Disk Warrior 4.1, TechTool Pro 4.6.1, SuperDuper 2.5, and Drive Genius 2.0.2 work properly on Intel-Macs with Leopard. The same caution may apply to the many "maintenance" utilities that have not yet been converted to universal binaries. Leopard Cache Cleaner, Onyx, TinkerTool System, and Cocktail are now compatible with Leopard.
Before migrating or installing software on your Intel-Mac check MacFixit's Rosetta Compatibility Index.
Additional links that will be helpful to new Intel-Mac users:
Intel In Macs
Apple Guide to Universal Applications
MacInTouch List of Compatible Universal Binaries
MacInTouch List of Rosetta Compatible Applications
MacUpdate List of Intel-Compatible Software
Transferring data with Setup Assistant - Migration Assistant FAQ
Because Migration Assistant isn't the ideal way to migrate from PowerPC to Intel Macs, using Target Disk Mode or copying the critical contents to CD and DVD or an external hard drive will work better when moving from PowerPC to Intel Macs.
Basically the instructions you should follow are:
1. Backup your data first. This is vitally important in case you make a mistake or there's some other problem.
2. Connect a Firewire cable between your old Mac and your new Intel Mac.
3. Startup your old Mac in Target Disk Mode.
4. Startup your new Mac for the first time, go through the setup and registration screens, but do NOT migrate data over. Get to your desktop on the new Mac without migrating any new data over.
4. Copy the following items from your old Mac to the new Mac:
In your /Home/ folder: Documents, Movies, Music, Pictures, and Sites folders.
In your /Home/Library/ folder:
/Home/Library/Application Support/AddressBook (copy the whole folder)
/Home/Library/Application Support/iCal (copy the whole folder)
Also in /Home/Library/Application Support (copy whatever else you need including folders for any third-party applications)
/Home/Library/Keychains (copy the whole folder)
/Home/Library/Mail (copy the whole folder)
/Home/Library/Preferences/ (copy the whole folder)
/Home /Library/iTunes (copy the whole folder)
/Home /Library/Safari (copy the whole folder)
If you want cookies:
/Home/Library/Cookies/Cookies.plist
/Home/Library/Application Support/WebFoundation/HTTPCookies.plist
For Entourage users:
Entourage is in /Home/Documents/Microsoft User Data
Also in /Home/Library/Preferences/Microsoft
Credit goes to another forum user for this information.
If you need to transfer data for other applications please ask the vendor or ask in the Discussions where specific applications store their data.
5. Once you have transferred what you need restart the new Mac and test to make sure the contents are there for each of the applications.
Written by Kappy with additional contributions from a brody.
Revised 3/12/2008

Similar Messages

Using Migration Assistant Confusion

Thought I'd have a few more weeks, but situations changed and I have to do the migration in the next 2 days AND I got questions! So on one Mac Pro tower, I have a disk running 10.6.8, my mainstay so far. Want to completely transition to a Mavericks system. Have Mavericks already installed, updated and working on another drive in the same computer. So I test ran Migration Assistant to see what it is asking me for.
First (this is the Migration tool ON the new 10.9.5 system), it says something about if I am migrating from "another Mac" I should use the Migration tool on that Mac. Huh? Is a different drive in the same machine considered "another Mac?" AND why use the Snow Leopard version vs. the Mavericks version of said tool? Make no sense. Shouldn't I be using the target system's tool?
Yes, I did make sure that the short name of both users on the old system and new was identical (uh, that be me).
I HAD actually talked to a "genius" about the migration, but he never mentioned there are 3 separate things to migrate, applications, user data and computer and network settings. No I do NOT want any applications moved over (had tons from my work days that are no longer necessary, the few I now use I can re-install), yes I essentially want my whole user folder moved, but exactly what is "computer and network settings?" My inclination is to say no, because such things seem very trivial and I am trying to get rid of a ton of cruft from the Snow Leopard installation. Yes I know I'm going to get old prefs & items in Users/<me>/Library but I want to avoid any of that stuff from "System/Library" Any issues NOT migrating said items?
Lastly, I saw an Edit button on the user data thing... I clicked it and see my full real name (which exists on both Snow & Mac installations) in red, and it says "user needs attention." Huh, exactly what does THAT mean? Which user on which installation?

I would think the migration assistant transfers 100% of all contents...
When you are setting up a new Mac you can use Setup assistant the moment you boot the mac the first time. Setup Assistant will usually transfer everything. If you miss tha t moment and later launch Migration Assistant some library files will not be transferred. Migration assistant will not transfer system files, only User Files and Application files. I think, that is why your files are missing.
so could you please tell how this copying is done?
Best take an external drive with plenty of free disk space and plug it into your MacBook Pro.
Open the System drive, your Macintosh HD in the Finder and open the folder "Library", then "Application Support", then "GarageBand". Copy the folder
/Library/Application Support/GarageBand/Instrument Library/ to your external drive by dragging it there.
Then open again the folder "Library" on your Macintosh HD, and this time open the folder "Audio" inside. Copy the folder
/Library/Audio/Apple Loops/
to your externall drive. Eject the drive and plug it into your iMac.
Now compare the AppleLoops folders and instrument library folders and copy all missing items over to the corresponding folders in the iMac's Library.
Afterwards you need to reindex the loops, by dragging any loop you newly installed onto the Loop Browser in garageband, see: Rebuilding the Loop Index in GarageBand

I just purchased a macbook pro and am trying to get itunes library and other documents from macbook 2.1 running 10.4.11 and migration assistant tells me to update but it tells me i am up to date...confusing...how do i fix this issue?

am trying to import from macbook to macbook pro using migration assistant...tells me that i need to update old mac but macbook tells me it is up to date???? any hints on how i fix this issue? running 10.4.11 and it wont update further...please help.
JVS

The camera must be plugged in to AC power (not batteries only). And generally, the camera should be set to Play mode, not recording mode.

Migration Assistant: User Name Confusion

Working through the screens of Migration Assistant to move data from 1Book G$ to MacBook, I'm asked to rename my User Name. Not sure why, or more importantly, rename it to what? If I do a re-naming, after the migration is finished, can I go back and re-re-name my User Name? Somehow that screen on the Assistant has me blocked.

You are doing something wrong. You should not get that dialog box. You should end up with a single User, the same name and password, and everything should look as it did on your G$ (LOL. I presume you meant G4).
So, the process should be:
1. Target mode the G4
2. Startup the new computer
3. When it asks from what you are transferring, say another computer, and then follow the instructions to hook up the cable.
4. The next screen should ask about which user to use
5. The next screen will ask what to migrate (you want it all)

Migration Assistant? Confused. Please elaborate. Thanks

I have a MAC Partition with 10.5.7/8 and a Mac Partition with 10.5.8 and I want to MOVE APPLICATIONS from the 10.5.7 to the 10.5.8, how do you do this?
I would like to know the exact steps - as well, what happens when it sees some of the same applications already installed, does it just leave them alone? What about iPhoto images? What does it do with those? Does it overwrite, merge, create duplicates?
Wish you could select which APPS to move.

Kappy wrote:
Yes, I believe that's what I said.
Your iPhoto library is not an application. It's located in the /Home/Pictures/ folder.
Why don't you simply clone one of your drives to the other and have the same software on each? What's the purpose for having a 10.5.7 and 10.5.8 system?
Or why not install the third-party software on both drives? BTW, you do know that if the you have a single-user license you cannot install the software on more than one computer at the same time?
I have several partitions as I work in and with PRO AUDIO and it's my way of testing updates before committing. In a way, you would think instead of BULK Applications CLONE that you could select.
I suppose I will clone 10.5.7, then use migration assistant to see what happens. I don't feel like resintalling all the software all over again, thus the asking as I will be curious to see what happens when Apple's Logic 8 see's Logic 9 on the 10.8, if all goes well, then, in Apple speak, it will just work.
We'll see. I used the example of Logic twice but different versions as well as one app going to a partition where it is not. As a software/audio developer, I am always looking for answers.

Possible permissions issue - i used migration assistant from a backup and now i have multiple issues

Hi everyone,
I'd say my techie skills are low to medium so bare that in mind and be gentle with me
So 20" dual core died on Friday. poss psu issue which i will fix in due course. In a fit of extravagance I decided this message from beyond the grave from MR JObs was telling me to buy a new quad core on Saturday morning.
Because old imac was dead i used time machine back up via "migration assistant"
intially it could see the back ups but then seemed to spring to life after 20 mins
Got message saying not all content had transferred but reckon most did except for some safari stuff ( paswords etc).
Then i started to get issues with permissions i think.... asked me for passwords every time i tried to move files between folders or to trash or do pretty much anything.
read something about permissions conflicts when migrating from another admin/home account from and old imac
That when i started to activate my over "confident with technolgy" gene - i set HD permission to owned by "me" instead of system and then applied to all enclosed items
oops
now getting lots of dodgy messages eg every driver on the make brings up eeor message sayuing it was incorrectly installed
ran permissions repair - 25 mins later loads of unexpected acls have been corrected though not all -
still getting error messages about a few which i tracked down manually one by one and, sure enough, are still showing as owned by "me" and not system. Corrected them
Noticed at this point all other .kext files in same loaction have two permissions rows for "system in "get info" window = is this the root of my problem since using migration assitant?
still having issues
software updates won't install via the "software update" function but was able to install a couple of them myself direct from apple website.
back ups won;t back up to drive assigned - just keeps saying T|ime machine could not complete the back up even though there is space on freshly formatted external drive
so guys ..
have just created an unholy mess?
should i reassign "system" as owner for everything and then change foders such as documents and music etc to be owned by "me" or is that tooo simplistic?
should i wait till my old mac is brought back to life and re-do my migration ( since deleted the existing back up from old imac so thats not an option)
should i blame it all on apple and get them to sort it out under warrenty
or should i run naked down the street shouting wibble...
all help gratefully received . MY experience of apple products has been seamless over the years until now and I can't help think I have done some thing bad the wife will never forgive me for
HELP ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You may not have created a mess, it's possible you simply don't know where your data is after migrating. Had you followed the Setup Assistant's on-screen prompts when you initially turned on your new system you would be running just fine by now. My guess is you haven't been exposed to Pondini's Lion Setup Assistant tips.
Migration Assistant (MA) and Setup Assistant (SA) are cousins, similar but different. The primary difference is MA creates a new user account which can be confusing to some users. If you successfuly migrated then log out of your existing using account and you should see the new user account. Log into that account then you should see the migrated data. If you do then use Pondini's Transferring files from one User Account to another.
However if you have totally made of mess out of things then I'd start over, this time using the Setup Assistant Tips beginning where he discusses Second Chance.

Merging user accounts after using Migration Assistant

I've just acquired my first Mac (Lion OS) and set it up without using the Migration Assistant. I set up mail accounts for my existing email addresses (Gmail & Virgin). A few days later I decided to transfer my old files from the PC using Migration Assistant. Rather than do the whole thing in one go I thought I'd start with iTunes. What I failed to realise is that the Migration creates a new user account on the Mac (something I only noticed when I couldn't find iTunes and went searching). If I now migrate something else such as "My Photographs", another user account will appear.
I don't really want more than one user account so how do I transfer the iTunes music from one account to another and the same when I bring more stuff across from the PC? A related issue is the fact I've set up mail accounts already. If I migrate my Outlook mail folders and email account details can these also be merged or will the Mac be confused as I've already set something up?
Any help appreciated from this newbie Mac user. Thanks.

Have a read here Transferring files from one User Account to another
Stefan

I'm attempting to transfer files, address book, etc from an external hard drive to my new Mac-mini using migration assistant. The external drive is showing up on my desktop but Migration Assistant is not seeing the drive when searching for devices

I'm attempting to migrate files, address book, maile, etc to my new Mac Mini using an external hard drive and Migration assistant. I followed the instructions on using Migration Assistant to do this but Migration Assistant is not seeing the external drive, which is displayed on my desktop

I've been chasing this problem all afternoon. I had to reformat my internal drive on my MBP and reinstall Mountain Lion Start up assistant wouldn't see my extrnal drive with the Time Machine files on it. After many tries, I skipped the restore there and let the system boot. I could see my external drive from Finder and the files looked OK. I was told to use Migration Assistant and it had the same problem.
I saw a hint on one of these posts that the icon that you see and is label Macintosh HD is actually your backup disk and it is telling you that it has a copy of your internal Macintosh HD. I went ahead and told it to continue and it started to restore my apps, settings, and documents. It's been going for a couple of hours, and is close to being done. I expect to see my old system restored when it is finished.
Wish that Apple would put some type of note that it is seeing the backup. That is most confusing and seems to be a problem for lots of users.
It's been a month or so since your post Did your get it to work?

Migration Assistant problem? : New iMac's iTunes doesn't see the catalog or playlist of my old Mac's songs on an external drive

So I just migrated from a 10.7.5 iMac 27" from 2009 to 10.9.4 on a 2013 27" iMac with Fusion Drive.
I don't use Time Machine. There are no backups involved here.
Used Ethernet. Only took 20 hours... (BTW, it stayed on "less than 1 minute left" for like 12 hours but luckily I was away and just left it going in hopes it would work... and it did!)
Anyway, back on my OLD iMac, I kept all of my songs on an external drive because my internal drive was too small. So iTunes looked at that drive for the music it was playing. I turned that drive off, even disconnected it, during the migration process because I thought it was confusing it during the first attempt which took 10 hours and nothing happened.
So now it worked, finally. On my new iMac, running Mavericks, I now have two user accounts... the one that was set up when I started the computer the first time, and the new one that transferred over via Migration Assistant. No problem. I can live with that. The only thing is, I would still think the old XML files and library stuff would migrate over... but iTunes doesn't see it. When I open up iTunes, in *either* account, iTunes behaves as if it's brand new. Repeat: the old and new account on the new iMac, both, do not see an old iTunes library which IS on the old iMac. Only the music is on the external drive from what I understand.
I've done this before so I know it's possible. I remember upgrading a long time ago and got iTunes to see my old library... even though some of the music was no longer there. It just puts "!" marks wherever there is no link. I was hoping that that's what I would find when I launched iTunes, but no luck. Even connecting the old hard drive to the new Mac (via USB) doesn't make iTunes all of a sudden "see" the old library. That data doesn't seem to be there. It didn't transfer over. Did it not transfer over because the songs weren't on the internal volume? Should I have left my external hard drive on?
So.... now that I've spent almost 3 days total trying to get this to work, and everything is running... I don't want to have to start over in order to get iTunes to work. Is there a way I can just drag over some XML files or something from the old computer? I don't want to lose all of the ratings and personal notes and everything.
I should add also that I have like only four songs I've ever actually bought through iTunes. I'm still a bit old fashioned and buy CDs and rip them to Apple Lossless. So I hope it's not an authorization / reauthorization issue because I have like 1400 albums ripped.
Thanks in advance for any help.
--Jeff

iTunes does not use the .xml it uses the .itl
If you are sure your old library file migrated across (does the file size and modification dates suggest it has?) start iTunes while holding down the option/alt key and guide it to the .itl file to get it to use that one.

Need help with Windows Migration Assistant, as a window pops up and I don't know what to do?

Hiya, so I just purchased a macbook pro and I want to transfer files using Windows Migration assistant.
However whenever I go to do it, the mac connects to the computer and the computer always stays on 'trying to connect to mac'
and sometimes this windows pops up where it says:
'Email
There is no email program associated to perform the requested action. Please install an email program, or, if one is already installed, create an association in the Default Programs control panel.'
I'm confused as I have an email program on the pc ( Windows Live Mail)
However I don't know what it means to create an 'association' and I have gone into default programs control panel to try find this associations and have however I don't know how to make this association as I've searched for the program Windows Migration Assistant, however it isn't there and I'm not sure what to do.
Please help?

OS X 10.9 Mavericks/ 10.10 Yosemite
1. Repair Disk http://support.apple.com/kb/PH5836
2. Reset PRAM: http://support.apple.com/kb/PH14222
Best.

Backup will not restore with migration assistant.

This is long and complicated but here goes. Had a 10.5 machine PPC that was backing up to a time capsule. IMac blew out PS so was toast. Took it home and took another iMac 10.5 machine that had a bad HD. Put new HD into that machine and installed 10.6 and then ran migration assistandt from the old iMac HD drive from the unit with the bad PS. The restored iMac with the new HD was a perfect close of the older iMac and everything was perfect. Took to customer site and they were happy. Time machine started backing up again to the same time capsule as before. It created a new backup image on the time capsule with the EXACT SAME NAME as the older iMac had. I did not know that until a year later when the new hard drive in the rebuilt iMac failed. I took a newer iMac of the Intel variety with 10.7 on it to the customer site. I told migration assistant to restore from the time capsule users and data file. I di not want it to restgore programs since I knew the ones on the newer iMac where newer versions and probably not compatible. Restore seemed to go just fine. Users were all there and desktop looked the same as the older iMac with the dead hard drive. I had to install a printer driver but all appeared okay. Customer called the day later and said all files for pages and numbers and address book appeared a year old at the newest. See where this is going.
I went to the site and started looking at the backup files on the time capsule drive. Taht is when I noticed that two exact backup named files existed. So I started drilling down through them ( Not using time machine casues it only had 1 day history on it ) and looked at the dates of the files. Sure enough, one of the backup images had files that had all ended a year ago when the original iMac blew out the PS and the other backup file with an identical name had files much more current in the current month and year. Simple I said to myself. I just happended to pick the older file to restore from. So I renamed the older file so I could not get them confused. Double checked that the one with the current files was named correctly. Went to migration assistant again and ran it again. Completed just fine but sill no file less than a year old. NOw I am really puzzled so I tried a test of one simple file to see if I was wrong in my assumptions. The address book file was one of the files that was a year old. I went to the time caplsule and drilled down to the exact file that address book makes. I had already thrown the corresponding file away on the new machine so I copied the file from the exact same location on the time capslue back up to the same location on the new machine. I then fired up address book on the new machine and the address book worked perfectly with the new and updated and current records.
So now I am sure that the drive image that I have been playing with on the time capsule has the up to date backups. But migtration assistant will not move them to the new machine. It will take a very long time to move every pages and numbers files scattered around in various folders to do this manually. What is wrong with migration assistant that it will not work correctly.

I am not asking if there is anything on the card. I'm not worried about the backup or recovering all of my information. I'm asking if setting up the replacement phone as NEW will change anything at all when I use the OLD sim card.

Migration Assistant not recognizing other Mac via FireWire

I am trying to transfer files from my G4 Mirror Doors Power Mac to my new Intel iMac via the instructions that come up on the new iMac. I am running the latest version of 10.4 on the G4.
I have the two machines connected via FireWire. I restarted the G4 holding the "T" key down and sure enough, the floating "FireWire" icon comes up but shortly after that, the new iMac says, "There are no versions of OS X on the older machine" which is obviously not true.
I tried the Ethernet route and loaded the Install Disk from the iMac into the G4 as instructed but that disk did not recognize either of my 2 internal drives as valid for installation.
Any suggestions?

FWIW, I have had no problems using Migration Assistant or understanding its prompts, at least when using the version included in the recent Migration and DVD and CD Sharing Update. In this version or later, every option has both a title & descriptive info below it & there are no places I can see in which everything is called a document. You may want to check your MA version number & make sure it is version 1.2.3 or later, as described in About the Migration and DVD/CD Sharing Update. This may help avoid any confusion you have had.
However, keep in mind that MA is designed to migrate files from one backup or startup disk at a time. It will transfer items from one home folder on a connected drive to the corresponding one on the new drive but these items must be enclosed in a home folder (in /Users/) on that drive. If you have elected to store these items on a non-startup drive lacking that hierarchy, you must import them using some other method & decide where to put them on the new drive. MA cannot make that decision for you.
Moreover, if you tell MA to import only your "Documents" folder, it will not import such items as your Movies, Music, Pictures, or other home folders, so for example your ~/Pictures/iPhoto Library file will not be imported, nor will be your ~/Music/iTunes folder (which contains your iTunes database files, even if the iTunes Music folder containing all your music files is stored elsewhere).
Without knowing exactly how you have 'piecemealed' other files & folders into your new drive, I do not know what to tell you to do to best complete the migration process. If you can supply more info about that, & about where exactly the original files & folders are stored on the older Mac, perhaps I or someone else can give you more useful info about doing that.

Migration Assistant - Files Transferred, but no User Account

I used Migration Assistant to migrate a User account from an early 2009 Macbook Pro to a brand new Macbook Pro. The files transferred (they appear in Macintosh HD / Users), but there is no User account showing in System Preferences or at Login. The permissions are blocking me from accessing the files. I can change them one by one, but, naturally, I'd rather not. I'd love it if there were just some way for me to force the OS to recognize the User so that I can delete the Temp user and work from my original User (I tried to Migrate from the initial setup screen, but it wouldn't find my backup volume).
Some background--beginning a few months ago, I was having some technical problems, and on the advice of an apple-certified tech had attempted to create a new user account. It appeared to fix the problem, so I began manually migrating files, but slowly, so that if it was a software issue, I would be able to isolate the problem software. A month in and after only half of the files were transferred, the tech problem reappeared, so I wound up with half of my files in one user account, half in another. I went ahead and migrated the other half of the files, but wound up with serious permissions issues all over the drive (mainly in photos, music). That is the backup that I am migrating from onto my new replacement Macbook Pro. I don't know if it's the permissions problems that are mucking up the migrate, or what. I have several older backups (from a prior, prior Mac) with no permissions problems, but that's a last resort, as I'd rather avoid the headache of figuring out what files I've updated since those year-old or more backups.
Also, I've been running MA from a Time Capsule using an Ethernet connection. I bought a USB to USB cable, but the comp won't find the TC unless it's connected via network. Any better, faster connections? I use the machine for work, and I'd rather spend as little time migrating as possible.
Thanks in advance, folks.

Sorry for the confusion. My first Mac was a PowerBook--we'll call it "PowerBook." Then I had a 2007 MBP--we'll call it First MBP. PowerBook was migrated to First MBP with no problems except some unreliable Airport at times. I did an Erase & Install and transferred data folder-by-folder from PowerBook to First MBP, as I had read somewhere that Airport settings migrated from PowerBook might cause troubles when put on an Intel machine. (Some minor problems persisted, but those are most likely irrelevant here). Then, I bought a new MBP at the beginning of 2009 when Apple came out with the new design. We'll call that Defective MBP. I just received a replacement MBP, call it "Replacement MBP."
I bought Defective MBP and migrated First MBP to it using Migration Assistant. Defective MBP began having technical problems--it froze up, it said I had no Airport card installed, yet it passed all hardware tests. So I took it to Apple, who replaced the Airport card.
I then began seeing a third-party certified repair person to avoid making appointments. She was the one who advised me to create a new user account, because her tests were suggesting a software issue. I wasn't given detailed instructions on how to treat the temp user account. So, yes, I moved all files from "clwaltrip" (the original user account) to the corresponding folder in "catherine," what should have been the diagnostic temp account. By "corresponding folder," I mean that I moved the contents of Users/clwaltrip/Music to Users/catherine/Music, and so on--like a manual rebuild. I manually reset permissions on each of these folders to allow "catherine" Read & Write access, instructed Finder to Apply to Enclosed Items, and was still getting blocked by permissions all over the place. I eventually made sure that clwaltrip was empty of any important files and deleted the clwaltrip user account. I (very unwisely) attempted to set the permissions on Macintosh HD for "catherine" to "Read & Write". That, of course, required me to go back and repair permissions for days. (Yes, I am duly sheepish). (BTW, Defective MBP was sent in for service twice more during this period, the Airport card was replaced again, a cable was remounted, or whatever they did--nothing worked.) It was only a couple of days after the Macintosh HD permissions repair fiasco that I requested and was approved for a replacement (further issues were indicating a logic board fail, perhaps--drag and drop stopped working, etc). I backed up the single user account, catherine, from the Defective MBP onto the TC via Ethernet (likely with some remaining permissions issues not allowing "catherine" to access "clwaltrip"'s files even though clwaltrip no longer existed).
I received the Replacement MBP and attempted to connect to the TC during initial setup using Ethernet. No connection could be made--it would not even time out after a few hours of reading the time machine backup. I forced restart and tried again. It still would not connect to the TC backup on initial setup. So I forced restart (held down power) skipped that step in setup, allowed it to create a user account (named "clwaltrip" again), and ran Migration Assistant from the Utilities folder (That was when I plugged in the USB, but after no response, I unhooked it and moved exclusively to Ethernet connection to run Migration Assistant--Airport was off). From the TC backups, I selected the backup volume "catherine" mentioned above. No new user account was created, but the user FOLDER for "catherine" is there, complete with all files (see below for details). I have made the "iTunes Library" in Users/catherine/Music the iTunes Library for "clwaltrip" and had to change some permissions to do so. (It's interesting that under "Sharing and Permissions" for these folders, the users listed are "staff," "everyone" and "(unknown)"--presumably "catherine" should be in there somewhere, but it is not and does not come up on the list when I select "+" to add permission for a new user.) I have added "clwaltrip" and given it Read & Write access to Users/catherine/Music, Users/catherine/Documents and Users/catherine/Pictures and applied all to enclosed items. I have not yet checked to see how well those permissions changes worked, nor have I physically moved any files from Users/catherine to Users/clwaltrip.
I hope that all makes sense so far. I have backups of Defective MBP and First MBP, both before and after the Erase & Install mentioned in the first paragraph. (I actually have oodles of old backups and computers with most of my original files on them, if I need to start from scratch somehow).
So. Replacement MBP now shows ONE user account in System Preferences--clwaltrip, the one set up by the initial setup screens when I took the computer out of the box and could not get setup to access the Time Capsule, as explained above. But Finder shows TWO User folders--Users/clwaltrip (from initial setup) and Users/catherine (migrated from the TC backup of Defective MBP). I used the option to transfer accounts, settings--I checked all boxes, in other words, and I only selected the "catherine" account to transfer from the TC backup (because there was only one account on Defective MBP when I last backed it up, as explained above).
Yes, the Macintosh HD/Users/Catherine folder appears to be "orphaned" in that it does not show up in SysPref, but otherwise appears to have normal enclosed folders--Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Library, Movies, Music, Pictures, Public & Sites. And from what I can tell, it contains exactly what the "catherine" Home folder looked like on Defective MBP--same Desktop shortcuts, same enclosed items in catherine/Music, everything.
About the red "no access" badge--back when I had two user accounts on the Defective MBP, I used to see the no access badge when trying to access "clwaltrip" folders from the diagnostic account, "catherine". But I altered privileges while logged in as clwaltrip to allow catherine Read & Write access, in order to transfer the clwaltrip files to catherine. The red badge went away and it does NOT show up on the items in the Users/catherine folder when viewed from clwaltrip on the Replacement MBP.
You know, I think I knew that about the TC USB port at one point and just forgot. I'll put a Post-It on the TC to make sure I remember from now on.
Thanks for your patience!

New iMac--setup assistant confusion

I've googled, searched here and read the links, but they confuse me.
Bought a new iMac, Intel, Snow Leopard, still in box.
Loved my older iMac, dome base, PPC, running Tiger. It died last week (take my word for it), monitor, among other things, conked out. Been running it for a couple of years off a bootable firewire drive.
Using my Leopard (white) MacBook, I've dragged all my data files from the bootable PPC Tiger drive to back-up drives for safekeeping, then erased them from the Tiger drive.
Mostly, I'd like to have my Safari and Firefox bookmarks transfered to the new iMac, but if I can, I'd also like to have the actual older Firefox application transfered, too, given I don't care for the newer Firefox I use on my MacBook. But there are a few not-very-significant odds and ends applications I'd like to transfer, too, and maybe there would be some stuff like my printer and scanner settings/data that would be transfered.
When I bought the new iMac a couple of days ago, the Genius Bar advised me to use the setup assistant the first time I turned on the new iMac.
But I don't want to transfer my user account/settings to the new iMac, I want a new identity/password. Or iMovie2 (won't work on the Intel Mac)...and so on.
Besides, I CAN'T start up my old iMac in "Target Disk Mode"--the old iMac is DEAD. All I have is the bootable Tiger external firewire drive. Nothing to boot it with, though. So will that rule out Migration Assistant, too?
And, no, I live in a rural area, I don't know anyone with a Tiger PPC Mac--otherwise I could boot from my external drive and export the Firefox and Safari bookmarks.
Any suggestions? Thanks.

If your Firewire drive does indeed have a bootable copy of Tiger on it, you can connect that to your new iMac and let Migration Assistant migrate from it to your new iMac. I have not done this but I read about it on the discussions at the SuperDuper website. SuperDuper's head guy specifically said that it was a doable way to migrate to a new Mac.
I was sort of in your situation recently when I got my new iMac but I was a little better off in that my old flat panel 17 inch G4 iMac running Tiger was still in perfect working condition. After batting the issue around I finally decided against using Migration Assistant and I just did a manual migration by dragging and dropping data files and reinstalling applications.
If I had to do it all over, I'd probably just use Migration Assistant, but for some reason decided against it at the time. Several posters here have said they've used MA with good success in just our situation of going from PPC Tiger to Intel Snow Leopard. But there are a few hardliners who recommend a manual approach. As I said I'd probably go with MA if I had to do it over again. And if you have a bootable clone you can use MA to go from it to your new iMac.
By the way, which method did you use to make your bootable clone, SuperDuper or CCC or Disk Utility? As I said, the guy at SD definitely said MA would work on an SD clone.
Of course not all of your old PPC apps will work on your Intel iMac. But I gather from what I've read that Migration Assistant is "smart" enough to know how to handle the migration.
You seem to want to transfer only certain selected items so I'm not really sure how to advise you on that. I think there are some selections you can make when you use MA that will determine what gets transferred but I'm not familiar with it since I didn't use it myself.
Regards,
Steve M.

Migration Assistant/FireWire problems.... I'm not sure which

I've searched through many of the posts on this subject and I've not found anything similar so I thought that I'd try posting the question.
My lovely wife just bought me a new iMac for my birthday to replace my very old and very abused (also read... incredibly slow iBook G4). I didn't do MA when I first booted it up as I didn't own a FireWire then.
I just bought a FireWire yesterday, plugged it in to both computers and brought up the MA program. It seemed to recognize that that a computer was connected to the other end as it told me to reboot it into "FireWire" mode. I did that and then it never could hook up to the computer again. I've attempted it many different ways and times.
Frankly I'm at the end of my rope and I've been transferring files via BlueTooth just to get some of my old stuff on the new machine.
Hopefully, this is an easy problem for someone out there.

Also if you read in the back posts, Migration Assistant doesn't work well between PowerPC and Intel Macs:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=435350&tstart=10
I would say one of the symptoms is just as you've said, it basically times out forever.
Please don't post any more "me toos". If you have a problem and it is not related to solving the original poster's thread, there is a way to post a new topic in this link:
http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1219&start=0
You'll get a wider audience, and won't confuse the original poster with solutions that don't apply to them.

Migration Assistant Confusion

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