No migration tools in new 2disk MacMini

Question

I bought a new MacMini 4.1 with two disk drives and no optical drive to replace an older MacMini. I'm dismayed to discover that there are no migration tools to help me move my software / data / users from the old machine (Snow Leopard 10.6.4) to the new machine (Snow Leopard Server). I had hoped to use the Time Machine backup of the old machine to get stuff onto the new machine.
Do I have to reinstall everything from scratch? How do I move all the iTunes music and the iPhone/iPad apps to the new machine without Migration Assistant?

Answer 1

You can definitely set up the new mini server model to use as a desktop computer a la a regular mini and keep the server functions too. You are right that there is no Migration Assistant, so just do it manually. You can boot the old computer into target mode (hold the "T" key on startup) and connect the mini and the old computer via firewire.
From the server admin account you created at setup, drag-copy your apps from the old computer. A few things will need to be reinstalled (notably Adobe apps and tools that install startup items or kernel extensions), but most apps will copy over just fine. Don't replace anything already on the mini. (click "Don't Replace" and "Apply to all" in the copy dialog box.) Do the same with the contents of /Library/Application Support: copy the contents to your mini's /Library/Application Support folder. Don't replace anything.
Then make a new user account, which will be your using-the-mini-as-a-desktop user name. Log into that account and drag-copy the contents of your old user account over. I skipped /Users/<me>/Library/Caches and a few other things that didn't need to go.
Not as easy as Migration Assistant, but it works fine. I had to copy a few extra things to make every application work (e.g., iLife wanted a framework from the old machine) but it was a minor nuisance only. If you are fairly savvy on the Mac and familiar with looking at console logs and using the command line to sort out minor issues like resetting file ownerships, dive in. But if you are not, get a technical user to help.
I did one extra thing first: I set up the two internal drives in the mini server as a single RAID stripe set. It looks now like one 1TB drive with faster performance. Nice. You'll need to boot from the grey install disk to do this: Select Utilities > Disk Utility from the first screen you see after booting from the DVD. NOTE: A RAID stripe set performs better but is vulnerable to the failure of either disk. But you are keeping regular backups anyway, right...?
John