Ext HD

[Pehpsi]

hey there,

i just ordered myself a 20" iMac intel to replace my 17" iMac G5

i now have the crappy task of moving all my files to the new comp! i plan to do it in one hit with an external HD, but there's so many my head hurts.

i just need some recommendations on a brand that plays well with Mac and will be a 'plugNplay' type deal, and also is eBay the place to go?

won't need bigger than 150-200GB i'd say...

cheers again.

james..

[sirhc55]

If both Macs have firewire you can connect them together and open your old computer in target mode which will enable you to transfer files without the need for an external H/D. The old computer will show up on your new computer as an external H/D

[Pehpsi]

sweet, sounds good.

i was also just reading about 'migration assistant', is this a similar approach?

i still wan't to buy a HD though, i think it's time i start backing up my pic library as i only have the one copy.

cheers..

[DStrom]

They should also have an ethernet port if you have a crossover cable handy ...

[rooboy]

Migration Assistant is just an automated front end to Target Disk Mode.

Just make sure that you only transfer files, and not applications via firewire. I recently went from a G5 to an Intel at work, and non-universal binary applications (including Office and CS2) acted a bit weird. All funniness ceased once I reinstalled them from scratch.

I've used several Lacie eternal HDs without any problems. They have one great feature (although I'm not sure if it's exclusive to Lacie): after ~10 minutes of inactivity, the drive spins down. This only seems to work on Macs though.

Have fun with the new Mac - I use the 17 inch iMac for work and it's a great machine. If you haven't added extra RAM, you will soon want to, the Intels thrive with extra memory (especially in Rosetta applications).

[Pehpsi]

thanks guys.

i did upgrade to 2GB ram, because i know how much mac's love ram, and using mainly aperture and cs2 i think it's worth it. i was very close to getting the 24", then saw heaps of lines through the screens and remembered stories i read.

i plan to move files over like my library and music which are about 50GB each and would need too many dvd's but re-install all apps and just replace the library folder.

[hart]

They should also have an ethernet port if you have a crossover cable handy ...

Macs don't need crossover cables - they auto sense everything

[daniel_r]

Edit: Post overlap! Hart, you beat me too it while I started replying and then answered the phone!

They should also have an ethernet port if you have a crossover cable handy ...

All modern macs from the last 3-4 years can use a standard CAT5e/6 patch cable instead of a crossover for linking them together as the ethernet ports support Auto-MDIX - the relevant Apple KB article here. These Macs can also support using a crossover cable to connect to a switch (pretty neat, use it at work when I run out of temporary patch cables on my testing environment!)


I've also observed a couple of problem migrations with Office 2004 on Migration Assistant PPC-Intel upgrades. As Rooboy suggests, I'd go for a data move only, and reinstall your apps. It works out better.

If you don't want to go the whole migration assistant, Target Disk Mode will make you old PPC G5 iMac appear as a Firewire Drive on your new iMac. The Apple KB on how to do TDM.

TDM is very reliable, I use this often in my work with Apple servers. Never had any problems.


As for firewire drives, I'd highly recommend the LaCie D2 series Firewire drives, but not the LaCie Porsche design ones. There's varying opinion on LaCie drives - some people claim they're rubbish and have premature failures... I'd certainly argue otherwise for the D2 series drives.

We have 8 LaCie D2 triple interface drives where I work and they often have copies of critical data on them as part of our testing procedures. I really have expected at least one of them to fail by now considering what we do to them, but they keep on chugging. Once we transported 2TB of data to a test lab in Sydney on them via hand luggage - got some interesting looks and questions during security screening at the airport

Bottom line: they're expensive, but they work. And that's what really matters.

You'll like Aperture on the Intel iMac. It's noticeably faster!

[Pehpsi]

thanks daniel.

on ebay they have the 'lacie mobile extreme d2 firewire 800' for $279.

what ya reckon?

[daniel_r]

thanks daniel.

on ebay they have the 'lacie mobile extreme d2 firewire 800' for $279.

what ya reckon?

If it's something like this that's a good deal. Obviously you're looking at firewire, and thats a good thing. Skip the USB2 where you can.

[sirhc55]

The 20” iMac has 400 firewire only - the 24” has 800 According to specs that is. . .

[DStrom]

They should also have an ethernet port if you have a crossover cable handy ...

Macs don't need crossover cables - they auto sense everything

Can it sense when I want a coffee?

I dont know to much about Macs, But Vista has me thinking about switching ...

[Pehpsi]

thats the one. firewire all the way for me. apple want $399 for the 250gb, ebay wants $300!

[Pehpsi]

yeah, FW 800 would be sweet, i think, never used it. 400 will have to do.

this is my deal:

old man gets my 17" G5 to replace his 800mhz emac, and i get shiny new 20", but he pays. win win situation i feel.

[!~DeViNe~DaRkNeSs~!]

They should also have an ethernet port if you have a crossover cable handy ...

Macs don't need crossover cables - they auto sense everything

Can it sense when I want a coffee?

I dont know to much about Macs, But Vista has me thinking about switching ...

macs are gay
Vista ... well what can i say ... i built my new PC last week, loaded it with vista.....3 days later i formatted the HDD and went back to XP.....

[Steffen]

I recommend to avoid Migration Assistant. It is known to cause subtle problems later on, especially when migrating from a PPC to an Intel Mac.

As others have said, boot up your old Mac in firewire target disk mode (by holding down "T" during startup), and use it as external drive. Then just drag'n'drop your old home folder (or whatever files you need) across and you're done. I've done all my migrations like this.

Regarding external drives, I'm currently looking at the WD 1TB enclosure. It has FW400/FW800/USB2 connectors and supports RAID-0 and RAID-1 with the two disks it contains. The FW800 and RAID-0 bits are strong selling points for me...

Unfortunately, it isn't cheap (about $750), but in terms of dollar per gigabyte it isn't too bad.

Cheers
Steffen.

[hart]

I dont know to much about Macs, But Vista has me thinking about switching ...

Watch some of the videos in the tutorial section of:

http://www.apple.com/aperture

[Pehpsi]

cheers guys.

only reason i was thinking of migration assistant was to try and preserve network settings (if possible) like airport and email, cause i don't wan't to do it all manually again.

anyway, i've decided on the LaCie D2 250GB model. should be plenty for me. everything on my HD is photo related and i still have 70GB left on my 160GB internal.

few quick ques:
-when i get it do i need to format it or just plug in and presto?
-do you leave them on/plugged in all the time?


cheers again. (i'd be lost without this site)

[daniel_r]

few quick ques:
-when i get it do i need to format it or just plug in and presto?
-do you leave them on/plugged in all the time?

From memory, the D2 is so often purchased by Mac users that it comes preformatted as HFS+ (Mac File System). The D2's I've purchased in the past have anyway.

If you're only going to be using this on Macs, I'd recommend formatting it as HFS+ Journaled, which is often also referred to as Mac OS Extended (Journaled).

You can find out through Get Info on the hard disk:



If you need to erase and reformat the external HD as Mac OS Extended (journaled), the instructions are HERE

-do you leave them on/plugged in all the time?

The drives are fine to leave plugged in all of the time - they spin down after they have been inactive for a while, and putting your Mac to sleep and waking it again is fully supported.

If you're using the external primarily as a backup, I don't leave my backup drive always connected. This is to prevent disaster in the event of my own stupidity - say I was to thoughtlessly/accidentally delete a file from the wrong drive - eeek! I know if the backups are offline, it's much harder to simultaneously destroy them as well

Obviously it's still a good idea to keep an offsite as well - mine are usually burnt DVDs kept in my desk at work.

[Pehpsi]

sweet, thanks mate, great help...