Moving files to new mac via ethernet...

g_warreng_warren
Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
My new mac mini is to arrive today, and I need to transfer about 25Gb of files from my iBook using an ethernet crossover cable. Any top tips for ensuring that iPhoto, and more importantly iTunes keep my albums etc in place?



I have 23Gb of music, so don't want to lose play counts, playlists etc. What is the easiest way of getting iTunes to look exactly the same as it did on my iBook?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 9
    majormattmajormatt Posts: 1,077member
    Does your iBook have firewire?



    If so, the new firewire transfer utility is insanely great. All you do is connect a firewire cable between the two macs and shortly thereafter you have a mirror copy on your new mac. It's weird. It is like having exactly the same computer but becoming many times faster.
  • Reply 2 of 9
    g_warreng_warren Posts: 713member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by MajorMatt

    Does your iBook have firewire?



    If so, the new firewire transfer utility is insanely great. All you do is connect a firewire cable between the two macs and shortly thereafter you have a mirror copy on your new mac. It's weird. It is like having exactly the same computer but becoming many times faster.





    It does, but I can't be bothered buying a firewire cable for this one night only! (spot the poor student!)
  • Reply 3 of 9
    guarthoguartho Posts: 1,208member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by G_Warren

    It does, but I can't be bothered buying a firewire cable for this one night only! (spot the poor student!)



    If you're transferring 25 gig via cross-over ethernet it may not be one night only
  • Reply 4 of 9
    kingofsomewherehotkingofsomewherehot Posts: 4,182member
    Any ethernet cable will work ... your mac has auto xover sensing. A specific xover cable is not necessary.



    just take your entire iTunes folder (ffrom your Music folder) and move it ... it contains all the playlist info and such... piece 'o cake!
  • Reply 5 of 9
    placeboplacebo Posts: 5,767member
    And since nobody has told you how; you just choose Go -> Network from the Finder menubar. Then, double-click (if you're in icon or list view) or single-click and click Connect... (if you're in Column View with the Preview Pane), and it'll ask you which share (basically, which user of the other computer) you want to access. Just choose it, and type in your password. You can now just drag everything and anything you want from the mounted server to your new computer.





    I'm not sure how to preserve the iPhoto album stuff; probably just drag your whole Pictures folder, and the iPhoto subfolder will include the photo database index.
  • Reply 6 of 9
    chris cuillachris cuilla Posts: 4,825member
    This whole thread raises an question I have had on my mind...



    In the past I have simply upgraded my OS.



    What happens in this scenario:



    1. Buy a brand new machine...say w/Tiger



    2. Want to transfer existing data like...ummm...email...maybe some preferences. Email is probably the biggest issue, because I have read that Tiger has changed the underlying way it holds/stores email from Panther days.



    How is this handled? Gracefully (as always expected from Apple)?
  • Reply 7 of 9
    kingofsomewherehotkingofsomewherehot Posts: 4,182member
    If you use Apple's integrated FireWire computer transfer when you first set up the new computer, it transitions all that stuff fine ...
  • Reply 8 of 9
    spiers69spiers69 Posts: 418member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by KingOfSomewhereHot

    If you use Apple's integrated FireWire computer transfer when you first set up the new computer, it transitions all that stuff fine ...



    what if the computer is 2nd-hand?
  • Reply 9 of 9
    g_warreng_warren Posts: 713member
    Mangaed it okay thanks, took about an hour to transfer over ethernet I think. Couldn't get iTunes to recognise my library initially (i had put the iTunes folder from my old computer in the right place, but nothing happened when I opened iTunes), but I found it was actually just because I had not yet upgraded iTunes on the mac mini to v4.9. Very easy of ethernet, no need to buy a firewire cable since I already had an ethernet cable, so I was quite pleased with myself.



    iPhoto was pretty easy too. I had v2.0 on my iBook, and iLife 05 on the mini, but I just put my old iPhoto folder in the right place, and when I opened iPhoto it just upgraded the library automatically.



    In response to the question about moving the stuff to a second hand system, I might be wrong, but I have a feeling that you can run the import utility thing as an application at some point if you need to.



    Thanks all for the help, pretty easy really- I actually just read this thread again two days after the move!
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