[Ham-Mac] new iMac problems

[Carl Makin]

Hi John,

On Jan 22, 2011, at 2:54 PM, John Wiener wrote:

> I have been trying for 2 days to perform a migration from my old iMac  
> to my new one.  The old one is OSX 10.4.11 and the new one is 10.6.4
> Using Migration Assistant  I have the two connected directly by  
> ethernet cable.
> 
> The new (target) iMac gives a number code that I put into the source  
> iMac when prompted.  the source finds the target iMac.  Then it asks  
> again for the number code.
> 
> Then, it starts to search for other computers while the target (new)  
> iMac says it is preparing information.


Firewire "Target" mode just makes the source machine disk look like a standard firewire disk so you don't need DVD sharing or migration assistant on the source host.

If you want to use ethernet then you need "DVD or CD Sharing Setup". not migration assistant on the source machine.  You should also disable any firewall on both machines and, to make things easier and often faster, use a single ethernet cable between the two macs.  You don't need a hub or a crossover cable as the ethernet ports on all reasonably modern macs are auto-sensing.

Also, make sure you have installed;
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3174 - Migration and DVD/CD Sharing Update

The following two Apple support articles may help;

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3231 - Migration assistant tips and tricks
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2664 - Mac OS X v10.4: Issues migrating to Mac OS X v10.5 or later via network connection and Migration Assistant

In fact the second article seems to mention your problem directly.


Carl.
(vk1kcm)