Migration Assistant from iPC 10.5.6 to MacBookPro bricks both machines

[jbreher]

Some months back, I started considering replacing my Win notebook with a MacBook Pro. Not being a mac-o-phile, I built a Hackentosh to see if I could live with it as my main computer.

 

This Hackentosh was iPC 10.5.6 on a Gigabyte EP45-UD3P. Worked fine as far as I could tell, and I decided that the experiment was a succes, so....

 

Yesterday, I received a brand spanking new MacBook Pro 17". After turning it on, and a (useless) visit to my local apple retail shop, I ran Migration Assistant to transfer 115 GB of files, apps, settings, and the like from the iPC to the MBP. I was unable to get the iPC to boot in FW Target mode (makes sense in retrospect), so I used Ethernet for the transfer.

 

After waiting ~24 hours, the transfer finally completed. I rebooted my MBP, and rebooted the iPC. The MBP was stuck at the grea apple spinning gear screen, and the iPC would not boot - the Migration broke both machines.

 

I have since learned that I can boo the iPC by placing the iPC install DVD in the drive and booting - evidently only the stage 2 boot utility is broken. How do I reinstall the boot files?

 

I enlised apple tech support on getting the MBP back to life. We tried a number fo things like clearing PRAM and such, fixing disk permissions, reinstalling the OS. No help. I have since erased the disk and am reinstalling from scratch. I hope this works. If not, I'll lean on apple TS harder.

 

So with all this framing the scene, here is my question: How can I migrate my stiff from the iPC to the MBP withhout brickifying either of them - or at least not brickifying the MBP (the iPC is expendable)?

 

Thanks!

[gadgetsboyj]

Some months back, I started considering replacing my Win notebook with a MacBook Pro. Not being a mac-o-phile, I built a Hackentosh to see if I could live with it as my main computer.

 

This Hackentosh was iPC 10.5.6 on a Gigabyte EP45-UD3P. Worked fine as far as I could tell, and I decided that the experiment was a succes, so....

 

Yesterday, I received a brand spanking new MacBook Pro 17". After turning it on, and a (useless) visit to my local apple retail shop, I ran Migration Assistant to transfer 115 GB of files, apps, settings, and the like from the iPC to the MBP. I was unable to get the iPC to boot in FW Target mode (makes sense in retrospect), so I used Ethernet for the transfer.

 

After waiting ~24 hours, the transfer finally completed. I rebooted my MBP, and rebooted the iPC. The MBP was stuck at the grea apple spinning gear screen, and the iPC would not boot - the Migration broke both machines.

 

I have since learned that I can boo the iPC by placing the iPC install DVD in the drive and booting - evidently only the stage 2 boot utility is broken. How do I reinstall the boot files?

 

I enlised apple tech support on getting the MBP back to life. We tried a number fo things like clearing PRAM and such, fixing disk permissions, reinstalling the OS. No help. I have since erased the disk and am reinstalling from scratch. I hope this works. If not, I'll lean on apple TS harder.

 

So with all this framing the scene, here is my question: How can I migrate my stiff from the iPC to the MBP withhout brickifying either of them - or at least not brickifying the MBP (the iPC is expendable)?

 

Thanks!

 

The reason for the MacBook Pro being bricked is most likely because it probably copies kext files and the like over, so you're best off hooking them both up to a network with ethernet (preferably Gigabit if you're iPC supports it) and then using file sharing to manually copy the stuff over. As far as reviving the MacBook Pro, after re-formatting and re-installing, all should be just fine.

[jbreher]

Since the original post, I have reinstalled the OS on the MBP. During First Boot, I attached the HDD from the Hackentosh to the MBP bia a SATA > USB converter, and ran Migration as part of the first boot process. The option I chose was "Migrate from another volume on this computer" or some such (as opposed to from network, FW, or TimeMachine).

 

This seemed to be OK initially. Without rebooting, I installed the iLife and other stuff from the apps DVD that came with the MBP. This process asks for a restart at the end of it. Upon restarting, I found that I was in the same failed state - grey screen, apple logo, spinning gear forever.

 

I think the next thing to try is to reinstall OSX again, then again do the Migration from another volume on this computer (HDD from Hack attached via USB), but select some subset of things to migrate. As I recall, there may have been four seperate classes of things to migrate. I seem to remember checkboxes for Applications, Files, Settings, and something else.

 

Perhpas if I deselect settings? On the assumption that this would include some kext that is brickifying the MBP?

 

The reason for the MacBook Pro being bricked is most likely because it probably copies kext files and the like over, so you're best off hooking them both up to a network with ethernet (preferably Gigabit if you're iPC supports it) and then using file sharing to manually copy the stuff over. As far as reviving the MacBook Pro, after re-formatting and re-installing, all should be just fine.

[gadgetsboyj]

Since the original post, I have reinstalled the OS on the MBP. During First Boot, I attached the HDD from the Hackentosh to the MBP bia a SATA > USB converter, and ran Migration as part of the first boot process. The option I chose was "Migrate from another volume on this computer" or some such (as opposed to from network, FW, or TimeMachine).

 

This seemed to be OK initially. Without rebooting, I installed the iLife and other stuff from the apps DVD that came with the MBP. This process asks for a restart at the end of it. Upon restarting, I found that I was in the same failed state - grey screen, apple logo, spinning gear forever.

 

I think the next thing to try is to reinstall OSX again, then again do the Migration from another volume on this computer (HDD from Hack attached via USB), but select some subset of things to migrate. As I recall, there may have been four seperate classes of things to migrate. I seem to remember checkboxes for Applications, Files, Settings, and something else.

 

Perhpas if I deselect settings? On the assumption that this would include some kext that is brickifying the MBP?

 

Try only checking Applications and Files and I'm not sure what that "something else" is but if it's related to setting or system files leave it unchecked. Leave it unchecked if it says Misc. or Miscellaneous.