Selling G3 iBook To A Friend...

[Mayo]

I am selling my dear old G3 iBook to a friend.  I have shredded sensitive files, used Disk Utility to write zeros over the entire drive and installed Panther because that is the OS my friend is using on her G3 iMac (which we gave her a year or so ago...)

After Panther was installed the iBook began the "welcome" sequence and I promptly shut down the iBook without entering any info.  My question: when my friend starts up the iBook, will she be presented with the option to connect her iMac via Firewire and transfer her apps and other data using Apple's Migration Assistant? I know that this option appears almost immediately when starting up a brand new Mac but I am unsure how it will go in this case.

Are there any selections she should make when Migration Assistant offers them?  It has been quite awhile since I did this myself and I am trying to keep things simple for her because I won't be able to assist her and she is semi-literate, computer-wise...

[pendragon]

Mayo,

Not exactly an answer, but should the Migration Assistant not show up, you can find it at Computer/Applications/Utilities and then rerun it. Well, at least that's where it is in Tiger.

HTH

[Mayo]

Will my friend have to go through all the set-up steps or can she avoid that and just run the Migration Assistant?

[pendragon]

Mayo, It's my understanding that once the OS has been installed, the MA can be run at any time.

Not that you asked, but as a help to your friend, you may care to boot the new system (ignoring MA) and then run SW Update (there is likely to be several updates) Repair Permissions, run DiskWarrior (or TTP), etc., just to ensure the new system is in perfect health.

HTH

[Parker]

the welcome stuff should still come up for her

and yea migration assistant can be found in the utilities folder, as mentioned above.

good luck =]
parker

[Mayo]

Installing the updates is a good idea, because she doesn't have a high-speed Internet connection.

When she runs the Migration Assistant, will it transfer her Internet connection settings automatically, or will she have to set that up separately?

[Parker]

migration asst will only move over applications and files i believe...
i'm not sure about internet connection
last time i ran that was about 3 months ago...

[pendragon]

Sorry Mayo, I just don't know if her internet settings would migrate. Though it can't hurt to try.

I suppose much depends on the ISP and type of modem.

Perhaps others who have real world experience with MA (I have yet to use it) and can provide a better/definitative answer

[Mayo]

OK, I upgraded the G3 iBook to 10.3.9, etc.  But I have discovered that "Setup Assistant," which is what Migration Assistant was called in 10.3, apparently only works with Macs that had 10.3.4 installed at the factory. The 10.3.9 upgrade combo package does not contain Setup Assistant...

I'm a bit confused about this, because I recall using Setup Assistant to transfer data from our 2001 G3 iMac to the G3 iBook, but the iBook came with 10.1 installed... My memory has been a tad fuzzy of late.

So while data can be transferred to the iBook from the iMac, my friend will have to manually input other settings and configure the iBook without help from an "assistant." Can she drag applications (either new or updated) to the iBook or should she install those from disk or downloads? How about moving her e-mail and Safari bookmarks?

[Paddy]

Without the migration assistant to help, any application that runs from an installer, rather than drag and drop, should be installed from the install CD or may not work at all. So, the short answer is "it depends." Firefox, for instance, can simply be dragged and dropped - but you'll also need to find its bookmarks etc. and move those. Email and bookmarks can be moved after the applications are installed.

[Mayo]

The iMac is pretty much stock; only a digital imaging program has been installed.

So I assume thatApple's Mail app stores the mail in User/Library/Mail; should any other Mail-related file be moved to the iBook? (I use Eudora so my knowledge regarding Mail is rather limited.)

Safari bookmarks are presumably contained in the plist file found at User/Library/Safari, correct?

Anything else besides documents that should be moved to the new Mac?

Boy, I have really become dependent on the Migration Assistant!  It has worked pretty much flawlessly the 3-4 times that I have used it.

[Parker]

migration asst moves all the apple mail stuff over
since it's an apple applicaiton
i think
as well as safari and all that stuff

i believe it does move that stuff over...
i'm not 100% sure though