Filed under: Features, Troubleshooting, Ask TUAW
Ask TUAW: Migration Assistant, Boot Camp time problems, iWeb and more
In this round of Ask TUAW we've got a bunch of questions on the Migration Assistant, getting time synced properly between Windows and OS X when using Boot Camp, using iWeb without .Mac and more.As always your suggestions are most welcome, and questions for next week should be left in the comments. And now on to the questions!
Pat asks
Any idea if Migration Assistant in Leopard can use USB? The requirements list firewire, but seeing as tiger can boot off of USB, perhaps?
I don't have access to Leopard, but I can tell you that the Migration Assistant can read USB external drives in Tiger. You can run the Migration Assistant at any time (not just when you first install the OS); it's in /Applications/Utilities. When you run it from within OS X it will allow you to select between installing from another Mac or from another Volume. I can't imagine that it would be different with Leopard.
Tyler asks
would using an ipod in "disk mode" and a firewire connector work? for migration assistant?
As long as it appears as a mounted drive the Migration Assistant should see it.
Gary asks
When using migration assistant on a new machine, or new OS install, what exactly gets migrated? I have so much residual application crud, and other deleted application remnants, that I don't need (or want) that stuff on a new machine/install. Having never used Migration Assistant before (always opting to do it manually) I'm hesitant that all that stuff will get moved along too.
You can choose what you want to move. You can select particular users. You can select Applications. You can select system settings. Personally, I only use it to transfer user files and user specific settings.
michael asks
i have a, probably stupid, question: whenever i use bootcamp to boot into winxp to do a few things, be it five mins or a few hours, when i reboot back into my tiger partition the time is always off. usually its a few hours behind... is there anyway to fix this? whenever i correct the time i always click the lock to "prevent further changes".
This was supposed to be fixed in Boot Camp 1.3, so be sure to upgrade to the latest Boot Camp if you haven't already. That said, another reader suggested that probably the easiest solution is to turn off automatic time synchonization in Windows. However this hint at MacOSXHints offers a perhaps better solution. Basically it involves using Ligon to run the ntpdate -u command at start up (complete instructions here) to force OS X to resynchronize with the internet time server. If your machine doesn't have network access at boot).
If you're more adventurous you might try this trick which involves editing the Windows registry, but that's always a little bit dangerous.
Jinesh asks
I just have a general question: I have a MBP, and I been hearing a lot about 10.5 and time machine. I was wondering what is a good mac compatible external hard drive (which would also work with the time machine)? I am thinking about buying a good hard drive and partition it: one for time machine and another for mirror hard drive. How can I partition an external drive?
We've hashed out this question before about which external hard drive is best. I suggest you read through the comments there. In any case, I highly recommend that you go with a FireWire external drive rather than a USB drive.
As far as partitioning, all you have to do is launch the Disk Utility in /Applications/Utilities. Select the drive and then the Partition tab. Keep in mind that in Tiger partitioning is destructive. However in the forthcoming Leopard version of Disk Utility, you'll be able to partition a disk without erasing it.
Michael asks
Can the Mac's hard drive be cloned to a FW drive that isn't empty? I have a 60GB drive on my Mac Mini, but a 500GB FW drive that has plenty of space to clone my drive to, but it isn't empty (my iTunes library is on it).
Yes, but you'll want to partition it first and then clone to that partition using something like SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner. Unfortunately, as mentioned above, Tiger's Disk Utility only allows destructive partitioning so you'll either need to wait for Leopard or use a third-party disk utility like DiskStudio ($49). Remember, however, to back up before you do.
Update: Although I still think it's a good idea, as pointed out below you, don't have to re-partition before cloning with CCC.
Actually, now that I think of it, here's another question: My iTunes library is on the external drive, but the library file is on my internal drive on the Mini, under ~/Music. How can I get that to go into the same /Music directory on the external drive, so I could, theoretically, blow away the ~/Music folder (to avoid confusion)?
We covered this in a How To last year.
brandon asks
Could you guys give a tutorial on putting up a site made with iweb without using .mac?
Well the only difference is that instead of choosing "Publish to .Mac" in the File menu you choose "Publish to a Folder..." Once that's done you just need to upload the contents of that folder to the root folder for your site on your webserver with a FTP client like Transmit.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Sven said 7:33PM on 10-17-2007
Hi, ever since I tried to boot up from a disk image (don't ask) I get a folder icon with a question mark when my computer starts up. After a couple of seconds that goes away, and my Macbook boots up as normal. What is this, and how do I get rid of it?
thanks!
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Sam said 7:38PM on 10-17-2007
When I get Leopard, I will be doing a clean install, and wiping my internal hard drive. I have an external on firewire 800 that has my entire hard drive backed up using SilverKeeper. What will be the best way to get all of my old applications on to my now clean leopard internal from my external? I have a lot of software that I don't have disks for and would hate to have to re-download everything to install it again.
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Fitzador said 8:03PM on 10-17-2007
Regarding Tyler's question about using an iPod in FireWire mode: yes, it would work, but the iPod would have to have a Mac OS X installation on it. Migration Assistant won't copy data from a volume unless that volume has an OS X installation. I've tried before to have it copy a user folder from a regular old disk, and Migration Assistant wouldn't recognize it.
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CajunLuke said 8:07PM on 10-17-2007
Sven: Check to see that it isn't set to try the disk image in System Preferences>Startup Disk. Also try holding down the Option key at boot and selecting your intended boot disk.
Sam: Use the Migration Assistant mentioned above.
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tristan said 8:15PM on 10-17-2007
as far as publishing w/o .mac (i used to do this alot), u have a built in apache server, you can publish to /library/web server/documents
now browse to your ip and there you are
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tristan said 8:20PM on 10-17-2007
also, if you have enough space, you can boot up into your instal disc, go to disc utility, and make an iso out of your entire internal drive and pop that on an external, keep that for as long as you have space and you're golden as far as migrating, you can't forget anything now
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Tankko said 8:23PM on 10-17-2007
Question for next week: I have an iphone running 1.0.1 that has been jailbroken but is still using an ATT Sim (no attempt was made to run on a different network).
What is the best/safest procedure for upgrading to 1.1.1? I realize I'll loose all my 3rd party apps, and that is fine. I just want to reduce the chances I will end up with a bricked iphone when I go to 1.1.1.
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Charles said 8:29PM on 10-17-2007
re: Michael's question:
Sorry, wrong, you do NOT need to partition a drive before cloning another drive to it while preserving data on that drive. I've done it myself with Carbon Copy Cloner. Just make sure your existing data is in a folder with a unique name that will not get overwritten by any of the folders at the root of the drive you're cloning, do not use names like "System" "Library" etc. as those WILL be overwritten. Here's how I did it:
1. Put all your target drive's data into a folder, I called mine "All My Data"
2. Open Carbon Copy Cloner, check the preferences to make SURE that "Erase the Target Volume" is OFF.
3. Clone
After the clone, you can move your data back out of the "All My Data" folder, put it wherever you want it. You only need it there during the cloning.
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Alex said 8:42PM on 10-17-2007
Hi, there is another iTunes Library question. I started using it for Movies recently, since I've got my iPhone and need it for syncing. My library is set to copy the new additions to iTunes Music folder automatically, and that's what it does - copies movies to the music folder as well. I like the way my settings work for music, but not for movies - there is dedicated ~/Movies folder for that purpose. Is there any way to make iTunes continue copy the newly added music to the iTunes Music folder, but skip that for movies, just listing them in the library, but keeping the movie files where they are? Or, as an alternative, specify that ~/Movies folder needs to be used for movies, and the default path (~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music) - for everything else?
Thanks!
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Mat Lu said 8:43PM on 10-17-2007
@8: I actually wasn't sure whether that was an option.
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Luigi193 said 8:53PM on 10-17-2007
***Not a question but a responce***
Why don't you use boot camp to do a nondestructive partition, then change the format of that partition to Mac OS Extended. Thats what I did when I installed Leopard...
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Michael said 9:45PM on 10-17-2007
Thanks for replying to my questions!
I'm off to try Carbon Copy Cloner before I get Leopard next week.
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Cycomachead said 1:07AM on 10-18-2007
I tried to post this last week:
I got an 80gb iPod a few weeks ago (5.5G, nearly free) and I've downloaded handbrake. But I'm wondering is handbrake the fastest? I currently pop in a DVD and start handbrake - it takes a few hours to do iPod sized video at low-ish quality. I was wondering if a MacTheRipper + iSquint / MTR+Handbrake / iSquint (straight from DVD) would be a faster solution than my current workflow- or is there another free app that I should look into? I'm running a MacBook (2.0Ghz core duo w/ 2GB RAM), would this affect MTR's performance being it's not a UB? And does the recent Handbrake (0.9.1) update make a difference in speed?
Thanx
Don't forget to backup before Leopard!
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Cycomachead said 1:11AM on 10-18-2007
Oh as to the CCC part:
Doesn't DU's restore tab have the erase disk function? Meaning if it is turn off (it is by default) that it won't erase the disk? I haven't tried it - and dont have a spare drive.
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Andre said 1:25AM on 10-18-2007
Responding to Pat.
In the Time Machine section for Leopard it mentions:
Use Migration Assistant to copy portions of any Time Machine backup to a new Mac, or select “Restore System from Time Machine” in the Leopard DVD Utilities menu.
You can designate just about any HFS+ formatted FireWire or USB drive connected to a Mac as a Time Machine backup drive.
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genr8r said 7:15AM on 10-18-2007
I actually posted on the macosxhints site in regards to the Boot Camp time issue. I found on the Apple site directions that fixes the time issue. I did check and my time was always correct. No Ligon required.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303731
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Mo said 9:10AM on 10-18-2007
@Cycomachead: Rip with MTR first, then encode with Handbrake, for two reasons: 1) It doesn't keep your DVD drive spinning for the whole length of the encode, 2) it lets you rip discs that Handbrake itself can't read properly. MTR's performance has never been a factor to me or anybody I know, the fact it's not UB has never bothered me given it's only ever running for long enough to rip the DVDs.
On a related note, has anybody found that iTunes won't “Convert for iPod” x264-encoded movies created using post-MediaFork versions of Handbrake? I'm not sure which version created them, as I've upgraded a few times in that period. Basically, iTunes goes through the motions of doing the conversion, but seems to abort it at some point. The converted file never ends up in my library, and it leaves a temporary file lying around.
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andy Simpson said 9:21AM on 10-18-2007
I have a question for a future post.
I would like to mount 4 external volumes (partitions on servers) onto my Mac easily and quickly, at the click of a button rather than doing command - K in the finder. The problem is that aliases and icons in the dock do not work because of lengthy filenames.
Furthermore I would like one volume to mount and unmount automatically at certain times.
Is there a free solution?
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Eric said 10:06AM on 10-18-2007
Is there any mac software out there that will sync multiple hard drives user and application files?
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drew said 10:18AM on 10-18-2007
A while back Apple released (for a fee) the ability for macbook owners to utilize the 802.11n wireless capabilities that were hidden inside. My macbook happens to fall in this category, but I haven't needed this capability yet as I have no other devices that would benefit from it. My question is, does anyone know if this will be baked into Leopard 10.5, or will they still require the fee (and separate download)?
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