Using .Mac To Migrate To A MacBook Air

Elbert, PhilMUG’s current chairman just got his MacBook Air. He’s upgrading to from a 12″ PowerBook G4. He posted his work around on how he migrated his data from the PowerBook to the MacBook Air. I’m reposting his workaround here. But he might update it so it’s best to check the actual thread here.

Elbert wrote:

I’m coming from a 12-inch PowerBook G5 1.5GHz. Although that’s just 100MHz less than this MacBook Air, the fat PCI lanes, the Core 2 Duo proc and the 2GB of RAM make this MBA a speed demon compared to the 12-inch.

First off, I have to say that Apple did a good job with enhancing Migration Assistant in 10.5.2 to go around the limited connectivity options of the MBA. However, this still didn’t provide the solution I was looking for.

The challenge:
To get my new MBA up and running as if it was my old computer, as simply and as quickly as possible.

The limitations:
- My old Powerbook has more data than will fit into the MBA, with around 100GB worth of data inside my Home folder alone.

- I don’t have a Wireless N router, nor is the PowerBook wireless N capable. So the wireless Migration Assistant, a new feature made just because of the MBA, is going to be a really long process

- The MBA has no FireWire port, and I would’ve liked to use Target Disk Mode as well as my trusty old FireWire drive to move stuff around, as well as to install my fave apps.

The answer: .Mac

I’ve set my PowerBook’s system preferences to automatically sync my .Mac account, so I know my sync is up to date. On the MBA, I went into System Preferences > .Mac and entered my username and password. In about 15 minutes, everything was done. It was like I didn’t leave my old computer. After a restart, to fully effect the changes (although a lot of the preferences had already come in), I had the following:

- Bookmarks
- Calendars
- Contacts
- Dashboard Widgets (except the 3rd party ones I installed in the PowerBook)
- Dock Items (excluding the apps I had not yet installed)
- Keychains (the best part, I don’t need to recall any of my passwords)
- Mail Accounts
- Mail Rules, Signatures and Smart Mailboxes (except Mailboxes that are “On My Mac”)
- Notes (the ones in the Mail.app)
- Preferences

In addition, since I’ve been using .Mac’s iDisk syncing to store important and current documents and projects online, those too are now within easy access on my MBA.

The next thing I did was to use an external USB2 HD to transfer the rest of the stuff manually (i.e. Applications, iPhoto Library, my iWeb domain, Documents), and I’m transferring stuff as I need them since I’m a cyber pack rat and most of the files in the PowerBook, I really don’t need anyway.

Within an afternoon, I had the MBA up and running like I was on my old computer. I can now leave my PowerBook at home and should I need anything from its hard drive, I can simply use .Mac’s Back to my Mac feature, where I can access files or screen share from anywhere I am as long as I’m online.

.Mac is really cool.

Thanks to Elbert for this workaround. If you have any workarounds yourself for upgrading to the MacBook Air or upgrading in general please share it with us here.