Intel iMac can't find Super Duper startup disk

[avilewis]

Hi there,
My wife's beautiful new 10.4.7 iMac 20" just arrived, and I would like to take advantage of the magic of Super Duper to get her on it right away - her current computer is a 10.4.1 PB 12" (pre-Intel). We're travelling in a few days, and I don't have time to do the whole switchover before we leave...

When I connect her FW Super Duper drive, the iMac can see it in the finder, but the 10.4.1 system doesn't show up in the Startup Disk system preference.

I've searched this forum and the apple forum, and found lots of similiar situations, but nothing exact that can help me - so far I've repaired permissions and booted the PRAM.

Any ideas? Dave, you've always been spectacularly helpful in the past.

cheers,
Avi

[dnanian]

It's not an Intel-compatible OS, Avi, so it won't show up. You should use the Migration Assistant (which appears during the first srartup) to migrate from the existing PowerBook. It'll be pretty fast... and is the only way.

[avilewis]

Thanks, Dave, for your superhuman speed and patience!
This is my first foray into Intel world, so I have another question.
I'm hoping to use Super Duper to keep these two computers synchronized.

As Migration Assistant chugs away behind me, do you have any guidance on whether or not I'll be able to Super Duper the iMac to the FW drive, and then overwrite the PB with it, allowing me to move her entire system from one computer to another when she travels, and then back again?

If not, do you have any suggestions for keeping these two worlds in synch?

[dnanian]

You really can't do that, Avi. Perhaps you should consider something like the .Mac iDisk for files that really need to be shared?

[TMay]

Dave

What am I missing here? Don't have Intel Mac, but about to get one. Why cannot Avi first update the wife's old 12" OS from 10.4.1 to 10.4.8, then clone from there to FW drive since that's what he seems to want to do (I guess I'd target mode clone it directly to the new iMac), then re-clone from the FW to the (already properly formatted) iMac, via Smart Update NOT Copy all Files (to avoid erasing/reformating the Intel Mac volume), and away he goes?

As I say, I'm missing something. Is it that the OS, once run on the Intel, will no longer function on the PPC laptop, when it is cloned back?

Thanks (as always) for enlightenment. --Ted--

[dnanian]

Because the OS itself is not compatible with the Intel chip.