PowerMac G5 won't recognize SuperDuper Backup on External FW Drive

[BobbyMiller]

I just upgraded to Tiger on my ibook. I used Super Duper to backup my drive onto a external firewire drive. Then, used migration assistant, it located my drive and restored everything flawlessly.

Now, I've done the same thing with my PowerMac G5 (dual 2.5) and when using Migration Assistant and selecting, "Choose another volume", the Firewire external hard drive is not showing up. What's frustrating is that I can see the firewire drive and access all of it's contents right on the desktop, but Migration Assistant acts like there's no volume to copy from.

What's going on? Is there a way to fix this? I could manually copy over stuff, but I'm not sure if I would do it right and if there were any things i need to know. (It also quite frankly, makes my purchase of superduper a drag since I wouldn't even use it.)

Also, an aside comment:
I just copied manually DVD Studio Pro to my applications to see if it would work. Unfortunately it asked for my serial number and I had to track down my original boxes. With SuperDuper and migration assistant, will it transfer the serial numbers too?

Thanks,
Bobby

[dnanian]

Our general suggestion, Bobby, is to not use Migration Assistant. Make a backup of your system with SuperDuper!, and then simply upgrade the OS you've got. The migration/clean install doesn't really buy you a lot!

This'll ensure that all your information is migrated "in place", and you won't run into this kind of weird Tiger problem...

[BobbyMiller]

Yeah the thing is I already wiped out my whole hard drive. So, I guess you're basically telling me I have to manually copy over all my stuff from my external drive?

If that is the case, any tips on what I should be copying and what doesn't need to be copied over to get all my settings and applications, documents back?

For example:

On my ibook with superduper and migration assistant, the aim instant messaging program ADIUM was transferred over complete with my account info and settings. However, dragging and dropping the application Adium from my external backup drive to the powermac g5 doesn't have my settings. Where are these types of files located at? And are there any major programs that I need to make sure I transfer their support files for?

[dnanian]

No, not at all. If your external drive is a full backup, you can boot from it and use SuperDuper! to copy it back. It's all still there... you used "Backup - all files", right? (I assume you did, since you achieved this previously with your Powerbook.)

I really can't say why the Migration Assistant didn't "see" the external drive. We did the same thing on your PowerBook as we did on your G5, and it worked there. It seems likely that it's a bug in the Migration Assistant...

[BobbyMiller]

ok. so could you just walk be through this:

How do I boot up from my lacie external hard drive?

Then, what do I do from there? A smart update between the lacie drive to the internal hard drive? I tried using Super Duper and doing that very same thing, but it wouldnt give me the option, I guess by booting from the disc it will?

Thanks

Also: I want to make sure that I dont change any of the contents on that external disk, considering thats where all my stuff is right now!

[BobbyMiller]

also if something goes wrong and it wont let me boot from the drive, how do i change it back (if it doesnt let me back into the OS)

Thanks for your help, im new to all of this

[dnanian]

You should use the steps indicated in Section 5 of the User's Guide. To summarize:

- Turn the G5 off.
- Attach the Firewire drive and turn it on.
- Hold down "Option" and turn on the machine.
- When the LaCie appears, select it and click the arrow to boot from it.
- Once logged in, run SuperDuper!
- Choose the LaCie as the source, and the internal drive as the destination.
- Choose "Backup - all files" as the script
- Ensure you're using either "Erase, then copy" or "Smart Update" as the "During copy" method in Options
- Check "Reboot from <internal drive name>" in Options
- Click Start Copying

That should work fine.

(Since you're sending me this stuff as support email too, Bobby, I'm going to continue this there. We can post a summary here when we're done, OK?)