Automatic Migration

Moving an OS X user from his old Mac to a new one is pretty easy, if the user has stuck to his home folder. All you have to do is copy/install any software and copy his data over to the new home folder (assuming you matched the short names).

But Apple has made our lives even easier now. Booting up a brand-new eMac, the first question it asked was whether I had an older Mac from which I wanted to move my data. I answered "yes" and it walked me through booting the old Mac in FireWire Target Disk mode and connecting it up. Then the eMac asked me what data I wanted (User folders, installed Apps, other data), and it did the rest. I was done with the migration in 15 minutes, as opposed to the typical 1 to 3 hours. Brilliant!