Okay, here goes nothing. My new iMac has arrived. Now I will attempt to restore everything on my old (and dead) iMac. And then I will install Boot Camp, Windows XP, and then attempt to recover everything that was on my old iMac's Windows partition. I'll document along the way for anyone else who may have to do this.
5:28 PM: I'm opening the box. Need to get some scissors.
5:30 PM: I have to wait. The family wants to watch it come out of the box.
5:32 PM: Dang! The youngest is watching Spongebob.
5:43 PM: Box is open. Packing stuff taken off of computer. Youngest back to watching Spongebob, Keyboard plugged in. Wired mouse plugged in (for now), Plugging in computer and pushing button.
5:50 PM: Had technical difficulties: ethernet cord wouldn't click in place. Replaced cord. Here we go again...
5:52 PM: Got past Welcome Screen. Now I'm at the "Do You Already Own a Mac?" window. This is where I want to tell it to restore from my previous Mac. I choose "From a Time Machine backup." I choose the appropriate disk to backup from. Then it gives me a choice to restore my User Profile, Applications, Settings, Other files. I'm going to select to restore everything.
5:57 PM: The mac had to calculate sizes and prepare to transfer. Now I can hit the Transfer button.
5:59 PM: Dang! I accidentally connected my disk via USB instead of via Firewire, This is going to take longer. It estimates about an hour to transfer everything. I'll be back at around 7PM.
6:41 PM: Registration Screen; Then a few more questions; and then the Thank You Screen.
Okay, this is where I see the first issues and begin testing. First it asks if I want to install Rosetta. Yes.
I get another error message that says "Your office database index is missing...click to Rebuild." Yes.
Another message says I need to do something with Temperature Monitor. Don't care about that now.
Adobe Reader wants to update. Sure.
Funny - I just realized that whatever Finder windows I had open at the time of Backup: those are the windows that are up now.
Next up, open Outlook and see if I can retrieve my emails.
I get the "Enter Your Product Key" message. Oh oh! Pulling out material. There's the Product Key. Typing it in. Okay - here come my emails. It's working!
What about iLife 11? It's supposed to be installed on this computer. I can't seem to find it. It appears that the Time Machine backup has overwritten it. Okay - no biggie, I hope. I'll just insert the Applications Install DVD and see what my options are.
7:08 PM: I put the DVD in, but it's not clear what to click on. Let's see: Instructions - Page 55 says to open "Install Bundled Software". If I choose "Customize," then it will give me a choice of what to download. I'll download the whole thing. Oh oh! This is going to take another hour. I'll be back ...
7:35 PM: It finished. It didn't put icons down at the bottom, but I'll fix that later. Now I'll run Software Update prior to moving on to install Boot Camp, etc. Wow, lots of stuff to update--even a Firmware for graphics upgrade. This is going to take a while.
7:56 PM: It's done. I'm running Software Update again. It says I'm good to go. Next up: Install Boot Camp.
8:04 PM: The Help menu led me to "Boot Camp Assistant." I'm opening it now. Whoa - this is a little complicated. I'm going to have to open the directions on another computer.
8:09 PM: Wait--it's not that complicated. All I have to do is click "Continue."
8:11 PM: It's giving me a choice how to apply the Mac/Windows drivers. I can Download or use the Mac OSX Install DVD. I'm going to choose "Download" just in case there's more up-to-date drivers out there. Shucks--taking a long time!
8:45 PM: Now it's asking to burn a CD/DVD or designate a hard drive to place it. Putting in CD...
8:58 PM: The CD is ready. Now it's asking me to partition the drives. I'm going to choose 32GB for Windows.
9:01 PM: It's asking for a Windows disk, but it only mentions Windows 7, not XP. Documentation says XP should work. I'll insert XP disc and see what happens. Computer restarted - no complaints yet.
9:10 PM: Windows XP is trying to load, but now it's stuck on the "Welcome to Setup" screen. It says to hit "Enter," but it doesn't react. I think the keyboard isn't registering.
9:13 PM: The keyboard is definitely not getting any power. It's probably a driver issue. Researching on the internet...
9:16 PM: The internet says to remove all USB devices except for the keyboard and try again.
9:32 PM: Okay - I finally got the Enter key to work. I even had to unplug the mouse to get it to work. It asks me to accept the agreement. I press F8. Next it asks which Partition to use. If I pick the wrong one, it'll wipe out my Mac. I choose the one that says "Bootcamp [FAT32]"
Next it asks which format to use for the partition. The Boot Camp directions clarify: NTFS is if you want a partition greater than 32GB, but MacOS X can't change contents in the drive. FAT can only go up to 32GB and only allows file sizes up to 4GB, but it allows files to be accessed by the MacOS X. The instructions say NOT to choose "Leave Current File System Intact". "Quick" is what you want to use for a first time formatting. Not "Quick" is useful for erasing and starting over. I'll choose NTFS - quick. Windows asks me to confirm and hit "F". I see that it lists the partition "Bootcamp," so I'm hitting "F."
10:02 PM: Computer rebooted and now it says it'll be done in 39 minutes. Dude!
10:17 PM: Hah! Windows XP tricked me. I looked in on the computer and saw a prompt. It wanted to ask me some setup questions. I guess when XP says "Done in 39 minutes," it doesn't mean "come back in 39 minutes." Rather it means, "Sit with me for 39 minutes while I chug, and I'll ask you random questions at random times. Would you like some Hold music while you're waiting?"
10:27 PM: Computer rebooted. Hey, now I have Windows! Next up: install drivers. Eject disk. Insert the CD I created at 8:58PM.
10:33 PM: Okay - now I get a message that says "Boot Camp requires that your computer is running Windows 7." Dag nab it! Let me try to put in the Mac OSX disk instead. Okay - I'm getting the same message.
REALLY, APPLE? I CAN'T USE WINDOWS XP BECAUSE YOU WILL NO LONGER PROVIDE THE DRIVERS?
There has to be a work around. Internet, here I come.
10:49 PM: I'm not finding what I need. If I upgrade to Windows 7, I'm not sure that the XP Restore will work. Supposedly, there's a utility that could help. Also, it seems that if I can find the drivers, I can download them. Though, I don't believe the internet works without a driver. I may be stuck. If only I could Restore on XP and then upgrade to Windows 7?
10:56 PM: I'm going to try the System Restore anyway and see what happens. It looks like I have access to my external drive. At least that driver is working.
11:00 PM: I opened NTBackup. The first screen says: "Welcome to Backup or Restore Wizard." I click "Advanced" to see what my options are. I click "Restore Wizard (Advanced)." I click "Next," but it can't find a restore point. I have to Browse to show Windows where it is. Wow--this interface is confusing. I check to restore everything under the restore point. I hope this works...
On the next screen, I choose "Advanced," and then "Restore to Original location." I get a message that says "Can't back up to locked disk or unknown disk." What?
I go back and see that I have my Hard Disk (E Drive) listed as wanting to be restored. What? I'll uncheck that and try again. Confused! Okay, unchecking the E Drive worked. Next: I'm going to choose "Replace existing files" hoping this might restore some drivers. :) Wish me luck. Advanced Restore Options mention three exciting options that I don't understand. Sure, why not? Restore all three. Then..."Finish."
It says it will take 2 hours to restore. Wait--now it says 30 minutes. I think I'll call it a night, and pick this back up tomorrow.
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