# Migration Assistant vs. Manual Installations/moving files



## jdurston (Jan 28, 2005)

I recently used Migration assistant to "move in" to my MacBook from my PowerBook. I am blown away by the MacBook's speed, it truly feels like a portable G5.

However, every now and then it seems to take too long to do something. And it often takes a long time to shut down. I'm wondering if using Migration Assistant was a good idea to move applications and the root directory to the new machine. I've replaced all known programs with their Universal equivalents if available. And even archived and installed the OS after the Migration.

Should I have just moved my user files over and reinstalled all the software from scratch?


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## Vexel (Jan 30, 2005)

I personally think with the architecture change.. it's worth wiping the drive and copying everything yourself.  

To me... it was worth the time to be meticulous.


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## jdurston (Jan 28, 2005)

I just reformatted my drive and did a fresh install without using Migration assistant. A huge improvement in system responsiveness. 

I'm the kind of person who is always installing and deleting the lastest little utilities and I think sometimes they leave behind some baggage.

I've switch computers 4 times in the last year and have used Migration Assistant everytime. It wasn't a problem on the PPC but the cumulative effect definetly slowed my MacBook down over a fresh install and carefully installing each application individually.

I would recommend only moving your user files by Migration Assistant or do it manually.


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## jimmyleg (Jan 30, 2006)

Wow, I think you just solved my problem. My laptop gets stupidly slow sometimes especially closing apps. I used Migration too but am now going to wipe 'er clean.

Thanks.


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## jdurston (Jan 28, 2005)

jimmyleg said:


> Wow, I think you just solved my problem. My laptop gets stupidly slow sometimes especially closing apps. I used Migration too but am now going to wipe 'er clean.
> 
> Thanks.


I noticed the same thing. Applications would bounce too many times in the dock or take forever to quit. The spinning beach ball was way around too much as well.

I hope it helps.

Wipe it clean and just drag over the files that you need without all the clutter in your library folder. And re-install all applications properly.


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## Macaholic (Jan 7, 2003)

Seems like you guys have it ddown -- and I would would have opted for the fresh-smelling manual route, myself.


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## maximusbibicus (Feb 25, 2002)

Same here. With every Mac I get, I erase the drive and do a customized install of the OS. Then I drag my documents over from my FW drive, and then I install my third party apps. Once that is all done, from my FW drive I drag over select files & folders from my old "Library" folder. 

Tedious, but worth it in the long run.


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## kkapoor (Jan 17, 2006)

I always do a fresh install on a new machine. I remove the following:

Printer Drivers
Demo Software
All Languages except English
GarageBand (Takes up 3GB and I never use it)

Then I manually move over my Documents, Mail, Itunes Folder, iPhoto Folder and their respective preference files.

Then I install my apps.

Then I run Disk-Util and verify preferences.

This provides you with a clean, snappy system with maximum space and no conflicts.


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## TroutMaskReplica (Feb 28, 2003)

i think all you guys are doing is freeing up disk space. a library folder with 10,000 things in it is the same as a library folder with 1,000 things in it, since only the files (typically very small, human readable text documents) that are needed are loaded into memory.

that said, i am one of those people that clones my home folder but reinstalls all the apps. i rarely if ever clean out my user library folders because i'm not convinced there is a speed gain to be had from doing so.

edit: fonts! i always reinstall my font library by hand. os x can go crazy if there are two many helvetica's on the system. ex, screwed up terminal, mail, unreadable widgets, entire webpages converted to helvetica fractions, etc. watch those helvetica's! hope apple gets this sorted before leopard.


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## Vexel (Jan 30, 2005)

TroutMaskReplica said:


> i think all you guys are doing is freeing up disk space. a library folder with 10,000 things in it is the same as a library folder with 1,000 things in it, since only the files (typically very small, human readable text documents) that are needed are loaded into memory.
> 
> that said, i am one of those people that clones my home folder but reinstalls all the apps. i rarely if ever clean out my user library folders because i'm not convinced there is a speed gain to be had from doing so.
> 
> edit: fonts! i always reinstall my font library by hand. os x can go crazy if there are two many helvetica's on the system. ex, screwed up terminal, mail, unreadable widgets, entire webpages converted to helvetica fractions, etc. watch those helvetica's! hope apple gets this sorted before leopard.


I think you could be right about the library.. my only concern was that my iMac seemed a little slow. Once I reformatted, everything seemed fine. It may or may not have been the fact that the library had things in it that weren't universal.. I do know that things like menubar add-ons etc, won't work. Same with System Preference Panes.

PPC - PPC was never an issue.. but, with the Core Duo iMac.. it seemed to help to start fresh and update accordingly.


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