Hey Guys!

I hope you are all having a good one today

So the time has come for me to upgrade my studio computer. Im currently using a Macbook pro with 16GB of Ram and a 1TB internal drive, operating with Mavericks 10.9.5
I will be purchasing a brand new iMac with 32GB of Ram and a large 2 or 3TB internal drive.
My question today is quite a simple one!
When using the migration assistant, will I have any problems reauthorizing any of my Plug ins? I have lots of legit ones and a few (k) ones.
I would ideally like to stay with Mavericks as my operating system as I like it and don't want the nause of authorizing some of my software again.
This happened to me in the past when I upgraded from Lion.
What are you general experiences with doing this? Is it as simple as ABC or a real pain in the backside.
This decision I need to make wether to stay with my current machine or upgrade, depends on how much the transfer over of my data becomes!

Thanks as always for any reply's!

Have a great day everyone

 

Depends...
To minimize the problems
Do not change the size and the name of Mac hd, do not change OS version or user name.
Mainly all will be good.
Save yourself a hard money and build a hackintosh

 

I know what you mean, but no, it doesn't work that way.
CP schemes based on HDD name/size are really a few (the only audio one I saw that base ONLY on that is Lindell/LSR audio),
and it's not enough to recreate same drive size/name and OS version/username to keep em working.

Just name and partition your drive(s) like you want, and keep in mind you will have to reauthorize those software, be them legit or not, that use machine identifier(s) for license.
A few common plug-ins makers that comes to my mind now that use C/R base on machine identifiers are:
Waves, PluginAlliance, Spectrasonics, Overloud, SoundRadix, Cytomic, IKMultimedia, LSRaudio-Lindell, AmpleSound etc. etc.

Good luck !

 

Thanks Copylefter mate!

 

Thanks Ovalf mate!

 

Use Carbon Copy Cloner 4

 

What is that and where can I get it? And will it work 100 %

 

Make a clone of a running system is a bad idea since you will copy also garbage, errors and if any, malfunctions

I'm usual to restart from scratch with brand new machines/OSs ;-)

 

I'm not bothered I just want my new Mac to have everything working ok like my old one!

 

Perhaps it's better starting from scratch. As a hackintosh user since 2010 I've learnt the hard way that using Migration Assistant not always gives good results.
To reauthorize your softwares, keep in touch with the relevant brand and ask for help. Non legit softwares, well, you always know what to do.

 

Carbon Copy Cloner is excellent.
https://www.bombich.com/

30 day trial ;)

 

Don´t use migration assistant, use Carbon Copy Clonner

 

Yeah, I just cloned my drive at home for work in another studio that I can boot into, and I have had few problems, just had to reauthorize my NI stuff, Spectrasonics stuff, Sound Radix, and a few others so far, but I "try" and keep a tidy system, although I am way do for a clean install..... But unfortunately no time, .. Clean install is always "best", but reality some dictates another option. CCC is best with newer OSX's, as it also clones Recovery Partition, and then you can also "smart" update later etc.... I wouldn't fuck with Migration Assistant, they may have it together now, but I got burnt on that once, so not going down that path...

 

Carbon Copy Cloner is a backup utility plus is can create a bootable clone of your hard drive.

If you have an external hard drive and you "clone" (backup) your current hard drive to it then plugin the hard drive to your new Mac and boot from the external hard drive you will be able to reverse the process and copy the clone to your new Mac providing that the new Mac is compatible with the OS version you are trying to clone.

One point I would like to make is that if you get a new Mac it will ship with 10.10 Yosemite. Due to Apple's strict limitations (crippling and stupid on their part) you won't be able to run Mavericks on it. However, if you buy a Mac that supports 10.9.5 Mavericks, or earlier, then you will be ok with running that OS X version. A little research on your part at http://www.everymac.com/ will tell you what OS X versions will run on what Mac. Also if you download the free app Mactracker it provides detailed information on every Mac computer ever made, including items such as processor speed, memory, optical drives, graphic cards, supported OS X versions, and expansion options (copied from MacUpdate.com).
Here: http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/5968/mactracker or from the developer http://www.mactracker.ca/

I have had very good luck with buying Mac's that are 2-5 years older and am then able to run older versions of OS X plus newer ones. A few years ago a bought a Mac that an older couple bought brand new and after less than an hour they did not like how the app Photo Booth took their picture (they thought Apple was spying on them) so they sold it at well over 1/2 the price they bought it for. I maxed it out with RAM and boom I have an excellent machine. Turned out real good for me as I am able to run everything from 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard) through 10.10 (Yosemite) plus I also run Windows on it via Boot Camp. I put in a much larger HD and partitioned it for running multiple OS'es as I have to support multiple versions.

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As another poster wrote Hackintosh is worth your time and effort as you are no longer restricted by any Apple limitations. Hackintosh is on my list of "to buy" as soon as I can rustle up the money. If you follow the many detailed instructions on the web for creating a Hackintosh machine you will have a very good experience and a machine that you can upgrade as you see fit. A good friend of mine has one and swears by it, he'll never go back to buying Mac's because of Apple's limitations.

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Migration Assistant works but as other have posted it can be 'hit and miss', however Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper! work much better because they perform a bit-for-bit clone (backup) of your hard drive. SuperDuper! is another backup/cloner application that works just as nicely as CCC.

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Yeah, you will have to re-authorize plugins and probably some apps, though it depends as some authorizations are tied to the machine ID (as copylefter stated).

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belalugosi posted: "Make a clone of a running system is a bad idea since you will copy also garbage, errors and if any, malfunctions
I'm usual to restart from scratch with brand new machines/OSs ;-) "

That is only true if you haven't maintained your system. By that I mean running Disk Utility (cleans up errors) but DU is only a very basic repair utility and when it cannot fix a problem I will use other repair apps that can fix what DU cannot. Like: DiskWarrior (rebuilds your directory and fixes any directory problems found), TechTool Pro (Mac repair utility), Drive Genius 3 (system repair utility that is very similar to TechTool Pro). DiskWarrior, TechTool Pro and Drive Genius can all be found with a little searching (sorry I believe the rules do not permit posting links) but there is a demonoid out there and a rutracker (sorry no links but you can find them) and you can find/get all these apps from those places, same with Carbon Copy Cloner and SuperDuper!. Go look up those apps, research what fits your needs, and you will see for yourself that they are very useful and should be in every Mac users toolkit.

I do regularly scheduled backups (clones) of my Mac's internal HD's to external HD's everyday (and periodically test booting from the externals) and have never had any problems with cloning. IMO doing backups of one's precious data is a no-brainer and a true lifesaver. Remember all it takes is one time losing your data and not having a backup to restore from to make your life very miserable (I've seen it all too many times with family, friends and customers alike).

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You can get a new, or very excellent used Mac, and with some time, effort and work on your part and (as you stated) have everything working ok like your old one!

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I hope that helps you out.

Good luck with whatever route you decide upon.

Cheers!!!

 

Thank you so much for your in depth reply. That really explains everything really, really well Some great tips and advice!
Many thanks once again for taking your time to write such a detailed response.

 

Thank you sir!

 

Thanks for the tip Bud Yes I'm coming round to the Hackintosh Idea...I hear so many good things!