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SWITCH FROM G5 TO MACINTEL – INSTALLATION/BACKUP
Hi everyone,
My first apple computer was a g5 2.7ghz, 4gb ram that I bought two years ago. On it I have successfully finished editing my new documentary film, I’ve edited music videos, commercials and corporate video…I am currently in the middle of editing a brand new feature documentary film….
I still have a lot of different projects for different, already finished sequences, a lot of subtitle tracks (the film is in Japanese and I have invested a lot work synching the subtitles with video tracks), a lot of rendered files folders, constant frame folders (don’t really know what those mean), and precious audio capture folders. All this material is spread equally across my internal Mac hd data disk, some of those also on my Mac hd system disk, and my 2 external g-raid fw800, 800gb (they’re chained) in the scratch and different project folders….For the purpose of my upcoming documentary feature I have captured and edited over 100 hours material. Therefore I have an awful lot of precious scratch folders, rendered material and project files.
Due to the upcoming final cut studio 2 and the option of having pci-e port I’ve decided to make a switch to the macintel quad 2,66 ghz ((since octo core didn’t meet my price performance expectations)….Since it is my first time to make a switch from one computer to another I face a big challenge, how to backup and safely make a transition from g5 to macintel pro and continue working without too much hassle on my new Macpro.
My g5 2,7ghz had two internal 400gb disks (total 800gb) and two chained fw g-raid 800gb disks (total 2TB)…..The new Macpro will have 2TB of internal disk and I have ordered also an additional Lacie fw 800, 2TB disk, which mean that my new total of disk will be (4TB), btw I will still keep the additional 2 g-raid disks (which mean my new total = 5,6TB). I also own a small 2TB raid disks, from a company called macola (uses infiniband connection and when full read/write app.= 250mb/s, I am very happy with it, more info on: https://www.mac.co.yu/ponuda/macola/macola.html. I will get higher performance benchmark as soon as I switch to pci-e) but I intend to use those on speed critical missions such as finishing my hdv shot documentary in an uncompressed hd 10bit mode (intend to the grading in apple’s color)
So does anyone has any advice on how to make a safe transition from one computer to another, how to backup files, how to transfer crucial and vital files and making sure everything is there and nothing is missing on the new computer.
Your input is more than welcome… and if anyone is interested in the trailer for the documentary Honeymoon that I finished not long ago and that will distributed soon across all USA, please feel free to check the trailer at its official site…
Best regards
Drazen
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4 Replies
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When the new MAC comes in during the setup it will ask if you want to copy anything from your old MAC simply hook a firewire cable between the two machines and let it copy mass amounts of data.
Jim Calahan
KVIE, Sacramento -
Hey Drazen,
Getting all of your projects and assets moved over to another computer is always stressful. I think you may have less to deal with than you think. External storage is external… just hook it up to the new Mac.
You can use Apple’s migration assistant like Jim mentioned, but it’s SLOW and is built more for consumers who keep everything they ever need in their home directory on their single drive Mac. You can do this manually by hooking the Macs together with firewire and holding down “T” while one of them is booting. All of it’s drives will mount on the toher Mac and you copy what you want. You could also pull the drives from your G5 and put them in your Mac Pro… at least temporarily.
You have a lot of files in a lot of places, but I’ll bet they’re organized. You don’t just have a “files I edit with folder” and throw everything in there. Just go through the directories on your drives and copy what you need. Think of it as an opportunity to do a little spring cleaning.
Zak
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Gotta agree with Zak. See this as a chance to clean up and reorganise your media. Just be aware that if you renamed items in your browser after you captured them, that relinking the media may not be straight-forward. Thankfully FCP6 renames original files if you rename the media, so this may avoid the problem for future projects.
PLEASE when you start again, get all your media off your system drive. It’s a bad idea for so many reasons. You need to keep media on media drives. We all do it sometimes for a short while, but you should never make a habit of it. I think this exercise may demonstrate why it sucks.
I would never change machines or software versions in the middle of a new project if I could help it, btw. It’s never a good idea.
Ben
Editec Broadcast Editing Ltd
EVS & FCP specialists for live broadcast.
OB Server 1 HD – Mobile FCP editing done right.
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Hi everyone,
Thanks very much for the input, feel much more comfortable in making the switch.
Zak: You have a lot of files in a lot of places, but I’ll bet they’re organized. You don’t just have a “files I edit with folder” and throw everything in there. Just go through the directories on your drives and copy what you need. Think of it as an opportunity to do a little spring cleaning.
Exactly what I had in mind…clean and reorganise my data management workflow and logistics…
Ben: Just be aware that if you renamed items in your browser after you captured them, that relinking the media may not be straight-forward. Thankfully FCP6 renames original files if you rename the media, so this may avoid the problem for future projects
Good call man
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