I did it

[NV Whino]

I jumped off the deep end and bought a new Mac Mini. It was supposed to come loaded with Mavericks and iWork. It didn't. So I've been downloading first, an upgrade to Mountain Lion, then Mavericks and then I have to download iWorks. Grrrr. I don't have the fastest connection in the world so this is taking forever.

Then, I have to go buy another cable to migrate files from my old Mini because none of the 105 cables I have are the right one. Double grrrr.

[dballance]

1. That's very un-Apple of them.

I've been considering upgrading my old mini (mid 2010 model). Glad to get the warning.

[NV Whino]

2. I bought this online

You might have a different experience if you go to a store.

It is frustrating, though.

[Zorro]

3. Can't you migrate wirelessly?

[NV Whino]

4. I'm going to see if I can

In the mean time... 14 hours downloading and updating the system, and I still don't have iWorks.

[sir pball]

5. If you have a spare Cat5 cable

Switch on Internet Sharing on the new Mini, set it to share the wireless connection over the Ethernet port. Also turn on File Sharing. (All under the Sharing window in System Prefereces). Plug the old Mini into the new one, the new one should show up as a server to the old one; in Finder open the Go menu and select Network. You'll be able to copy whatever you want to the new Mini at gigabit speeds. It's how I transfer really large files around, it's easy and can't be beat.

[NV Whino]

6. Thanks

I have to connect my monitor to the old mini and turn on some sharing settings. I don't think I have files turned on.

[sir pball]

7. Don't share from the old mini, turn sharing on on the *new* one.

Share from the new one and use the old one as a client, it makes sorting things out much easier. If you share from the old to the new, you have to fiddle with the settings to get access to the entire hard drive on the old one. Using the new one as the file server means you can just drag and drop whatever you want from the old one into the drop box or your home directory on the new.

If you want to get crazy, turn on Apple Remote Deskop (VNC) on the old one and then just call up the screen over the network as well - no switching monitors!

[NV Whino]

8. Great! Thanks!

[sir pball]

10. Glad to help!

It's how I got everything from my G4 to my MacBook (just dragged my hard drive on the G4 to the shared folder on the MBP)...glad I could help!

[NV Whino]

9. Okay, got it to connect

I didn't have Internet sharing turned on. Now I can use the old mini's DVD drive as well. Not terribly fast without the proper cable, but what the hey, it works.