Robysmart

I have the same issue. So I sold it (July 2010 model - bought for £1299 sold for £900) and bought a new MacBook Pro and a few Hard drives. Copied everything over and am planning on getting a 27" thunderbolt display when I get to NYC.

I bought 3 2tb MyPassport drives as I have 4.5tb of music, photos and movies stored on a Drobo.

what ever you do back up everything. don't rely on the time machine back up.

TimNiceBut

I shipped one computer to the US when I moved, hand-carried the MacBook and took the HDDs out of the other machine and sold that machine in the UK. I also sold my iMac back in the UK with a view of buying one over here.

With hindsight, the computer that got shipped in its original box via parcel2go arrived OK in a box that looked like it had been through several wars; I should have removed the HDDs in that (server) case as well as one came lose and as a result I needed to replace a couple of extension cards in it. That was a fairly expensive lesson.

If I had taken the iMac I would have bit the bullet and either taken it with me as an additional piece of luggage or paid a little more to ship it and make sure it was insured to its full replacement value. One of the big issues with an iMac is that taking out the harddrive is somewhere between hard and impossible for the average user so getting the data back (and making sure it doesn't end up in the wrong hands) is a little harder with one of these than a regular computer.

Macs are a little cheaper over here (not as much as the press tends to make out as they always forget that prices over here are shown without sales tax/VAT) so I would really be tempted to sell the one you have in the UK, take the money with you (much easier to carry ) and hit the Apple outlet store once I arrived over here.

Oddly enough I never bought another iMac, but ended up with a used Mac Pro over here.

auntieginzy

I think we have decided to send it with the shippers who are taking everything else. Have everything backed up on an external drive (going in my handbag) and online so it should be ok. Thank you all for your help though.

AdobePinon

You don't have to buy from Apple though. I bought my last one from B+H Photo in NY to avoid the sales tax, and get AppleCare for half the price. (No pesky 'use tax' in NM.)

auntieginzy

Good tip. Thanks

BritishGuy36

+1