Mac help -- migration

[seawasp]

  I've got a new iMac, and a somewhat older iMac, and I want to migrate the older to the newer. I follow the directions with Migration Assistant, and while the new one usually recognizes the old one is there, the old one never shows the number that is supposed to be shown to allow the actual transfer to be made. I've tried it with WiFi and with Ethernet, and neither one has worked. Are there particular tricks for the migration I'm likely to be missing?

Comments

[autopope.livejournal.com]

Are they running the same OS version? Because if not, that can cause big problems with the migration ass.

[seawasp]

Yes, they're different, but Apple claims that it should work with the two OS's in question.

[hms42]

Have you checked for all updates on the older mac? Have you checked for any updates on the newer mac? (They might have fixed a migration bug for the newer machine.)

What OS versions are you working with? 10.10.?? and ??.??.??

[q99.livejournal.com]

One, lj says it's your birthday, so, happy birthday ^^

Two.... hm, not sure, though if all else fails Apple tends to be pretty on the ball at tech support.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Utterly off-topic... Happy birthday seawasp!

[kjn]

I have had similar troubles when I migrated to a new Mac a while ago. What I'd recommend is using your Time Machine backup to do the migration (you do have one, right?).

[seawasp]

No. I copy critical stuff to other drives, but I don't have a Time Machine backup; I've heard of it but have no idea how or what.

[kjn]

Time Machine is the built-in backup (and restore/versioning) utility in Mac OS X. I very much can recommend you using it. It's quite simple to use: just point it at a sufficiently large HFS+ hard drives and tell Time Machine System Preferences to use it. (Even better, use two hard drives, and keep one at the office; rotate once every week or so.)

[seawasp]

I may actually finally have a drive that would support that. Until very recently I didn't have a spare drive, or spare space on other drives that would support a full backup.

[ninjarat.livejournal.com]

Migration over Ethernet sucks. Use target disk mode (firewire, thunderbolt) instead. It's the fastest, most reliable method.

When target disk mode is not an option then I use rsync to clone the source Mac and use the clone as the source for local disk migration. More steps than target disk mode but just as reliable: the clone looks exactly like a Mac in target disk mode.

Let me know if you want my rsync recipe (yes, recipe; I do these often enough to have one).

[seawasp]

The problem with the Firewire/Thunderbolt method is that the one Mac has a Firewire port, the other has Thunderbolt, but neither of them has both.

[seawasp]

If I get a firewire to thunderbolt adapter will that work?

[ninjarat.livejournal.com]

Yes. You'll need one of these:
http://www.apple.com/shop/product/MD464LL/A/apple-thunderbolt-to-firewire-adapter
and a Firewire 800 cable.

[seawasp]

Is "Firewire 800" different from "Firewire" plain? As in, if I have an old Firewire cable is it useless?

[ninjarat.livejournal.com]

It is. Firewire is a D-shaped 6-pin connector. Firewire 800 is a rectangular 9-pin connector. Apple does love changing their connectors. :P

If the old iMac has a 9-pin port and the cable is 9-pin male to male then you're all set. If the old iMac has a 9-pin port and the cable is 6-pin then you will need to get a 9-pin male to male cable. If the old iMac does not have a 9-pin port then you will need get a 9-pin male to 6-pin male cable.

There are adapters that you could use to match the cable to the ports but I prefer to use the proper cable whenever possible. I usually buy StarTech cables from Amazon (for myself) or GovConnection (for work). Good quality at around 1/4 to 1/3 the price of Belkin at retail.

[autopope.livejournal.com]

Note that you can get a Firewire 600 to Firewire 800 cable. Use that, and the Firewire 800 to Tbolt dongle and you're all set.

However, the cost of the cable and dongle is getting pretty close to the price of a 1Tb hard drive these days. Might be better to buy the drive, back up to it via Time Machine, then point the Migration Ass at the external drive -- slower but you'll have a backup drive or spare HD afterwards.

[ninjarat.livejournal.com]

True. The TB/FW adapter is $30 and you won't find it cheaper because of Apple's lock-in on Thunderbolt connectors. A StarTech 6-pin to 9-pin cable is about $8. A Western Digital portable 1TB drive can be had for about $55, and you'll get far more use out of the drive if you use it for Time Machine than you ever will from the cable and adapter.

[groblek.livejournal.com]

I'll third the suggestion of going with an external drive and Time Machine, since that then gets you a drive you can use as a dedicated TM drive for the new system. I think that adding Time Machine is my favorite new feature to Apple's OS in the past several years, it's turned system meltdowns into a minor inconvenience, rather than cause for lots of swearing and panic over whether my backups are current enough.