Migrating between iMac's using Time Machine

BarkingGhostar

Diamond Member
Nov 20, 2009
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I posted this on an Apple fan discussion forums and it got almost 100 views and not a single reply. I guess the most folks using Apple never migrate, migrate using TM, or just buy other Apple products and not OS X based Apple products.

Have an old iMac running Lion (10.7.5) and waiting to receive new iMac running El Capitan. I setup TM ~4.5 years ago to perform backups, but at the time I was new to OS X. As such, I am sure it isn't backing up everything.

For TM I has a USB2 external hard drive that the backups are stored on. Can TM be used as a migration tool to move everything over to the new iMac?

The post migration plans are to nuke and pave the old iMac, update the operating system and re-purpose it. As such I would like to also move the purchased software (Office, Lightroom, ACDSee) along with the free software (Firefox, Thunderbird, Chrome).

I know I can just fresh install the FF/Tb/Chrome and copy the Profile folder over to the new iMac, but I wonder about the purchased software since the intent is to permanently remove it from the old iMac.
 

slashbinslashbash

Golden Member
Feb 29, 2004
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Yes. Just make sure Time Machine has backed up everything on the old one. When you set up the new one, it will ask you if you want to restore from another machine (it can do it directly over the network) or from a Time Machine backup. Click yes, plug it in, and it will pull everything (user profiles, documents, apps) onto the new machine. Easy pasy.

Although it will take a while, depending on how much data you have. 1TB+, be prepared to wait. And wait. And wait. Hard drives are simply kinda slow.
 

Commodus

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 2004
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I've done a few Mac-to-Mac migrations using Time Machine, myself. If you can, update to the latest version of OS X that the old Mac supports (and of course, run a Time Machine backup afterward) to be on the same side. By default, Time Machine backs up everything -- you have to actively exclude folders.

And yes, as slashbinslashbash says, it can take a while if there's a lot of data. A few hours isn't unheard of. I really wish high-capacity SSDs came down in price, because it'd be so much nicer to restore in a matter of minutes.
 

BarkingGhostar

Diamond Member
Nov 20, 2009
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OK, I had read some issues with TM in Mountain Lion*, which came after Lion. I am trying to do the migration without upgrading from Lion on the original Mac. I'm paranoid--or maybe I just care not to deal with the implications of the wife tearing me a knew one.

I guess since I can migrate to the new machine by simply informing the new machine to from a TM backup and see the result on the new machine without affecting anything on the older Mac. Sounds like a plan.

* Something about TM not backing up apps (application folder).
 

KeithP

Diamond Member
Jun 15, 2000
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OK, I had read some issues with TM in Mountain Lion*, which came after Lion. I am trying to do the migration without upgrading from Lion on the original Mac.

Another option, if you have a spare external HD, is clone the old iMac's drive to an external HD. Next, boot the old iMac from external HD and upgrade that to the latest OS that the iMac will run.

Once you check it out and make sure it is working ok with the already installed apps you can use that external HD as the source for importing your data into the new iMac.

Meanwhile, the original iMac's internal HD and its Time Machine backup are untouched.

-KeithP
 

BarkingGhostar

Diamond Member
Nov 20, 2009
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I had not considered that. Of course, this is my ignorance showing. I have plenty of drives about. Any suggested Mac-friendly cloning software that would do the job? And then the next logical question is how does one make the Mac boot from an external drive?
 

KeithP

Diamond Member
Jun 15, 2000
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Super Duper! or Carbon Copy Cloner would work for the disk dupe. I have been using Super Duper! for years with never any issues.

After the drive is copied, hold down the option key when you boot the Mac. It will give you a list of all bootable volumes that you can choose from.

-KeithP
 

BarkingGhostar

Diamond Member
Nov 20, 2009
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Curious, I watched this video from 2012 and, while it it is in an environment before OS X 10.7 Lion, seems to be skirting the need for a separate application to perform the same thing, no? I'm tempted to try this today, but wondered if maybe Apple removed such a feature to curb the boot+legging.
 

KeithP

Diamond Member
Jun 15, 2000
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From what I have read that can still be done with El Capitan although apparently it is a little buried in the new version of Disk Utility.

I use SuperDuper on a regular basis to keep some backup drives in sync. I find it a bit simpler to use and the basic cloning functionality is free.

-KeithP
 

Tegeril

Platinum Member
Apr 2, 2003
2,906
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Why not use Migration Assistant to do a migration from the old system to the new one over ethernet? No need to worry about your TM volume being perfectly up to date or issues with TM across generations, just tell the new computer to migrate from the hard drive of the old one.
 
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BarkingGhostar

Diamond Member
Nov 20, 2009
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Keith, i got bored yesterday and installed Mavericks on a PC (Hackintosh) and the feature was in it and not anymore buried than what that video showed. I'm going to test it out with an external HDD using USB3 or eSATA (provided the custom files will let eSATA run in Mavericks/Hackintosh). Then I will try to boot if it works.

Tegril, I had forgotten that the Migration Assistant even existed as I only had one Apple computer at the time. Does MA get everything? I am suspecting any custom folders/directories with content in them might get missed. Will it also migrate purchased software, too? And when MA is done what happens to the dat on the old iMac?
 

purbeast0

No Lifer
Sep 13, 2001
53,638
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i did not have luck migrating from mountain lion on a hackintosh to a macbook pro on el capitan with time machine. i tried multiple times with multiple different settings, sometimes moving the user over and all applications and files, sometimes just applications, etc. i think it ended up working when i moved everything over except applications, so i just went with that and reinstalled everything.

needless to say, it did not work nearly as well as i had hoped. and yes i had to wait hours between each attempt at it too, it was painful.
 

Tegeril

Platinum Member
Apr 2, 2003
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Keith, i got bored yesterday and installed Mavericks on a PC (Hackintosh) and the feature was in it and not anymore buried than what that video showed. I'm going to test it out with an external HDD using USB3 or eSATA (provided the custom files will let eSATA run in Mavericks/Hackintosh). Then I will try to boot if it works.

Tegril, I had forgotten that the Migration Assistant even existed as I only had one Apple computer at the time. Does MA get everything? I am suspecting any custom folders/directories with content in them might get missed. Will it also migrate purchased software, too? And when MA is done what happens to the dat on the old iMac?

MA brings forward a great deal of things, but not everything for sure. You'd likely lose things like stuff installed by homebrew in /usr/local for example, but it carries over the entire User folder and applications and Keychain information and settings and more. The nice thing, that answers your last question is that the old data is just left there on the old machine so you can inspect what may have been missed and move it over.
 

BarkingGhostar

Diamond Member
Nov 20, 2009
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BTW, this afternoon I installed Carbon Copy Cloner and tried out the cloning function. I dropped in an old 500GB drive into an equally old USB2 docking station and plugged that in. Some 3-4 hours later it was done, including a recovery partition. I then went and booted it and it booted just fine. That makes me feel a little better.

Keep in mind i routinely make clones of my Windows PC's instead of using traditional backup software.