Migration assistant does not recognize external hard drive

I just had a new hard drive placed in my computer, and am trying to restore my old data using an external hard drive and migration assistant. However, after I click on transfer from time machine or disk, the external hard drive is not recognized. Help.

Boot into Recovery from the backup drive by holding down the option key at the startup chime. Select Restore from Time Machine. If that doesn't work, install OS X and then follow the prompts to transfer your data from a backup. If that too doesn't work, set up an account and then restore your data in the time-travel interface.

Similar Messages

Migration Assistant Won't Recognize External Hard Drive

I have a PowerPC G5 and made a bootable backup of the computer's content to an external firewire hard drive. I tested the backup to make sure that it booted and everything was fine. So, I then did a clean install of Leopard to the machine. After the computer restarted, I reconnected my external drive and it mounted fine. However, when I went to use Migration Assistant to bring over all of my applications, it would not recognize the hard drive as an option to migrate files from.
The hard drive is formatted as Apple Partition Map, and works fine as a bootable copy. Does anyone know why Migration Assistant will not recognize it?
I recently did a clean install of Leopard on my Macbook this weekend using a different external drive with a bootable backup of the drive (GUID formatted) and then used the migration assistant to move all of my files and everything worked just fine.
I can't find any reason that I shouldn't be able to get my applications through migration assistant from the external hard drive but maybe someone knows how to fix this or of a workaround.

Very curious, indeed.
Welcome to the Apple forums where we do try to sort things out
Your delineation of the problem and comparison to your MBP is perfect.
I migrated my G5 from a second internal disk, but actually used the setup assistant when Leopard came alive.
You might see what happens if you eject your external HD and then do what you need to to connect it back (turn off/on - unplug/plug, etc.)
Are there any errors when Migration assistant runs?
It is perhaps that Spotlight is doing its thing and the drive is not available until it is indexed?
I would remove the external HD temporarily from the SpotLight indexing list and then see what happens.
I recall that there were some odd issues with external drives taking up to 1/2 hour to be recognized by Leopard, but I don't recall why.
I am not sure these things will help, but they will eliminate some of the possibilities, and when we have eliminated the probable, what is left is where the answer lies
I wonder if Leopard is confused by the external drive not being GUID?
Try this - - connect the GUID external drive to your G5 and see if Migration assistant sees it. Obviously do not migrate anything, but if you can see that one, we may have a solution.
Keep us posted.

My iMac does not recognize external hard drive

My iMac does not recognize my external hard drive. Disk utility recognizes it and a test of the hard drive does not review any error. I use the hard drive as a back up for the time machine. This problem comes and goes. It comes when I turn off and turn on the computer, with the hard drive attached.
Please help.
Insightful

can be this reasons
01 , you have problem with connection ? check the port if you can find any problems physically .
02. if not try to change the cable and with connection ,
03. may be its good idea to check the hard drive with another mac ?(if you have )
Did you note any diference of sound from Hard Drive ? listen to it that carefully to note some unusual sound comes when the hard drive works.
check this link this might usefull: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjgOSxKy-FQ

Itunes does not recognize external hard drive

I am a dj and I have a couple of external hard drives to back up my music. Here's what happened last night and things haven't been the same since. Last night I have daisychained one exteranl hard drive with my new xternal that has a copy of all my music on it. I changed the folder to my new hard drive the other day and it was working fine. Well, last night I was working on updating some music and I didn't realize that my iBook G4 laptop wasn't plugged in so the screen went dark. I panic a bit and power downed my two hard drives without dismounting them properly. When I realized it was just the power cord I plugged it back in and I thought everything was fine. Now this morning when I try to run off of only my new xternal almost all of my library is showing that it can't be found. Now, when I plugged in an old external and daisychained it with the new one it works fine. What do I need to do so that it recognizes only the new hard drive with everything on it. I tried changing the folder in the advanced tab and it still comes up unrecognized. Please help me I have tons of gigs coming up soon and I use my itunes as a reference tool.
Thanks,

Craig H100 wrote:
Thanks. Realized something though...on the old computer, Windows XP had a problem (R6034) that prevented iTunes from opening or upgrading.
For general advice see Troubleshooting issues with iTunes for Windows updates.
The steps in the second box are a guide to removing everything related to iTunes and then rebuilding it which is often a good starting point unless the symptoms indicate a more specific approach. Review the other boxes and the list of support documents further down page in case one of them applies.
Your library should be unaffected by these steps but there is backup and recovery advice elsewhere in the user tip.
tt2

Migration assistant does not recognize time machine backup

Hi Guru,
I made a time machine backup today, 10.8.2, then made full reinstall of system in Apple store, in Berkeley, because my iMac experinced some unstability.
we installed new Mac OS, and now I face a problem: migration assistant does not recognize hard disk with buckup.
Finder sees this disk, it has Backups folder.
OS: 10.8.2
BackUp made: Time Machine 10.8.2
Hard Disk: Lacie 500MB
any ideas?
Thank you

I am conserned about restoring using setup assistant because I need to transfer personal files and applications only.
You can do that in Setup Assistant.
Migration Assistant doesn't accept Time Machine backups of the computer it's running on; it only accepts compatible backups of other computers. You can't migrate a system to itself. To restore files from the same computer, enter Time Machine in the usual way, or else boot into Recovery and either restore the whole startup volume or erase, reinstall OS X, and restore in Setup Assistant.

How can I copy programs (iWorks) and files from Time Capsule to my HD manually? The problem is that the migration assistant does not recognize my backup file and the user on the TC. (If I open the TC on finder, it it there though)

How can I copy programs (iWorks) and files from Time Capsule to my HD manually? The problem is that the migration assistant does not recognize my backup file and the user on the TC. (If I open the TC on finder, it it there though)

How can I copy programs (iWorks) and files from Time Capsule to my HD manually? The problem is that the migration assistant does not recognize my backup file and the user on the TC. (If I open the TC on finder, it it there though)

Windows XP re-installation does not recognize any hard drive - help

Hi,
I have X60s Model: 17044JU
I have original XP installed.
My computer is very slow and I am trying to reinstall XP from my CD (and format HD so I clean everything).
When Windows installations blue screen shows up and loads drivers etc then it tells me that it does not recognize any hard drive.
I thought I may need SCSI or RAID drivers but since I don't have floppy I can not load them.
Any help how to install new XP would be appreciated.
Thank you
Miron
Moderator edit: Masked serial number to prevent mis-use.
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Hi
I changed BIOS setup from AHCI to Compatibility and indeed it worked.
However there is easier way to reload new system on thinkpad.
I didn't know that but you can press ThinkVantage button when you start your laptop and IBM utilities start up.
Then there is an option to reload the system to be in original state as shipped from the factory. It loads or drivers and initial programs. It also formats your hard drive.
I found it pretty convenient.
Thanks for help.
mc

Migration Assistant won't see external hard drive

I have just done a clean install of Leopard onto my MacBook Pro, previously running Tiger. Now, I want to migrate my old user and programs from a backed up volume on an external firewire hard drive. The problem is that Migration Assistant won't recognize my external hard drive.
I have no other problem mounting or reading the external hard drive from leopard.
Could the problem be that the external drive has the Apple partition map instead of GUID as reported here? http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1329665
Any suggestion, solutions or work arounds are gratefully appreciated.

That isn't a valid link to your picture (it's a link to the file on your computer). You would need to post it to a serve (and remove the spaces in the name) and post that link here.
However it would appear that your short name is 'dalechristiansen' so presumably you originally created a user with that short name and your full name as.. the full name (unless it was just 'Dale'. Whatever you did before when you created your account is what you should do now. Then you can copy the equivalent folder's contents. (You might have problems replacing some of the root level folders, in which case you shuld copy their contents into the equivalent folders).

I transferred data from my external hard drive to my restored Mac Book Pro via migration assistant and now my external hard drive in time capsule has red minus signs. How do I get rid of that without getting rid of any of my data?

I used Migration Assistant to transfer my data from my external hard drive via Time Capsule to my restored Mac Book Pro. When I now go into Time Capsule I there are red minus signs in the corner of all the folders that are contained in my back up. How do I get rid of this and access my previous back-ups?

Select the drive and Finder > Get info and at the bottom "ignore permissions on this volume"
You can copy the files, but the ownership on the files still belongs to the other user account, once your done copying, then perform a #6 Reset Users Permissions and that will set all the ownership to that account.
..Step by Step to fix your Mac
Another method is to copy the entire folder, then change it's permissions.

New external hard drive froze while transferring info to new computer. Laptop does not read external hard drive. Went to Apple store and didn't work. Any suggestions?

Day 1. Went to Apple store because iMovie was not working. It kept shutting down. Prior to going to the store, I called Apple Support and deleted and reinstalled iMovie. Still did not work. Then I went to the Apple Store. After an hour it finally worked but when I got home, it didn't work AND my iPhoto application was missing. Tried to back up on external hard drive but it didnt work.
Day 2. Explained the situation again to Apple employee at Apple Store. I bought an external hard drive that employee recommended and picked out. I went home and backed up my computer on the external HD.
Day 3 (morning). Went back to Apple. Employee verified that my hard drive was backed up successfully. All my photos, music, and documents were successfully backed up. He was going to reinstall the operating system. He did that successfully. He showed me how to install the external HD info to the laptop. I went home and followed the directions. It was going to take about 2 hours. I kept monitoring the progress and everything looked good until....30 minutes remained. 30 minutes remained for a good 20 minutes. The ext hard drive stopped responding. I tried to canel but there were no buttons to push. I exited the program. I called apple support and they tried to walk me through it. My computer still was not recognizing that the exteranl HD was plugged in. I mad another trip to the Apple store and the emplyee confirmed that the extranal HD was not reading. He tried plugging it in to his computer and it still wasnt reading.
He did give me a data recovery number to call. I asked if Apple would cover the cost and he said no. I called then and was quoted $700-$2000 to recover the data.
Does anyone have any suggestions? When frustrates me more is that I followed every instruction and I did exactly what Apple told me to do. Now, ALL of my data is lost and Apple does not want to help.
Does anyone have any suggestions on what to do next? I need help. =*(

Hi rkaufmann--
Thanks for the response. I can say with confidence that that is not the issue. I have at least 8 of these same WD external portable drives that are powered through their USB 3.0 cables, and I have never had problems with any of them. Sometimes I connect them directly to my computer, and sometimes I use a powered hub. Either way they work fine. The drives with their own power source do not suit my needs.
My question is specifically whether anyone has seen an issue where sometimes they plug a drive in and it is not recognized but then it continues to work. In other words, the question I'm posing to other users is whether it sometimes happens that they connect a drive and it simply doesn't show up, but then they disconnect and reconnect and it goes on working fine as it should.

MacBook does not recognize USB hard drive

Hello,
I have a MacBook 10.5.8 and I have been using an external hard drive (Mobile Drive Clasic 2.5'' 80-GB USB-2.0) to keep saves of important files. It has been working fine until now but I have recently used the same USB drive on a Windows 7, which would often not allow me to eject it, so I did the unwise and simply plugged it off at any rate a few times. This did not appear to cause any problems - but when today I tried to copy one file from my desktop to the USB drive it seemed to lag, I hit cancel, I restarted the computer and since then the USB drive does not show up at all. I plugged it in my Mac to see if it was a Windows problem, but to my surprise it does not show up there either, not in the Finder (I have the box checked in my Preferences) and not even in Disk Utility.
Is it possible that the USB drive was damaged beyond repair and that I cannot retrieve the data? What could possibly be the problem? :/

If the drive used to work with both computers and now works with neither one of them, the fault is with the drive. If it is not showing up in Disk Utility that would suggest a hardware fault.
There are a number of data recovery services that are usually able to get data back off of even badly damaged hard drives, you might try working with one of them. DriveSavers is well thought of. They are not cheap though. You will want to decide how much that data is worth to you.
Best of luck.

Macbook does not recognize external USB drive - except when booting with CD

Hi all,
I recently swapped my Macbook's internal HD (Toshiba 100gb 5400 rpm) into an external USB enclosure (Eagle Consus). The computer does not recognize the external HD, even when using two USB cables for extra power. No luck with safe mode or resetting PRAM. Disk utility just hangs with spinning wheel if I start it. Switching the USB ports does not help.
I thought it might be a power problem until I noted the following:
1)The external drive works fine if I boot the Macbook from the Mac OS install CD... with this I can run disk utility and scan the drive with no problem
2)It works fine on an old Mac Mini with only ONE of the USB connectors plugged in
3)The enclosure worked fine on the Macbook when I had the new drive in it (320 GB 7200 RPM) while copying the files over
Any thoughts?
Many thanks,
--T

It is actually using a power supply, yet it will not actually power on unless it is connected to a computer's USB port. At least this is how it works on my old desktop running Windows 2000. When you disconnect the drive from Windows, or put the machine in hibernate mode, the device actually shuts down. It powers back up once the machine wakes up from hibernate mode.
It's a somewhat older device which predates the Macbook Pro, but it claims to support older Mac, such as the G3, G4, G5, iMac, iBook. OSX 10.0.4. So perhaps it's just too old?
It's a Buffalo HD-HB250U2 (250 GB).
So you're in Japan too?

Lightroom does not detect external hard drive

I am a newcomer to Lightroom and I'm trying to move my photos (25,000+) from my laptop to external hard drive. I've already copied the catalog over there (following online video tutorial by David Marx). I thought the way to move the actual photos was to drag and drop them using the left panel within Lightroom. But no matter what I do, Lightroom does not show my external hd (LaCie), so I can't drag/drop. Am I right that this is the way to do it?
Strangely, Lightroom does "see" the LaCie when I open the "Import" function.
Thanks for any help.
Dylan

Is your LaCie formatted? Do you see it in your OS?
--Yes.
If yes, try the following:
In your OS move one folder to your LaCie.
Open LR. In the folders panel there should be a question mark besides the folder you just moved - at the old location!
Right-click this folder and point LR to the new location on the LaCie.
--So far, so good. But now LR sees LaCie as a folder, not a drive. And none of the folders that are already on the LaCie are visible.
If Lr lets you do this you're fine and from then on you can use the drag-and-drop method within LR.
Or, alternatively you can move all the other folders in your OS and then point LR to the new location. It might be a bit faster to make the move in your OS.
--I'm holding off on this step for now...

My time capsule does not see external hard drive

I just got a new time capsule and am hoping to use it as a wireless bridge and NAS.
I've got it set up as a bridge and that seems to be working correctly, but when I plug my external hard drive into the time capsule, I can't see that external drive show up anywhere.
Has anybody else run into this issue?
The hard drive is a WD Elements 3 TB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive - WDBAAU0030HBK-NESN.

I can't see that external drive show up anywhere.
If the drive is formatted correctly and communicating with the Time Capsule, then it will be displayed when you open AirPort Utility, click on the Time Capsule icon, click Edit, and then click the Disks tab at the top of the next window. Example:
Remember that since this drive is a "network" drive, it will not be displayed on the desktop until you manually mount the drive.

MacBook with Lion will not recognize external hard drive (AMP) that was my backup for older IBook, please help

I had a IBook G4 and an external hard drive as its back up.
IBook running something like Snow Lepord, anyway
I have a Intel Macbook now with Lion, Ive been told here there is a possible confliction between the AMP external harddrive and lion.
I will say a few times I have for limited time been able to access the drive on the newer MacBook, but then Lion (I think) drops it.
Any ideas out there?

Disk Utility sees the drive, finder/desktop doesnt.
Click on the Desktop->Finder menu->Preferences->General->Show on Desktop->HDs and ext HDs.
Mac OS Extended (journaled) what's that mean and is the format the issue here?
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1604 and http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2355
No, that's not the issue.

Migration assistant does not recognize external hard drive

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