Data transfer: ext hard drive to new Mac with Mavericks using Time Machine

Data from old computer is on ext hard drive. I delayed transfer to new Mac. Now using Migration Assistant bit I don't know if it is working or just hung up. It shows 'looking for other sources' for over an hour. Please advise.

In general, most people will recommend Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper! You can find either one easily enough with a web search.
However, in your case, I imagine you are going to have a hard disk returned to you all by itself, and you will need to install it in an enclosure. Don't let that bother you as this is easy to do and the enclosures are not expensive ($40 or so).
Once that is done, I would recommend you set up your brand new Mac by answering all the questions during initial setup as usual. Be sure to use your correct Apple ID - probably the same one you used to log into this support forum. When you reach the point in which it asks you if you would like to transfer your old documents and settings, connect the old hard disk and select it as the source. It will take some time as it copies all its contents to your new Mac. All your familiar items will be exactly as they were on the failed Mac.
After that, you can use the old hard disk as a Time Machine backup. When you are satisfied everything on your new Mac is running as it should, go ahead and erase the old disk. Then, tell Time Machine to designate it as a backup, and the rest is automatic.

Similar Messages

  • HT201250 I don't store any files on my computer, I store them on a hd. Can I restore docs from my hard drive if they were backed up using time machine? And will it restore if the hd isn't even there? Like what if it got stolen or destroyed.

    I don't store any files on my computer, I store them on a hd. Can I restore docs from my hard drive if they were backed up using time machine? And will it restore if the hd isn't even there? Like what if it got stolen or destroyed.

    ehphotograph wrote:
    Can I restore docs from my hard drive if they were backed up using time machine?
    Yes.  
    And will it restore if the hd isn't even there? Like what if it got stolen or destroyed.
    Also yes.
    Directly-connected external drives (ie, USB, FireWire, Thunderbolt) are not backed-up by default.  You must remove them from the exclusion list in Time Machine Preferences > Options to get them backed-up.  (Network drives cannot be backed-up.)
    And they must be formatted for a Mac -- any variation of Mac OS Extended.
    If the drive is connected, you can browse or restore normally -- just go to the folder or document in question and Enter Time Machine.
    If the drive is not connected, it's a bit different.  See #E3 of Time Machine - Troubleshooting.
    Message was edited by: Pondini

  • Migrating to new Mac Book Air using time machine and seems stuck?

    I am transferring my data my  5 year old Mac Book Pro to new Mac Book Air via Time Machine because other methods were not working due to technology out of date incompatibility and my old computer is on its last legs here.  Need to get moving on this. Everything appears to be going fine. Just wondered since I have never done this and I realize it takes awhile. At present, the screen is saying it is transferring documents and will take another 13 minutes and it has said this for the last 2 hours and the line below shows still about 2/3 more to go.  This has been going for about 4 hours total now. Just wondering if this is normal?
    Thank you in advance.

    It takes awhile, especially if you have a lot of data. The last time I did this it took over 6 hours. The time estimates are usually way off.

  • How to install a new 360 GB hard drive to replace my 60 GB using Time Machine?

    How do I install a new 320 GB hard drive on my MacBook using Time Machine? I have purchased the hard drive and know how to take out the old drive and put in the new drive.

    To transfer your current hard drive I like the free application Carbon Copy Cloner. It makes a bootable copy of everything on your hard drive http://www.bombich.com/index.html

  • How do I transfer data from old hard drive to new mac exactly the same as it was on my old one?

    Unfortunately my 2009 iMac has been written off due to a faulty motherboard. Thankfully the company we got the mac from are providing me with a brand new one at no cost as I am under warranty. My old hard drive had many important documents and applications on it and we have requested for the old hard drive back. What I would like to know is how to I go about transferring all the stuff of my old hard drive to my new iMac? I would like everything to be set out exactly the same as it was on my old mac so basically I would like it cloned identical on my new mac from my old hard drive.
    Thanks Nathan

    In general, most people will recommend Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper! You can find either one easily enough with a web search.
    However, in your case, I imagine you are going to have a hard disk returned to you all by itself, and you will need to install it in an enclosure. Don't let that bother you as this is easy to do and the enclosures are not expensive ($40 or so).
    Once that is done, I would recommend you set up your brand new Mac by answering all the questions during initial setup as usual. Be sure to use your correct Apple ID - probably the same one you used to log into this support forum. When you reach the point in which it asks you if you would like to transfer your old documents and settings, connect the old hard disk and select it as the source. It will take some time as it copies all its contents to your new Mac. All your familiar items will be exactly as they were on the failed Mac.
    After that, you can use the old hard disk as a Time Machine backup. When you are satisfied everything on your new Mac is running as it should, go ahead and erase the old disk. Then, tell Time Machine to designate it as a backup, and the rest is automatic.

  • New hard drive on iMac but can't use time machine backup

    I just installed a new hard drive on my 2007 iMac but it will not let me back up to a time machine backup.  I can see the files i want but has the red circle with this message  :The folder “Documents” can’t be opened because you don’t have permission to see its contents.  help!

    You haven't gone about this the right way. After installing OS X, when you booted from the new drive, you were prompted to transfer data from a Time Machine backup, among other options. That's what you should have done. The simplest, but not the fastest, way to recover is to start over by erasing the startup volume and installing again.
    OS X: How to migrate data from another Mac using Mountain Lion and earlier

  • IMac hard drive dies - new one installed - Contribute on Time Machine won't install....

    I am looking for help because I've now used up a trial of Contribute on my desktop and laptop.
    It's frustrating because I thought I could reinstall Contribute from the backup on my Time Machine drive but in the "Installer" folder it has some images of the logo a few text files and that's it. I've tried to load the program from that drive onto my new drive and no dice.
    I now have clients freaking out and I don't know what to do. Had no problem with other programs that were backed up, this has been the only one.
    ANY help would be so greatly appreciated. Thanks so much.
    Amy

    http://prodesigntools.com/tag/ddl
    Mylenium

  • I can not save any data to external hard drive from my mac pro. Is there anyone can help me in this regard?( note, when i first plug my ext. drive to mac i chose option to backup later)

    I can not save any data to external hard drive from my mac pro. Is there anyone can help me in this regard?( note, when i first plug my ext. drive to mac i chose option to backup later)

    The device may be formatted for Windows, as NTFS. The format is readable, but not natively writable on a Mac. To write to the device, you must either reformat it (erasing all the contents) or install third-party software to enable write access to NTFS.

  • Working in adobe illustrator - computer crashed - will not soft boot or reset PRAM - should i reinstall from CD snow leopard 10.6.3? I have an extra hard drive in my MAC with time machine on it set to do auto back ups. How do i recover ?

    working in adobe illustrator - computer crashed - will not soft boot or reset PRAM - should i reinstall from CD snow leopard 10.6.3? I have an extra hard drive in my MAC with time machine on it set to do auto back ups. How do i recover ?

    Well first you have to figure out what is wrong with the machine and solve that problem first.
    Your post is very vague on what occured, and there are many types of "crashes" it really depends upon what see on the screen and what the hardware does, we can't see it to tell you, so you have to tell us.
    I suggest you run through these user tips and provide more information about your hardware.
    Disconnect the TimeMachine drive for now
    ..Step by Step to fix your Mac
    Help us to help you on these forums
    Create a data recovery/undelete external boot drive
    If this is going way over your head, there are local PC/Mac techs that will assist you for a fee, Apple only does hardware repairs and is advised to use them if you discover it is, especially if under warranty/AppleCare.
    Hard drive and RAM upgrades can be handled yourself or by a outside tech in many older models of Mac, but don't expect Apple to cover the new parts.
    Install/upgrade RAM or storage drive in Mac's

  • I have a new macbook pro and want to transfer my Mail autofill from my old mac. Never used Time Machine or Migration Assistant -- looks complicated. Any easy way to do this?

    I have a new macbook pro and want to transfer my Mail autofill from my old mac. Never used Time Machine or Migration Assistant -- looks complicated. Any easy way to do this?

    caitlinfromcambridge wrote:
    Thanks -- I would like to try this. I do not know how to reach hard drive from old mac to new. Can you help me with this?
    There are two ways - you can boot your old Mac in Target Mode (reboot your Mac, and as soon as you hear the startup chime hold down the T key on the keyboard until you see the yellow/orange Firewire logo on screen).  You can then use a FireWire cable to connect your new mac to your old one.  The old Mac hard drive will appear on your new Mac as if it is an external hard drive.
    Details on Target Disk Mode:  http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1661
    If you don't have a firewire cable but you do have a home network (i.e. both computers can access the Internet at the same time), you can share the hard drive on your old Mac and then connect to it on your new Mac.
    Good article on sharing your hard drive:  http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1549
    Finally, if the above doesn't thrill you, you can hook an external drive to your old Mac, copy the mail folder over to it, then connect the external drive to your new Mac and copy it over.  It's two steps, but if you don't have a firewire cable and aren't comfortable with sharing over a network it will work just as well - you just have to wait for the mail folder to copy twice instead of once.
    If you get stuck post back!

  • I am trying to upgrade my hard drive in my mac book pro using the disk utility in an attempt to clone my old hard drive.  I can only get so far, just before cloning may start and receive an "error 254" and can go no further.  Any idea what this error is?

    I am trying to upgrad the hard drive in my mac book pro using the disk utility in an attempt to clone my old hard drive.  I can only get so far throughj the process where its about to start cloing when I get a message " error 254".  Any idea what that means and how do I get around this issue so I can use my new hard drive?  Thanks for your input.
    Vince

    Connect the HDD to your MBP.  Open Disk Utility>Erase and drag the HDD icon inrt the Name field.  The format should be Mac OS Extended (Journaled).  Click on the Erase button.
    Then try the clone process again.  You may use Disk Utility>Restore or a third party cloning application such as Carbon Copy Cloner or Super Duper.
    Ciao.

  • Need Urgent help, I have made partition hard drive in my mac book and using OS mac

    Need Urgent help, I have made partition hard drive in my mac book and using OS mac & Window8 seperately... for couple of days it works great for both window & OS mac But nowadays, my pc gets restart automatically while using window & even I cant access to my Mac OS...........  I got some error in window (error80070003) ...>>>>> Now how can I format whole drive & recover my Mac book OS.without boot disk.

    I can't find that model. If you open System Profiler in the Utilities folder look for the Model Identifier over in the right hand display. What do you find for the model ID? If your computer supports Internet Recovery here's what to do:
    Install Mavericks, Lion/Mountain Lion Using Internet Recovery
    Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.
    Boot to the Internet Recovery HD:
    Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND-OPTION- R keys until a globe appears on the screen. Wait patiently - 15-20 minutes - until the Recovery main menu appears.
    Partition and Format the hard drive:
    Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
    After DU loads select your newly installed hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
    Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed. Quit DU and return to the main menu.
    Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion. Mavericks: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion, Mavericks and click on the Install button. Be sure to select the correct drive to use if you have more than one.
    Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.
    This should restore the version of OS X originally pre-installed on the computer. If Mavericks is not installed, then you can reinstall it by re-downloading the Mavericks installer.
    You will need to use Boot Camp Assistant in order to create a new Windows partition, then reinstall Windows.

  • If you delete a large file from the mac hard drive does it also remove it from time machine on external hard drive

    if you delete a large file from the mac hard drive does it also delete it from time machine on the external hard drive ?

    As the others say, no, the backup copy won't be deleted immediately, but it will eventually.
    If you want to delete all backups of a selected item, such as for space or security reasons, see #12 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions.

  • Can someone please help me re-install my Creative Design 5.5 on my Mac?  My MacBook Pro recently crashed and had to have the hard drive replaced.  The back up from Time Machine is not reinstalling the program.  Since I have the download paid, and codes, I

    Can someone please help me re-install my Creative Design 5.5 on my Mac?  My MacBook Pro recently crashed and had to have the hard drive replaced.  The back up from Time Machine is not reinstalling the program.  Since I have the download paid, and codes, I need direction on how to reinstall -- HELP?

    Hi bodegakc,
    If you have the serial number then please use the below mentioned link to download the product you are looking for .
    CS5.5
    Also before installing Please go to Applications-->Utilities--> Adobe installers and if there is any uninstaller for CS5.5 , you can remove it and do a fresh install.
    You can also use creative cloud cleaner tool before installing.
    Use the CC Cleaner Tool to solve installation problems | CC, CS3-CS6
    Thanks
    Nikhil Gupta

  • What is the best USB powered portable 1TB hard drive for a macbook pro that allows Time machine to work, windows (thru Parallels software) and mac storage and is available in Australia?

    What is the best USB powered portable 1TB hard drive for a macbook pro that allows Time machine to work, windows (thru Parallels software) and mac storage and is available in Australia?

    I agree with teh OWC sggestion above, but why must it be USB powered? I find that far more unreliable, and the low power devices slow.
    I'd frankly get a good external enclosure and buy a bare drive.  But the OWC stuff is quite good - vastly better than some of the majors (WD being aprime example of stuff that's boderline quality and often not compatible)
    Grant

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