Easiest/Best way to migrate to a new machine

I got a new Intel Mac (wooo-whooo!) and I need to move my Lightroom stuff over to the new Mac from my old G5. I had my all image files pointed to by Lightroom as opposed to imported into my Lightroom directory. So what is the best way to get Lightroom on my NEW Mac so it is identical to where I left off with my old one (ie, all my collections in order, keywords, color correction data etc.).
What is the best course of action? Is it as easy as just copying my lightroom database to the Lightroom folder on my new Mac and pointing to the new image directory? Which should I do first, point to the images or replace the existing database?
Such migrations have proven far more difficult and error prone with some of my other Apps (iPhoto, iTunes), so before I take on the task, I want to make sure I ma going about it the wrong way so I don't create problems.
Any ideas, suggestion, warnings and details about how to go about this would be most apprecfated.
-Nick

Nick:
Grab your trusty Firewire cable, connect the two machines and boot the G5 so that it's drive(s) appear on the desktop of the Intel Mac. Now just drag-and-drop all the image folders to the new machine.
But something tells me you already know about this method.

Similar Messages

What's the best way to migrate to a new machine in this situation?

Hi I'm shortly going to get my macbook pro replaced due to an error with the machine and will need to transfer everything across, the thing is I won't have the two computers physically present at the same time.
As I'll be handing my present one in, the next might arrive a few days later so I won't be able to use the Firewire migrate cable thing.
Some specs:
My present Macbook Pro is C2D with Tiger
My new Macbook Pro C2D will have Leopard.
So, I've just bought a Western Digital Essential MyBook 320 gig and wondering how to go about transferring everything across and formatting it as I've never used a proper external hard disk before, just USB dongles.
Am I right in thinking that It's best to write zeros all over it and then format (by clicking erase) on OS Extended (Journaled) ? Is that the safest format?
Also, can I just grab my 'User' folders (two accounts) and click and drag them over the the hard disk?
What did everyone else do? Sorry if this has already been answered, I have been trying to find answers.
Thanks, any help or advice much appreciated

Scottishengineer:
Just to expand a bit on the excellent advice you've already received:
1. Format your external HDD GUID as follows:
Formatting, Partitioning Erasing an External HDD
• Connect external HDD to computer
• Turn on external HDD
• Start up computer and log in
• Go to Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility and launch DU.
• Select your HDD (manufacturer ID) in left side bar.
• Select Partition tab in main panel.
• Click on Options button
• Select GUID Partition Table for Intel Macs; (Apple Partition Map (PPC Macs))
• Click OK
• Select number of partitions in pull-down menu above Volume diagram.
For more partitions than one, after you have selected the number of partitions adjust the size of the partition by selecting the top partition and typing in the size; then move down if more adjustments need to be made.
(See Dr. Smoke’s FAQ Backup and Recovery for tips on partitioning external HDD)
• Type in name in Name field (usually Macintosh HD)
• Select Volume Format as Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
• Click Partition button at bottom of panel.
• Select Erase tab
• Select the sub-volume (indented) under Manufacturer ID
• Check to be sure your Volume Name and Volume Format are correct.
• Click Erase button
• Repeat above procedure to erase each partition
2. After your external HDD is formatted, partitioned and erased use SuperDuper to clone entire volume on your internal HDD to the external HDD.
3. Boot from the external HDD.
• Then launch Disk Utility in Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility.
• Select your internal HDD (manufacturer ID) in sidebar.
• Select Erase tab
• Click on Security Options button
• Select Option to Writer zeros
• Click OK, then Erase.
This procedure will completely wipe your HDD before returning the computer. Be sure you test your cloned backup to be sure it is working properly before wiping the internal HDD.
Please do post back with further questions or comments.
Good luck.
cornelius

Best way to migrate to a new SSD drive for performance and reliabilility

Hello all,
My 2011 15" MacBook Pro is about 3 weeks old and my new OCZ Vertex 3 120GB SSD is coming in tomorrow.
What is the best way to move my system over to the new drive? I have Time Machine backups on my external Firewire drive as well as complete drive images made with CCC. I have read where some have had problems cloning to a new SSD using a drive image.
My plan is to format the drive and install the OS with the cd then move my applications and files over with Time Machine but it would be much easier to just clone the existing drive image but I don't want any problems down the road. What is the best practice?
Thanks.

Follow this outline:
+Step One+: Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer. Quit and shutdown.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
+Step Two+: Remove the old drive and install the new drive. Place the old drive in an external USB enclosure. You can buy one at OWC who are also a good vendor for drives.
+Step Three+: Boot from the external drive. Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager appears. Select the icon for the external drive then click on the downward pointing arrow button.
+Step Four+: New Hard Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your new hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
+Step Five+: Clone the old drive to the new drive
1. Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
4.Check the box labeled Erase destination.
5. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
6. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
7. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the new internal drive.
Source means the old external drive.
+Step Six+: Open the Startup Disk preferences and select the new internal volume. Click on the Restart button. You should boot from the new drive. Eject the external drive and disconnect it from the computer.

What is the best way to migrate to a new computer and software version?

New computer, new software version. Brand new MacPro with OS X v10.9.4 and Pegasus Promise 24 TB R8 Raid 5. Old machine would only run FCX v10.0.9. All project and media files on eSATA drives hooked up to (really) old MacPro. No room to make copies on that system.
Ready to start copying projects and events to the new machine via ethernet cable hookup. Haven't yet updated FCX to the latest version on the new machine. Need some advice first.
What would be the most efficient method of getting the many terabytes of events and projects transferred to the new machine? Should I copy everything via FC instead of the finder on the old machine and then try to relink media, or Just use the new machine to suck everything over to the Pegasus via the finder and update FC and use the new media management features to to relink? Or is there a means of transferring the data without loosing the links?
My head is spinning! Feels like there are bees living in there.
Any and all suggestions welcome.
Jimbo

You also need to ask yourself how many of the old projects you really need to copy across.
We tend to get very attached to our old projects and don't like to trash them "in case we need them in the future".
Frequently we don't require them any more and they just litter our systems.
As long as you keep copies of the original media on the SD cards/tapes, you can always revisit them, albeit with a bit of work . . . though I generally find that repeating a project is much quicker than the original as most of the edit decisions remain in your memory.

Best way to migrate iTunes and iPod to new hard drive

Currently, my iTunes Library is referencing music files that sit on my music data drive (E:drive). My Library is actually on another data drive (D: drive), while my OS and apps are on the C: drive. I also have a networked Network Attached Storage (NAS) drive that has a duplicate copy of all of my music files.
One of the reasons I have the NAS is to have 24/7 access to my music files through a Sonos Zone Player system (highly recommend this) hooked up to my stereo. The Sonos player is able to pickup all of my playlists but because iTunes creates the plalists thinking that all of the songs reside on my E:drive, they are broken links as far as Sonos is concerned.
So my quesion is, what is the best way to redirect my iTunes Library so that it pulls the songs from the NAS rather than my internal E:drive? Since the NAS is always on, I don't care that when I want to play songs on my computer, it pulls them off of the NAS. In "migrating" the music file links, I'd like to maintain all of my rankings, play counts, and playlists. Is this possible?
If not, then at a minimum, I'll be swapping out my E:drive for a larger one and need to know the best way to migrate the music files. It would be simple to just take out my current music file drive, swap in the new drive, and copy the files from the NAS drive onto the new drive. Do I need to de-authorize my computer at the start so iTunes doesn't think I'm giving permission to a new computer? Will my play counts, ratings, and playlists still show up? Regarding the latter, I'm guessing yes since the Music Library isn't being touched (on the D: drive).
Hope this makes sense to someone.
Thanks in advance,
Steve
Windows XP Pro

Well, you'll need to reinstall iTunes and the iPod updater.
Did you happen to save the iTunes library file?
What are the iTunes library files?

What is the best way to migrate my MacBook Pro to my new Imac desk top, both seem to be running OS X version 10.9.5

What is the best way to migrate my MacBook Pro to my new Imac desk top, both seem to be running OS X version 10.9.5

OS X: How to migrate data from another Mac using Mavericks

What is the best way to migrate PSE6 Catalog (Wxp) to new computer W7, PSE11?

What is the best way to migrate PSE6 Catalog (Wxp) to new computer W7, PSE11? Previous PSE6 recovery (Wxp) after a failed HD resulted in pictures showing but not opening due to connection issues. Had to restore pictures from backup and rebuild the catalog and albums. Found a third party fix afterwards that has no support past PSE8. Trying to make this migration to PSE11 painless.

William47 wrote:
What is the best way to migrate PSE6 Catalog (Wxp) to new computer W7, PSE11? Previous PSE6 recovery (Wxp) after a failed HD resulted in pictures showing but not opening due to connection issues. Had to restore pictures from backup and rebuild the catalog and albums. Found a third party fix afterwards that has no support past PSE8. Trying to make this migration to PSE11 painless.
That's a very common and classical situation :
http://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop-elements/kb/backup-restore-move-catalog-photoshop.html
Just make sure that your backup to the external drive is ok : you should find a 'backup.tly' file in the folder.
Use the PSE11 organizer to restore from the PSE7 backup : the first step restores all your media files, the second automatically does a catalog conversion to the PSE11 format.
Read the note in the above link about restoring from XP to ulterior Win OS. You can also restore to a 'custom' location. For instance in a 'C:\My new library' folder. Make sure that master folder is accessible to all users, and if you want, you can move the catalog (database) itself from that location to the default location : catalog manager, option to move catalogs to location accessible to all users.

What's the best way to migrate from an old iMac to a new iMac?

What's the best way to migrate from a 2010 iMac running Yosemite to a new 2014 iMac?

Hello jonfromnorth caldwell,
The article linked below details how to utilize target disk mode to transfer files. This can also be used in conjuction with Migration assistant to transfer your information quickly (the 2010 iMac will appear as a storage device to the new iMac).
OS X Yosemite: Transfer files between two computers using target disk mode
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH19021
OS X Yosemite: Transfer your info from a computer or storage device
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH18870
Cheers,
Allen

Best Way To Migrate Local Accounts to new OD Server?

Hello everybody, I'll keep this simple:
I've got about 20 macs that have just joined themselves to my shiny new Open Directory (i.e. I bound each machine through the Directory Utility).
What is the best way to migrate their local accounts to network accounts? Note that almost all of these macs are laptops that will be taken home from time to time. And of course, the less 'interruption' of normalcy, the better.
Thanks for any suggestions,
Evan

I did something similar last year, migrating local accounts to network accounts after binding the machines to AD. I'm not sure how much what I did will differ for your particular case, but maybe this will point you in the right direction. Bear in mind, this sort of laborious, but it works well enough.
In my particular case, the local accounts were named the same as the network accounts so I had to do some sleight of hand with the home folders to make sure nothing got deleted on accident.
Log in as root (you could do this with an admin account, but root makes it much easier.)
Move the local account home folder out of the /Users folder and to the root desktop for safekeeping.
Go to User Account control panel and delete the user account.
Log out of root and log back in as the network user.
Log out of network user and log back in as root.
Delete the new, default home folder in /Users and move the old one back.
Use chown -R username /Users/username/ on the command line to give the new network account ownership of the old home folder.

Best way to migrate iTunes Windows to new Mac?

Finally getting back to the Mac for my main computer.
Been on Windows for a zillion years (it seems) so I have a good setup on my iTunes libary and how it syncs with my iPod Touch and Classic. Many purchases as well.
What is the best way to migrate from win to mac so that I don't have to klobber settings and album artwork and re-set up my iPods from scratch? Would like to keep podcasts settings, the whole works.
Any way to do it? The file x-fer is of course trivial...but I could spend a week re-jiggering all my settings for sync and whatnot and I can't afford the time and aggravation.
Help!

Have the Apple Store do this for you or call Apple support and they will help you do it.

Best way to migrate iTunes, iPhoto, iCal, Address Book to Mac?

I have been a user of Macs since 1985, but my wife has always used Windows (and before that, MSDOS).
I have now gotten for her a new MacBookPro and would like suggestions on the best way to migrate the data needed to sync her iPhone with the new Mac.
Currently, her contacts and calendar are in Microsoft Outlook for Windows, her photos are in some kind of Windows program and her music is in iTunes for Windows.
What is the smoothest, easiest way to migrate these Windows files into a Mac format so she can use iCal on the Mac for her calendar, Address Book for contacts, iPhoto for pix and transfer her music from iTunes/Windows to iTunes for Mac?
Is there any way to just sync the new MacBookPro with the iPhone and have it upload the data from the iPhone to the Mac????
Just lookin' for the easiest way to do this....

Have the Apple Store do this for you or call Apple support and they will help you do it.

Best way to migrate data

I'm having a new HD installed and I'm using TM to back up my data to a new HD. What is the best way to migrate the data from my external HD to my new installed HD? thanks

To use Time Machine you must first boot into OS X which means you have to install OS X from somewhere. A fresh install of Leopard from DVD takes roughly 1-2 hours depending on the speed of your computer and optical drive. Then you have to restore your data with TimeMachine and that will take ????. Obviously that depends on how your TM drive is connected to the computer and how much data there is to transfer.
A SuperDuper clone is bootable. You connect the drive to your computer and boot into the drive. Was your crash catastrophic and at a horrible time? You are back in business right now - not 2-? hours from now as you would be with TimeMachine. That is the big advantage of SuperDuper.
TimeMachine will have/has had a huge impact on my backup scheme but I'm still assessing how I'll ultimately use it. What I do know is that I'll continue to clone my computers using SD so that if Murphy strikes I'll be right back in business immediately.

Best way to migrate Mailboxes with all permissions Exchange 2010 to Exchange 2010--cross forest

Hi,
Due to some Exchange and Active Directory issues (with remnants of old Ex 2003 server), we are going to migrate Exchange 2010 Mailboxes and public folders to a new Exchange 2010 Sp3 server, which is created in a new AD forest.
I would really appreciate if someone can direct us to the best way to migrate mailboxes and PFs with their permissions, to new Ex 2010 SP3 server. We have around 30 mailboxes, and 300 GB of mailboxes data, and 200 GB of PFdata.
Thanks in anticipation.
Regards, David Johnson

Hello,
Firstly, you need to creat forest trust between two forests.
If you want to move AD user account and mailboxes, please use ADMT and PrepareMoveRequest script.
If you want to migrate public folder, please export data to PST file and then import pst file to new server.
Additional article for your reference.
http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2010/08/10/3410619.aspx
Cara Chen
TechNet Community Support

What is the best way to migrate zoning from an MDS9216i to a Nexus 5596?

I am migrating from a MDS9216i to a Nexus 5596. We have dual paths, so I can migrate one leg at a time and the full function for these switches is fiber channel attached storage.
What is the best way to migrate the zoning information? I have been told I can ISL the new and old switch together and then push the zoning to the new switch. Is that better than just cutting and pasting the zoning information to the new switch?
Also, I have to move four Brocade M4424 switches to the new switches - they are currently attached via interop mode 1, but will now be attached using NPIV. Has anyone done this before, and did you have any issues?
Any help or advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

Use an ethernet cable to connect the two computers, and set up file sharing. After that copying files from one computer to the other is exactly like copying from one hard drive to another:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106658

Best way to migrate to replaced machine?

If Apple insist on picking up my defective MBP C2D before my new one arrives, what is the best way to migrate my files, etc?
I was thinking of using Carbon Copy Cloner and a spare firewire 800 drive. Should I create a disk image of my current setup? Or a bootable clone? Or a non-bootable clone?
Too many options. Hope someone can help!

Plug your external drive into your new MBP, hold your 'Option' key down and boot from the external backup. Then clone that to your new MBP's drive. That way, when your done, everything is going to be exactly as it is now on your current MBP.
-Bmer
Mac Owners Support Group
Join Us @ MacOSG.com
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Easiest/Best way to migrate to a new machine

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