HDD Clone VS Reinstall + Migration Assistant

I am trying to clone a 250GB hard drive with Mac OS X to another [same model] iMac with a new, blank, 320GB hard drive (bootable).
However, the 250GB installation is a slow mess, and I was wondering if it would be a better idea to install OS X from the install CD on the 320GB and then use the Migration Assistant to copy programs and settings over.
From the user's point of view, would there be a noticeable difference if the it was a fresh install with Migration Assistant rather than if I just used Carbon Copy Cloner?
Also, if I did decide to clone, can I clone from a 250GB to a 320GB and still be able to use the entire 320GB? (it I format it first)
Thanks in advance.

Thank you for all your help.
Your information on cloning with Super Duper has been extremely helpful considering I take that route, however this conversation has strayed from my initial or intended question:
From the user's point of view, what are the differences between a fresh install with Migration Assistant, and cloning the entire hard drive?
(e.g. known apps that don't work, settings/prefs that are missing )
The reason I ask is because:
- The iMac's failing hard drive (ticking, beach ball) could have corrupted system/app data
- OS X is very slow (not taken care of, tons of apps, etc)
- The iMac has like 150GB of millions of files/pics that can be erased
I personally want to do a clean install for performance, stability, free space and other reasons, however I am not the one who uses the computer and would like to prevent extreme changes that might break applications or lose settings.
It's a trade off...

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Installing ML on New Drive: TM, Clone, Setup or Migration Assistant?

I'm about to intall a new SSD in my late 2008 MacBook 2.4, 4 GB, which is already running ML. The computer originally came with Leopard installed and I personalized it with Migration Assistant, transferring some apps as old as Panther or older. I've directly installed all other OS upgrades on top of this initial transfer.
The litter from the older apps did not get in the way until I upgraded to Lion, eversince I have been getting console errors for all kinds of deleted apps.
In installing ML on the new SSD which method (TM, Clone, Setup or Migration Assistant) would allow me to transfer maximum personalization with minimum litter from defunct apps?

Just to be clear, if I'm getting an error like this:
PluginProcess[3299]: Error loading /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/HAL/DVCPROHDAudio.plugin/Contents/MacOS/DVCPROHDAudio: dlopen(/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/HAL/DVCPROHDAudio.plugin/Contents/MacOS/DVCPROHD Audio, 262): no suitable image found. Did find:
/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/HAL/DVCPROHDAudio.plugin/Contents/MacOS/DVCPROHDAu dio: mach-o, but wrong architecture
ostensibly caused by FinalCut Pro, will Migration Assistant then realize that FinalCut is not on the new disk and not transfer that section of the library?

Reinstalling, Migration Assistant, Disk Image backup

I am in the unfortunate position of having to reinstall Tiger on my iBook. The disk image containing my backup files turns out to be non-bootable.
After reinstalling Tiger (I have the updates up 10.4.10 on disk), will I be able to use Migration Assistant to replace the folders created by the re-installation with the same folders containing my backed-up information from my disk image backup?
If I can't use Migration Assistant, how should I best get my backed up files on to the iBook...simply replace the folders? Any suggestions to reduece the pain appreciated.
thanks, Michael

"...After reinstalling Tiger (I have the updates up 10.4.10 on disk)"
All you need is one update, the 10.4.10 combo updater for ppc.
"...will I be able to use Migration Assistant to replace the folders created by the re-installation with the same folders containing my backed-up information from my disk image backup?"
When you use Migration Assistant you are connecting to another Mac via firewire and transferring pretty much all your files, applications and settings.
:...how should I best get my backed up files on to the iBook..."
You may have to do file by file unless someone jumps in here with a better idea.

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Migration Assistant won't find right user

I'm trying to get Leopard on to my daughter's Powermac G4, currently running 10.4.11. Two previous 10.5 installations on my G5 and my son's snow dome Imac failed to complete as updates and the disk had to be erased. In both cases all the apps and settings and backed up documents had to be manually reinstalled.
This time I did a bit of research and used this page as a guide:
http://techdebug.com/blog/2008/02/25/leopard-erase-and-install-success-howto/
It tells you how to make a copy of the old system on a Firewire drive using Carbon Copy Cloner, then use Migration Assistant to import everything back once you've updated.
Everything went well and OS 10.56 is now on the Powerbook as a clean installation. But it all went wrong at the very last stage. The Powerbook will happily boot from my 500Gb Firewire drive running the old cloned system, but when I boot from Leopard and try to migrate the old user back, the Assistant doesn't find my daughter's account. Instead it finds only my own name and identifies 360Gb worth of "additional data".
Now there is no active system with my name on that disk – only a large amount of data stored in folders. There was an OS on there a long time ago but I thought I'd got rid of that.
I can understand the Assistant finding the vestiges of that old ID from invisible files on the drive, but why won't it then go on to find the fully working IDs that have just been installed there? It's got me seriously tearing what's left of my hair out.

Rather than connecting "on the same network", use Create Network from the airport menu icon and connect the two notebooks directly and thus get an "N" connection. Ensure that you turn on file sharing, turn off the firewalls on both computers on this singular network you have created. Then you should be able to migrate if you are the "owner" or administrator as set up on both computers. Follow the directions... post back if this does or does not work.

Messed up Setup Assistant - need to copy TM backups to new ext HD then run Migration Assistant, I think

On a new 27" iMac, I ran the Setup Assistant a couple of days ago to transfer info from TM backups on an external hard drive. Unfortunately, there were clones on there from Feb 2010 (I didn't understand that TM needs to be alone on a HD) and the Setup Assistant picked ran those preferentially so it appeared that I had lost everything since Feb 2010. HOWEVER, the TM backups are still in the Backups.backupdb folder, and I can access each of the individual files. Now the external HD has not only the 3 clones and the Backups.badkupdb but also folders for Applications, Desktop, dev, Developer, home, Library, net, System, User Guides And Information, and Users. Most are dated to Feb 2010, but the System and Developer folders seem to have been updated to 6 Aug 2012 and 8 Aug 2012. The TM backups contain User info for the Office 2008 suite, including Entourage, and this is what I need -- all of my emails, documents, etc.
I have been trying to copy just the Backups.backupdb folder to a new external HD before doing anything else. I have followed the directions given by Apple at http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5096?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US. Unfortunately, this yields a nifty error message: "The operation can’t be completed because an unexpected error occurred (error code -8003)." I have not found a solution in the Apple communities for this error message in the TM backup copying process - all mentions seem to relate to problems emptying the Trash when deleting TM backups. I have NOT tried the cloning process mentioned in this thread:https://discussions.apple.com/message/16601049#16601049. If the copying process has failed, will the cloning process allow me to pick up JUST the TM backups without damaging the TM backups?
I am thinking that once I have the TM backups successfully copied, I will use that new copy - without the clones - to run Migration Assistant. At this point, will it be better to use Migration Assistant OR go back and delete everything on the new 27" iMac and reload Lion, then run Setup Assistant again? The thought of going back to square one with Lion has me more than a bit rattled, to tell the truth.
Have others had luck with Apple tech support or a Genius Bar visit for such things?
Any guidance or suggestions are much appreciated.

Problem solved by taking the new iMac and the LaCie disk to the local Apple Store. They verified the LaCie disk with Disk Utility (thankfully it passed) then wiped the iMac clean, reinstalled Lion (10.7.3), and loaded the latest TM backup. Everything needed transferred over, so I'm back in business. HURRAY! I am setting up a new external HD for the solitary TM backups, and a separate external HD for clones. And, I now have access to a secure server for temporary storage of critical client files in addition to manually copying critical documents to a flash drive frequently while working on them.

Migration assistant doesn't detect my HDD.

There were some problems on my Dad's MacBook. After trying to solve the problems (including, going to the support service of the shop he bought the Mac), I decided to get lost of all the data and to reinstall the Leopard on the computer.
So first I made a Time Machine backup on a external HDD, before I reinstalled Leopard on it.
Then I connected my HDD (LaCie 320GB) to the MacBook. I saw the symbol on my desktop.
He asked if I wanted to use this HDD for Time Machine Backups, I canceled.
Than I opened Migration Assistant, but when he wanted me to choose from which HD I wanted to copy all my stuff, there was only MacIntosh HD, the internal HD of the MacBook.
For some reason he didn't detect my HDD, although it was on my Desktop.
Does anyone know how comes? What to do?
Are there other possilities to copy the old stuff from the HDD to the MacBook?
Thanks in advance!
PS: MacBook, 2.2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 1GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM, Mac OS X 10.5.4

Hello
Migration Assistant looks for an installed Operating System. Your TM backup on the external drive is just an archive that Migration Assistant cannot access, and so it does not see it.
You could have made a clone using SuperDuper and migration assistant would see that and be able to work with it, but alas, not the TM archive.
Another thing you could have done and could still do is reinstall the TM backup using the Install DVD and selecting Restore from the TM Backup. Much like you did, but use the Time Machine backup as the source of the files, and that would have put everything back as it was.

Migration Assistant ignores HDD

Hello.
I just got my MacBook Pro back from servicing and they had to replace the HDD and reinstall the OS X. I have backed up the system before it giving it in for repairs, but the migration tool ignores the HDD, eventhough I can see it through Finder. What can I do?

Most likely, some folders were inadvertently excluded from your backups, and as a result you can't restore your data in Recovery, Setup Assistant, or Migration Assistant.
Starting from a fresh installation of OS X, set up a new administrator account and log in. You should now be able to enter Time Machine and restore your user data from a snapshot.* I suggest you do this in two stages. Quit all applications except the Finder before you begin.
Restore all the visible items at the top level of your home folder.
Hold down the option key and select Go ▹ Library from the Finder menu bar. Enter Time Machine and restore all items in the Library folder. Log out and log back in as soon as the restore is complete.
Any other invisible folders or files at the top level of your home folder that you want to preserve will have to be restored separately. For most users, that isn't necessary.
You'll have to reinstall all third-party applications from scratch, or restore them from another kind of backup, if you have one.
You'll have another problem if this is a new computer, or if you erased the startup volume: Time Machine won't continue your previous snapshot series, but will instead try to begin a new one, starting with a full copy of all files. There might not be enough space on your backup volumes for that. There are different ways of dealing with that situation, depending on your needs. The easiest way is to set your backup drives aside, if possible, until you're sure you'll no longer need the data on them, then erase them and start over. Meanwhile start a new backup on one or more empty storage devices. If that solution isn't workable for you, ask for instructions.
*If you don't see any snapshots in Time Machine, exit the time-travel view and then hold down the option key while selecting
Browse Other Backup Disks...
from the Time Machine menu, which has an icon that looks like a clock running backwards. Select the backups of your computer by its previous name. If you don't have the Time Machine menu, open the Time Machine preference pane in System Preferences and check the box marked
Show Time Machine in menu bar

Using migration assistant from HDD only to SSD+HDD?

Hi,
Usually, when buying a new mac and starting it for the first time, I use the migration assistant to get everything (software, settings, data...) from my time capsule backup.
I am currently using an iMac 24'' which only has a "standard" HDD. I am however thinking about upgrading to the latest iMacs, potentially with the "SSD+HDD" option.
The description on the "Configure" page of the online store says : "If you configure your iMac with both the solid-state drive and a Serial ATA hard drive, it will come preformatted with Mac OS X and all your applications on the solid-state drive. Then you can use the hard drive for videos, photos, and other files."
My question is therefore the following : would the migration assistant be "smart enough" to place my OS and applications on the SSD drive, and the rest of my files ("videos, photos, and other files.") on the HDD?
Thanks in advance!

I had the same issue some time ago: I added a 32 gb SSD to my mac running leopard. Then wanted to use install Snow Leopard and use migration assistant to restore the sytem with Snow leopard and applications on the SSD, and the user folders on the old 250gb HD. Turns out this isn't possible. Manually accessing your time machine or other backup up to restore files by hand is a pain. Just installing Snow Leopard and pointing the user folder to the Leopard user folder on the HD creates problems too, just as pointing it to a newly created folder.
Solution:
-Backup your old system with time machine to an external disk
-Note: make sure you don't mix up SSD and HD in this manual.
-Install SSD (If this means you no longer have a cd drive, use a copy of snow leopard on an external drive).
-BE SURE YOUR OLD SYSTEM IS BACKED UP WITH TIME MACHINE.
-Then install OS X TWICE: once on the old HD and once the SSD. Wipe your HD with Disk Utility before install.
-Start up OS X on the HD, use the option key at startup if necessery to select the right disk.
-Use migration assistant to restore from the time machine backup. Now you have a fresh install of OS X, with your user files and applications intact.
-Now startup OS X on the SSD.
-Make the SSD startup disk in system preferences -> Startup disk.
-Go to System preferences -> Users. Unlock. Create an extra user, so you end up with a spare user account, and one you will actually use. Now right click on the user account thats going to be used, and select your user folder on the HD that you just restored with Migration assistant. Just leave the spare one. It is for emergencies and also disk failures: OS X is designed to have user and system files on the same disk, so you should always have one user account sticking those rules.
-Restart OS X on the SSD as asked.
-Now all thats left to do is migrate applications from the HD application folder to the SSD application folder by simply copy/pasting. This is trial and error, but in my case 90% of the applications gave no trouble at all. The ones that did are library based media applications like Aperture. All I needed to do is go to their preferences and point them to their old libraries on the HD. MS Office was the only application that needed full reinstalling. The applications that ship with the OS don't need to be migrated of course since they are already there on the SSD.
-Point your dock icons to the right folders (on the HD) and applications (on the SSD)
-Make a new time machine backup
-Last step, optional: clean up the HD. You don't need the system folder that is still there, but I chose to keep it for a while as a backup. I left the library in place there too, since I don't know which applications still use it, but in time I will clean it up too.
And one more thing: Since Migration assistant doesnt' just copy files, but also seams to adapt application databases of Apple apps to work with a newer version of an application coming with a new OS, such as Mail, Safari, iCal and Address Book, this is probably going to be the best way to upgrade an SSD+HD setup to Lion too. (Lion has better SSD support). Provided of course that Apple doesn't update Migration assistant, which is what should actually be done. Upgrading this way took me 2,5 hours, most of which was spent waiting ofcourse.
Message was edited by: jason487
Message was edited by: jason487

How can we disassociate an Apple ID from a set of computers formated from a single computer using Carbon Copy Cloner and a single image and then Migration Assistant to install their old profile? The original ID is the Apple ID for all the stores.

Here is a bit more detail.
We were replacing old teacher machines and wanted to do it as efficiently as possible. Therefore, we set up one computer, through the OS installation and ran all updates, and then made a disk image so that we can use Carbon Copy Cloner to image all the other computers without having to run all the other updates. Once they were set up to a base level and assigned to a teacher we used Migration Assistant to import all their old files and items. Everything has been fine until recently the computers became aware of needing an update for one or two apps. The machine asks for the original computer's Apple ID for all updates. We have logged out of the apple id and back in with another to test if running the updates will work with that Apple ID and even after a refresh it still asks for the other Apple ID. How can we disassociate the Apple ID from those other computers so that the individual who owns the original is not needed each time there is an update or has to give out their Apple ID password?

There are two parts to this:
1) It may be that you should have an Apple Education Support person helping you with this. If you have enough computers for this to be a problem, you may benefit from a Server, a site license, and an occasional visit from an Education Support Specialist.
2) The brief answer, if you want Individual Apple_IDs to control each computer, is to buy new copies of Mac OS X under those new Apple_IDs and re-download and re-Install. Mac OS X is customized to the Apple_ID before it is downloaded.

Can't access old backups after reinstalling Lion and restoring with Migration Assistant

Scenario: App Store developed a random, repetitive, failure to update certain apps. After trying two different solutions which only worked for a couple of weeks (including archive uninstall) Apple Support and I decided to go the full hog and do a full Lion reinstall. Did a full final backup with TM and proceded to reinstall from the recovery partition. All went well. I gave my new account the same name as my old original one (and this might be the root of the glitch I will describe). When Lion was working again I used Migration Assistant to recover all the users, applications, and information.
As my new main account and my old one (coming from Mig Assist) had the same name, MigAssist asked if I wanted to merge them. I said "yes". All fine. Everything was apparently there.
Later that day I tried to access my bank and discovered that my 1Password db was an old version. I went to TM to retrieve the one from my pre-reinstall backup. As I had mapped my mac back to the sparsebunddle file in TC it seemed I had access to all my files going back 1.5 years. It showed my oldest backup as Sep 2010 and 700 gb used. All seemed normal.
Unfortunately, the purple bars before the moment of reinstall are all faded and I can't retrieve any information from them. Nothing before that moment is available, not from the Finder or from withing any other application.
My new merged main user appears as "carlos 1" when it should have been just "carlos".
Do you guys have any advice that could help me? Thank you in advance.
My TC is a 1TB 2009 one.

Carlos. wrote:
As my new main account and my old one (coming from Mig Assist) had the same name, MigAssist asked if I wanted to merge them.
No, there is no "merge" option:
You can rename or replace, not merge.
Unfortunately, the purple bars before the moment of reinstall are all faded and I can't retrieve any information from them. Nothing before that moment is available, not from the Finder or from withing any other application.
My new merged main user appears as "carlos 1" when it should have been just "carlos".
You have two separate accounts now.
See Problems after using Migration Assistant for an explanation of what's happened (the blue and pink boxes) and a possible fix in the tan box -- but that won't work if you've done any backups since using Migration Assistant.
If you have done backups, your best bet is to do a full system restore, selecting the last backup from before you did the Migration. See Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #14.

New hard drive: Do I need to reinstall OS X if using Migration Assistant?

I have a new internal hard drive on the way, along with an enclosure to use the existing hard drive as an external drive.
Here's my question: Do I need to install OS X on the drive in order to use Migration Assistant to move the data over? I think I do...
And yes, I've made another backup too!
Thanks in advance!!!

I would use Mike Bombich's CarbonCopyCloner or Shirt Pocket software's SuperDuper (former is freeware, latter will allow a free full clone, but has a small shareware fee for full featured use). Both are excellent programs with a long and very well regarded track record of use.
What you will want to do is put the new drive in the enclosure, and check it's partition scheme. Use Disk Utility, and, if it is not already GUID partition and HFS+ (journeled) formatted, then use Disk Utility to make it so.
I would then run software update on your machine with the old drive (might as well be sure it is all up to date), and repair permissions. Then attach the new drive and run CCC or SD and make the clone (read the instructions for whatever program you end up using).
Then, IMPORTANT STEP, reboot the machine with the cloned drive still plugged in, and hold down the option key while it boots. You should be presented with a choice now of which drive to boot from. Select the external drive, let it boot, login and check that all is as it should be (just to be sure it went smoothly).
At that point, swap the drives and you should be good to go.
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html
http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html

I had to reinstall ox and snow leopard on my imac g5. I used the migration assistant on my macbookpro to copy everything onto the imac. The apps came in fine, but all folders say "no access." None of my user names seem to work. What now?

My iMac G5 was running too slow. I tried everything I could think of or find in the literature, but finally had to start over by reinstalling OX and then Snow Leopard. I lost all my folders and applications, so I used the Migration Assistant on my MacBookPro to copy everything onto the iMac G5. The applications all came through fine, but all of my folders have the "no access" icon on them. I followed the instructions I found on line, but none of my user names worked. What do I do now? Am I just out of luck? The only other alternative I can see is to transfer all my folders onto a thumb drive and put them into the iMac, but that will be slow and cumbersome.

Are you now using a different username from the one you used prior to migrating? If so that is the reason for the problem. You might, then, give this a try:
To fix Home folder permissions
Open the Terminal application in the Utilities folder. At the command line prompt enter or paste the following command line:
sudo chown -R `id -un`:`id -gn` ~
Press RETURN. You will be prompted to enter your admin password which will not be echoed.

Migration assistant can't see TM on external HDD

Tonight I got a new iMac. I'm trying to restore via the external HDD from my last TM backup using the Migration Assistant.
My previous iMac was fully updated to the current edition of Lion.
(Side note: after repeated failures of the power supply over the past 18 months, the Apple Store gave me this new machine instead of repairing my 2008 iMac again [for free again]).
Migration Assistant does not see my external HDD though it's visible on the desktop now, and accessible.
How do you force Lion to see this HDD and migrate from it?
I'd like to restore my system to be completely as it was before without a tedious folder-by-folder migration effort.

Tonight I found most of the solution I needed:
-Create a new administrator account on your machine.
-Run the Migration Assistant.
-It should identify your previous hard drive's name, and that's what you migrate from to your new account.
-If your new account and your old account (the one on your old machine), have the same name, you cannot migrate to an account with the same name. You should get a prompt to change the account name in the three options that are given.
-I gave the account being migrated TO a new name, and in about 30 minutes everything came over.
The remaining problem is that some of my items did not make it and I cannot find those folders in my Time Machine.
Also, iTunes is looking like it needs to be rebuilt for the most part. I have an iTunes Match account. That auto-imported all of my playlists but my movies have to be re-imported into iTunes for it to recognize them again.
Oh yea...my backup of the iTunes library list is nowhere to be found. I think it's in and among those items that are yet to be found.

After reinstalling Snow Leopard, migration assist and doesn't see my time machine disk.

I had to erase my hard drive and reinstall Snow Leopard and when I tried to us Migration Assistant, it didn't see the Time Machine disk. Restoring from Time Machine directly didn't work because I couldn't gain access to and backup prior to the reinstall although the backups are all there when I open the Time Machine disk and look at folders from before the reinstall they all open perfectly. How do I get to restore from pre-reinstall dates backups?

I couldn't get Mail to open. It bounced in the dock but wouldn't open. All other programs were very slow, Disk utility showed the disk couldn't be repaired, so I erased and reinstalled and restored from time machine. Everything we OK for a couple of weeks, then all the response times became very extended or wouldn't open at all. Took the iMac to the Apple Store where they checked out the hardware and found it to be OK. They told me to erase, reinstall and use migration assistant to bring only my profile over. The erase and reinstall were fine, but the time machine drive could not be seen by migration assistant, and I don't have access through the time machine utility to any backups prior to the first reinstall.

HDD Clone VS Reinstall + Migration Assistant

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