HT4889 Transfer files from a hard drive to a new mac?

Currently, I have a 2012 Macbook pro. I love it, but its kinda slow for me. When I bought my Mac, I didn't realize how much I would use it, so I bought the cheapest 15 inch in from 2012 (2.3GHz 4GB RAM 500GB HD) Now, I'm upgrading to a 15inch Retina Macbook Pro with 2.0 GHz 8GB RAM and a 512Gb HD. A local electronics store said that they will buy my mac for $950 from me, and I said yes. Then, I hooked up a 1TB Hard Drive and let time machine work it's magic.
When I go to buy my new mac, what will I need to do to transfer all of the files from the hard drive?
Also, I have over 150 movies in iTunes that are ripped dvds and 2000 songs from CDs, and I added info and artwork for all of them. Will they all still be formatted with artwork and info when I import them into iTunes on a new mac?
Lastly, will I see a huge power boost in the retina Macbook pro with 8gb RAM and a 2.0GHz processor? or should I save up some more money for the 16GB RAM and 2.3GHz Processor? I'm going to college in a year, so I do tons of email/safari-ing, word processing, itunes playing, and downloading, usually at the same time. A usual day for me consists of writing a document in pages or microsoft word, while listning to music from iTunes, with safari open with multiple tabs, and something downloading to my mac. Thank you for the help, it's tremendously appriciated.

When you first start up the new Mac you will be asked to enter personal information, etc. At some point you will be asked if you want to transfer files from another source, including Time Machine back up. Make sure your back is connected, and just follow the directions on the screen.
All formatting etc. will be intact, since TM makes sure it is.
As for perfomance, the biggest performance boost would be a solid state drive. Have you looked at that option?
And one of the more prevalent reasons for perfomance hit is an over-stuffed start up drive. Mac OS X needs empty space on the start up disk to do its tasks, make sure you give it enough. Take a look at this: http://macs.about.com/od/faq1/f/How-Much-Free-Drive-Space-Do-I-Need.htm

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tt2

How do i transfer files an external hard drive to a new macbook pro

how do i transfer files from an external hard drive to a new macbook pro?

thank you. i did that with my old computer, and it saved it as a whole other computer on my new macbook. now if i do the same for the external hard drive, i guess it will save it as another separate computer on the new one. so i guess what i should have asked is, is there any way to copy my whole old computer and external, but have the files integrated into the new mac, so i don't have to log in and out of 3 computers just to use my old programs or to see pictures or movies or files from the past. ??? and i now have the apple tv and i have to turn on my macbook and log into the old computer to see certain old files and pictures or home movies???? there has to be an easier way???

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A good solution for only $48 USD.

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The easiest solution is to erase the external hard drive and re-partition it to use on the PC:
Extended Hard Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your 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.
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Open iTunes and de-authorize your computer.
Copy your iTunes library in it's entirety (/Home/Music/iTunes/ folder) to the drive along with any other data you wish to transfer.
See the following about how to convert your iTunes library for the PC:
Macworld - How to transfer iTunes libraries between PC and Mac;
Geek to Live- How to move an iTunes library from a PC to Mac (and back).

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milkaballet wrote:
Once yes but I turned it off! Oh no! Whats next?
It sounds like you got a prompt like this:
Clicked Use as Backup Disk, then got this one:
and clicked Erase. If so, your data has been deleted (not actually erased, regardless of what the message says, although if a backup got started, some of it may have been erased).
But first let's find out what's actually what.
Open the Disk Utility app (in your Applications/Utilities folder). Click the top line of the drive, similar to this:
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If the MacBook has a Firewire port then you could connect it to another Mac with Firewire and use Target Disk Mode to access the drive and transfer files assuming the drive is accessible. Or if you don't have Firewire ports then you can remove the drive, install it in an external enclosure, connect it to another Mac and transfer data if the drive is accessible.
If neither of the above are feasible then you can try using recovery software. Recovery software comes on bootable discs, but you will need an external drive to which the recovered files can be saved.
General File Recovery
If you stop using the drive it's possible to recover deleted files that have not been overwritten with recovery software such as Data Rescue II, File Salvage or TechTool Pro. Each of the preceding come on bootable CDs to enable usage without risk of writing more data to the hard drive.
The longer the hard drive remains in use and data are written to it, the greater the risk your deleted files will be overwritten.
Also visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on Data Recovery.

HT4889 Transfer files from a hard drive to a new mac?

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