Migrating to new MBP from TC Backup – Help/Advice

Question

Sorry in advance... this may seem frustrating to some of yall. I became addicted to Apple because stuff just works, and I don't need to know the gory details of a computer to make it sing.
I am gearing up to receive a new MBP 15". I currently had a original MBP that died in surgery, so Apple is sending a new MBP to replace it. I have a complete/current backup on TC. How do I go about restoring the entire thing. I've only used TC to retrieve a deleted file, which was pretty easy, but what about an entire system?
Also, I just want to copy my data, but not the entire contents of the old system... I am not sure I am explaining this properly, but I don't want all the potentially corrupt, old, settings/systems files that bogged down my old machine. This will be my 3rd Mac, and when I got the second one, I felt like it copied over all the crap that I didn't want. I just want my documents, contacts, photos, and music. The only 3rd party App I use is Adobe CS3, which I can reinstall via the instal disk.
Am I just misunderstanding the process? Does Migration Assistant give you options to just copy data you want but not system files/settings/etc. Is there a way to "scrub" the stored data so my new machine runs smooth from the start?
In a nutshell, how would you Mac Jedi transition to a new machine?
Thanks,
Phil.
Message was edited by: Phil Mutz

Answer 1

Phil,
OK then, "easy" it is! I'll offer some tips on doing some "spring cleaning" after the restoration instructions.
First, decide whether or not you want to erase the new machine's hard drive and reinstall yourself. I usually recommend doing so, because some machines ship with incipient disk errors, and one can customize the installation this way. Regardless of whether you do or not, the rest of the procedure remains the same.
1) When you start the machine, or restart after a format/reinstall, proceed through the Setup Assistant using the exact same username and short name that you had on the old machine. When you are logged into your new account, enable the "root" account, then log in as root.
2) In the root account, navigate to the "Users" folder. Select the entire contents of this folder, specifically including your newly created (and pretty much empty) HOME folder, and place the contents in the trash.
3) Control-click (or right-click) the Time Machine icon in the Dock, and choose "Browse another Time Machine disk" from the menu. Find your old Time Machine backup. Navigate within the backup to the "Users" folder, go one step "back in time," and select the entire contents there. SPecifically, this should include your old backed up HOME folder. Restore the entire contents to the local "Users" folder.
4) Typically, this is all one needs to do, but there is the possibility in your case that the UID for your new account does not match the UID for the files from the backup. The following will preemptively cover this possibility. Still in the root account, open /Applications/Utilities/Terminal. At the prompt, type the following, followed by a <RETURN>:
<pre style="overflow:auto; font-family: 'Monaco'; font-size: 10px">chown -R username:staff /Users/username</pre>
In the above command, you will replace all instances of "username" with the short name for your own account. If your short name is "fred," for example, you will type te following exactly:
<pre style="overflow:auto; font-family: 'Monaco'; font-size: 10px">chown -R fred:staff /Users/fred</pre>
After pressing <RETURN>, wait for the prompt to return. When it does, quit Terminal.
5) Since you are concerned about "cruft" having accumulated in your HOME folder, there is one more step we will take. Navigate into your restored HOME folder (you are still using the root account), into your "Library" folder, and find the "Caches" folder (/Users/HOME/Library/Caches). Select the entire contents of this folder, and place them in the trash.
6) Log into your new account to test that everything works correctly. You may see some things like Dock icons for apps that are not yet reinstalled appearing as question marks, or you may have to re-select your Desktop picture, but everything else should be functional, and should appear just as they did on your old computer. If everything seems OK, log back into the root account, empty the trash, then log out of and disable the root account.
Scott