Migration assistant back out

I attempted to use migration assistant to migrate a user from one mac to another newer one. After sitting on less than one minute remaining for several hours I forced quit on the migration. Based on the amount of hard drive now used on the new computer it looks like the migration moved all the data over but did not complete the process. I would like to know if there is a way to back the migration out so that the new computer does not have it's harddrive quite so filled up.

At this point I would most like to simply remove the data from the new computer and use another method to migrate what data she really wants onto her new computer. After discussing with her there is a minimum of stuff she would like and I think it would be easier and minimize impact on the new computers performance simply to remove the data.
New computer is PowerBook G4
old computer is Power Mac G4
I am not sure what version of OS they are running.

Similar Messages

Can I get data back that Migration Assistant wiped out?

I am using a borrowed iMac since my PowerBook crashed. To gain access to my PB data, I unwittingly used Migration Assistant to migrate its contents to the borrowed iMac. Before I did this I upgraded the iMac to Snow Leopard--so it did not have Time Machine before and its data was not backed up. I realize now this was really not smart on my part.
Unfortunately, Migration Assistant seems to have wiped away the pre-existing data on the iMac. What I had wanted was to keep that data, but to add my PB data.
Here are my two key questions:
1) Is there anything I can now do to restore the previous unbacked-up iMac data?
2) To make matters even worse, I have two more hard drives with earlier backed up data from my PowerBook using BackUp from .Mac. How can I move that data into Snow Leopard?
I now realize I went at this all wrong; lesson learned. But if you can help me I will be forever grateful. Thanks.

Vicki Porter wrote:
Unfortunately, Migration Assistant seems to have wiped away the pre-existing data on the iMac. What I had wanted was to keep that data, but to add my PB data.
Here are my two key questions:
1) Is there anything I can now do to restore the previous unbacked-up iMac data?
When you ran Migration Assistant, did you have it copy its data into the existing account on the iMac or create a new account? If you had it create a new account, the old data should still be there in the old account.
2) To make matters even worse, I have two more hard drives with earlier backed up data from my PowerBook using BackUp from .Mac. How can I move that data into Snow Leopard?
I'll have to let someone else answer that question.

MIgration Assistant Stalls out on 'Searching for Disk...'

The main problem here is, I reinstalled Snow Leopard after some acting up by the OS. Backed up ON my main HD and tried to use Migration Assistant to restore the backup. AS of now, every time I load up Migration Assistant, it just stalls on 'Searching for Disk...' and never finds a backup.
I'll try and make a long story short, my optical drive was acting up so I took it in to the Genius Bar. Luckily, they had a new one in stock and replaced it on the spot. Upon getting my MacBook Pro (2009) back, everything was acting crazy. Lagging, freezing, etc. The genius told me it was normal that things start acting up after installing new hardware and that all I had to do was reinstall Snow Leopard and that before installation, it would ask me if I wanted to backup all my data and that once it was re-installed it would automatically come restore to its previous form. Here's where I think things got a little screwy...
I was running Snow Leopard but unfortunately when I installed it, it was from a friend's 'family installation' pack, so I didn't have the installation CD at hand. Anxious to get things fixed, I put in my original installation disc that came with my MBP. Looking back, it should've been obvious that downgrading might cause some problems. Booted to disk and I went on to reinstall. Right before the reinstall it asked me if I wanted to backup all my data to restore once the installation was done. Sure enough, it seemed to have worked so I figured all was going well.
The installation finished and asked me if I wanted to restore from a backup. Of course, hitting yes only gave me an error saying that the backup was created on a newer OS and that I wouldn't be able to restore it on an older OS. I was bummed out but it made sense. Fast forward another day: I call my friend and ask to borrow his Snow Leopard installation disc again. I install it, hoping to see the same, "Restore from Backup" screen at some point, but nothing.
I noticed right away that I only had 16 GB of HD space left (what it was before any of this madness) but everything looked as if it was brand new. After some clicking around through some folders I found the old backup within some folders so I figured that everything worked fine and Migration Assistant would be a quick and easy fix. From here on, Migration Assistant can never seem to get past the loading screen. All I see is, "Searching for Disk" and an eternally spinning circle.
Am I missing something? I've repaired disk partitions and done plenty of searching online. Am I just going to have to setup everything manually again? Thanks.
-Raul

Wow. Sorry, but you've made a major mess.
I was running Snow Leopard but unfortunately when I installed it, it was from a friend's 'family installation' pack,
That's a violation of the license. The +*family pack+* may be installed on up to 5 Macs in the same household. You need to buy your own copy of Snow Leopard.
It sounds like the prompt you got form the Leopard disc was to +Preserve Users and settings.+ That's an +Archive and Install+ of Leopard. If so, there should be a +Previous System ...+ folder at the top level of your HD. If so, that's where you found your backed-up stuff.
The +Restore System From Backup+ option on the DVD is to restore from Time Machine backups, and it doesn't sound like you've ever made any.
And you cannot use +Migration Assistant+ on that folder. It works to transfer from one Mac (or Time Machine or "clone" backups of one), to a different one.
If that's what you did, you'll have to install Snow Leopard over Leopard (that won't disturb anything else). When you start up, you'll have Snow Leopard and little else. You'll have to copy what you need from the +Previous System+ folder.
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Once this is sorted out, in addition to buying Snow Leopard, you really should start making regular backups of your system. See the [Time Machine Tutorial|http://www.apple.com/findouthow/mac/#timemachinebasics] and perhaps browse [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum), and/or Kappy's post on [Basic Backup|http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=12366915#12366915].

Migration Assistant time out?

I have not been able to migrate from a Powerbook to my MBA. I have read the various threads here and used their suggestions to no avail. Here's what I've done to prepare: loaded the new Migration Assistant program that came on the CD onto the Powerbook, turned off the firewall on both machines, enabled file sharing, purchased the USB ethernet adapter, plugged both machines into a router.
Here's what happens:
I run Migration Assistant on both machines, using the proper "to" and "from" settings.
The Powerbook says it sees the MBA.
I enter the passcode on the Powerbook that the MBA produces.
The MBA Migration Assistant says it is "preparing information."
For some reason, the Powerbook Migration Assistant now says "searching for other computers." (There are no other machines on the network.)
This goes on for about 5 minutes, then the MBA says "network connection failed."
I know that the machines are connected and seeing each other (I can mount each other in the Finder), but for some reason Migration Assistant can't proceed, and I suspect a time out is really causing the "connection failed" notice.
I also tried this wirelessly, with the same results. Any suggestions? Thanks.

Well, it looks like I can answer my own question. There seems to be a particular problem in migrating from a MacBook G4 running Tiger to an MBA (on Leopard, of course). I went to the Genius Bar at the 5th Avenue store here in NYC. The Genius went though the regular migration procedure, and ended up with the same situation as reported above. He tried several different things, including trying to pass the migration through a portable hard drive. (MBA-ethernet cable-hard drive-ethernet cable-MacBook). He talked to other Geniuses. All to no avail. He put the problem into the official Genius database that goes to Apple engineers. He suggested that I upgrade the MacBook to Leopard and see if that made a difference. He acknowledged that Apple says it can migrate from Tiger, but he thought it might work. As it happened, I had an unopened copy of Leopard at home, because I hadn't had the time to upgrade. So I upgraded, then did the 10.5.2 combo update on both machines. I crossed my fingers, plugged in the ethernet cables, and presto, the migration started happening.
Some tips on migrating: before starting, use Energy Saver to set both machines to sleep never. Just for good measure, set the Display to sleep never, and I suggest even setting a Disable Screen Saver corner in Desktop & Screen Saver and move your cursor there after the migration starts. (Not doing this meant my first migration attempt was calculated to take 19 hours, and I would have to babysit the trackpad all that time to avoid either machine sleeping. After force quitting Migration Assistant and resetting those controls, it zipped through in less than 3 hours.)
I hope this can help the other people having the same problem. Bummer if you have to buy Leopard, though...

Trying to restore after getting a new hard drive. I can see the backup on the Time Capsule and on the correct date but it is Greyed out. That is it wont let me open it and restore the machine. Have tried also Migration Assistant, no luck.

Trying to restore after getting a new hard drive. I can see the backup on the Time Capsule and on the correct date but it is Greyed out. That is it wont let me open it and restore the machine. Have tried also Migration Assistant, no luck.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5210788?tstart=0
At startup hold down the Command+Option/Alt+r keys until you see a globe on the screen. Then use disk utility to partition and format the drive HSF+ and then select Reinstall Mac OS X. whatever version of OS X that originally came on your system will be installed and then you can upgrade back to Mavericks.

Backing up my MacBook Pro using Migration Assistant Issues

So a very long story short, I have to get repairs done to my MacBook Pro which was/is operating on 10.5.8. When I left my computer at the store to be sent out, I backed up my computer with Time Machine, under the impression I could just reload everything during start up. Well this didn't work, There was some kind of issue where I would select my drive and it would return to the welcome video every time. So I just set up an Admin because I was given the option of using Migration Assistant. I did so, but it seems that our of 175 GB of applications, information, setting, and files, only 95 GB would get transfered under my old username/Admin user. I went ahead and did it anyway, and it took about an hour before it said a few minuets remaining. Then about a half hour later, it said my information was transfered successfully. What's peculiar now is that a little window appeared in the Finder titled 'Time Machine Backup', and its been loading 107 GB for the past hour. I'm using USB (which I know isn't the fastest method), and it's going abnormally slow, its been roughly an hour and only 2GB have loaded.
My question is this; When all 107GBs of data are transfered, will my repaired laptop have the (for lack of a better term) memory of my laptop before the hard drive wipe?

No idea what is going on & just 2 reasons I never use Time Machine, but are you certain it's not backing up your new Drive & is actually copying from the TM backup to your drive?

Migration assistent and built out time machine hdd

Hi all,
my MacBook Pro got stolen and miraculously my time machine died at the same time. I got out the hard drive and put it in a casing with firewire.
My problem is: I try to run Migration Assistant on my new MacBook Pro, but when I select "From a Time Machine backup or other disk" it doesn't recognize my external disk and just shows a spinning wheel. The disk does show up in Finder.
I would appreciate if somebody could give me a hint on how I can best solve this, because I really need the backed up data.
Thanks in advance,
Roy

Time Machine uses a different method to manage its backups on a locally-mounted disk as on a network disk.I 'd first try mounting the "sparsebundle" volume on that disk. If that doesn't let Time Machine access the saved data, then see item #18 of the Time Machine FAQ, particularly the third point under "How to".

Time Machine Inherit back up issue - Migration assistant

Mac Book Pro running 10.7.5
Migrated to (using Migration assistant)
iMac running 10.7.5
(this iMac was already formatted as another unit, user name - not brand new)
Ethernet network - iMac is now cabled to the time machine - all other machines are turned off/disconnected from network and time machine is turned off on other machines (studio network of 5 machines)
- did not select inherit back-up when prompted.
Now I cannot inherit back-up from old mac - even though all data, settings, files transferred and users are the same - all is good with the transfer.
- when I open time machine it wants to do a completely new back-up and I cannot find a way to inherit back-ups.
Note: I have managed to follow many of Pondini's posts and recommendations regarding what to look for and how to do it - ie.make sure I have only one user (the original user from old macbook pro) in preferences - and the old user from the iMac computer was deleted - etc.
Is my only option to do the following? This seems a bit out of my skill set...
http://pondini.org/TM/B6.html
Thanks in advance,
Dean

Note - when I tried now - Pondini's suggestion in Terminal it gave me this error/prompt.
The image "Henry.sparsebundle" can't be inherited because it would conflict with "Valentino (2).sparsebundle".
I have multiple machine back-ups on this time capsule - could that also be an issue?

After a Lion clean install, how do I retrieve my data from external back-up? Following Apple advice for use of Migration Assistant did not work creating similar issues leading to clean install.

After a Lion clean install, how do I retrieve my data from external hard drive?
Following Apple advice I used Migration Assistant which crashed new system twice which is why I had to clean install Lion in the first place.
Is there a sure way of doing it?
I have only a few programs that I will have to install myself and that should not be a problem.
I just want my data, music and photos back where I can use them.

Time machine backups. I went to migration assistant a few hours ago and limited my selection to "users", no need for applications, settings and other files. Stuff started moving over at a fast pace but has now seemed to stall.
I will let it run overnight as there are lots of songs and photos as well as a few movies.
If that does not work, then I will go into TM and try restore. I have restored some things in the past such a mail files and it has worked well.
The Apple fellow at the store told me to go right into TM, he may have had a point. I'll get it eventually.

Migration Assistant overwrote my life - can I get it back?

Hi folks
This experience constitutes my first real Mac burn, and I'm not going to lie, it hurts.
Yesterday I used Migration Assistant to move from my Mac Pro to my new MacBook Pro. I had already been using the MacBook Pro, and had gotten my media life up and running on it with 300+ gigs of music and about 50 gigs of photos. My research on this forum before doing the migrate suggested that nothing would be overwritten.
Instead, everything associated with the user account I'd been slowly building anew on the MacBook Pro was overwritten with whatever was in my old Mac Pro. All I wanted was for the files, applications, and application settings to be added to my new system, not to overwrite it completely.
Does anyone know if I can reverse this process. I admit to foolishly not backing up the MacBook before migrating - I have always backed up my content manually, so have never used Time Machine to backup my actual system. I have backups of everything that was overwritten, but I had intentionally removed it from the Mac Pro in order to start afresh on the MacBook. Will I need to start afresh again, or can I somehow reclaim everything from the MacBook user account that was overwritten.
In addition, the two computers had the same name, so when I was asked to rename one I chose to rename the old system with the suffix "crap" thinking I would have no further use for it, because I assumed the MacBook I was migrating to would never be overwritten. Instead, I'm now stuck with a crappy name. I would like to change it.
Any help with this mess would be great.
I have to say that my experience with Migration Assistant was wretched. It took me a day to get the two computers actually communicating in order to do the migrate. The estimates of time to completion were preposterously off - it took over an hour to complete the last "less than a minute". And the purpose and actions of the program were very poorly indicated. I did not just jump into this, but spent hours reading up, only to wreak utter havoc on my digital life.
A sad day in my life with Mac.

Sorry to hear about the mess - I had a similar experience last year. The problem with MA is that you have already established an account, etc, etc - so you wind up with overwritten or - in my case - duplicate accounts and/or folders, messed up permissions, and the list goes on.
However, Setup Assistant, which is only offered once - right after the welcome screen when you first boot up the new Mac - will simply port over everything and should work just fine (althought they are both essentially the same procedure, the huge difference is that if you use SA, you don't have anything set up on the new Mac yet).
So, the easiest would be (as long as you still have everything on your old Mac): insert install disk on the new Mac, after selecting language, to to Utilities at top, choose Disk Utility, and erase your hard drive. Once done, let Installer start and have a firewire cable ready. After the welcome screen, follow the on screen instructions for Setup Assistant and you should be fine.

I used Migration Assistant to copy data to an new MacBook Pro from an old via my Time Capsule. When asked if to inherit time machine history on the new Mac, I mistakenly said no. How do I go back one step to say yes?

There isn't enough space on the Time Capsule to create a separate backup of the data on the new MacBook. And I am reluctant to delete old backups of the old MacBook to create space to backup the new machine. This occurred about 3 weeks ago so the data on the two machines are now out of sync. If I start over by formatting the new MacBook and rerunning Migration Assistant to pull data from the Time Capsule, how do i preserve the last 3 weeks of data on the new MacBook, considering that I didn't keep track of which files changed in the last 3 weeks?

All the rest of the stuff is where it should be. As best I can tell. I have been going through my programs one at a time to see what works. With the change in the OS (Launchpad? What the heck?) I am finding a significant number of my old programs are not working. Some I have found upgrades. But without a working mail program, the machine is pretty useless for work.
The Apple techies had me run through 3 hours of 'stuff' (holding down keys and restarting, etc, etc). It still does not launch. I think we are waiting for a 'miracle', but I need to know now if they should just come get this piece of junk or if they really are able to find a solution in a timely manner.

Using migration assistant I transferred my complete MacBookPro to my nex iMac. Now I find out that all jampacks are missing in GarageBand. Can anyone advise? Thanks!

Using migration assistant I transferred my complete MacBookPro to my nex iMac. Now I find out that all jampacks are missing in GarageBand. Can anyone advise? Thanks!

I would think the migration assistant transfers 100% of all contents...
When you are setting up a new Mac you can use Setup assistant the moment you boot the mac the first time. Setup Assistant will usually transfer everything. If you miss tha t moment and later launch Migration Assistant some library files will not be transferred. Migration assistant will not transfer system files, only User Files and Application files. I think, that is why your files are missing.
so could you please tell how this copying is done?
Best take an external drive with plenty of free disk space and plug it into your MacBook Pro.
Open the System drive, your Macintosh HD in the Finder and open the folder "Library", then "Application Support", then "GarageBand". Copy the folder
/Library/Application Support/GarageBand/Instrument Library/ to your external drive by dragging it there.
Then open again the folder "Library" on your Macintosh HD, and this time open the folder "Audio" inside. Copy the folder
/Library/Audio/Apple Loops/
to your externall drive. Eject the drive and plug it into your iMac.
Now compare the AppleLoops folders and instrument library folders and copy all missing items over to the corresponding folders in the iMac's Library.
Afterwards you need to reindex the loops, by dragging any loop you newly installed onto the Loop Browser in garageband, see: Rebuilding the Loop Index in GarageBand

When I use migration assistant to move all my data from my Macbook Air to my Pro, it uses the last full back up not the last partial back up. The last full backup is two months old though. Both machines are running Mountain Lion. How do I get my latest 1

Hi
I need to move my data from a time capsule that backuped my Macbook Air (which has been destroyed by liquid damage) to my Macbook Pro. The Air and the Pro both run Mountain Lion and I have a clean installation on the Macbook Pro.
I used Migration Assitant to move the data across but while I have back ups of my Air up to 24 hours before it was destroyed, the migration assistant only wishes to migrate data from the last full back up that it finds which is 2 months old.
Please can you advise how I can restore the latest data to my Macbook Pro.
Many thanks.

please let me know the linksys device model number you are using ..

HT3231 I ended up having to create a new user name because the migration assistant wouldn't let me put the data back onto my original user name. I now have to log into the new user name to see all my data, apps, photographs etc. What went wrong?

I have a Mac that was part of the recall involved with the faulty Seagate hard drives. The folks at the Apple Store near me changed the hard drive early December, 2012. I had my data, etc. all backed up on a portable hard drive. When the Mac was returned with the new hard drive, I used the Migration Assistant to bring everything back over. Trouble was, it wouldn't let me bring it over to my original user name. I was forced to create a new user name that became the place where everything was restored. I can't see any data on my old user name, just the basics. Everything is on the new user name but I wish I didn't have it (just want everything back the way it was originally). Any suggestions?

Probably the cleanest thing to do is to erase and freshly install the operating system on the new drive. Then, on the first boot up, don't create a new user, instead select the option in Setup Assistant to immediately bring things over from your backup, which you must connect via USB or firewire. Setup Assistant will then recretae your old user to look just like it used to.
Before doing this, make sure you realize you will lose everything on the new drive by erasing it, and make sure your backup is still viable.

Why doesn't Migration Assistant recognize my backup disk after rolling back to Mountain Lion from Mavericks?

I rolled back my OS from Mavericks to Mountain Lion and now the Migration Assistant isn't finding my Time Machine backups. Any idea why this is?

One reason may be a different computer name. Check System Preferences > Sharing and make sure your computer name has been the same through all your various OS X iterations.

Migration assistant back out

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