Migration Assistant Does Not See Attached External Disk

I just purchased a MacBook Air to replace an aging MacBook Pro. Both are running the latest Mountain Lion (10.8.3). I want to move my files from the MBP to the MBA using Migration Assistant. I first tried doing this over wi-fi, but when I learned it would take more than 99 hours, I chose to cancel the operation.
So I connected a new Seagate HD to the MBP and configured Time Machine to back up to it. I let Time Machine run all day, creating hourly updates after the initial backup. I then disconnected the drive, attached it to the MBA and rebooted. I ran Migration Assistant and chose to migrate from a Time Machine backup. However, Migration Assistant does not see the disk. Yet the disk is mounted on the desktop, I can read and write to it, and I can see the Time Machine backups. Only Migration Assistant seems unable to recognize the disk.
This isn't the first time I've had problems with MA (see my posting history). When it works, it's terrific - my new computer has all the settings and preferences as the old. My applications are all registered and operational. So I'm very frustrated that I can't get it to work with my new MBA. It really does diminish the experience of getting a new computer. That, plus I don't want to spend days and weeks moving things over manually, re-installing, etc.
C'mon, Apple. Why is Migration Assistant so difficult? I'd chalk it up to user error, but this many times?

So, finally after fourten hours of unattended "migration," I let it continue overnight and in the morning found that the time remaining had not moved a minute. I canceled MA and found that not one iota of data had transferred.
As far as I'm concerned, Migration Assistant ranks lower on the Apple success list than Open Doc, Newton, Pink and Taligent.
Now I have to manually install software I want to use on the MBA, apply licenses, and all the other stuff I would expect from Windows.
NOT happy.

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Migration assistant does not see my time machine disk

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Please help! I would like my data back, but I am not able to pay Apple at the Apple store or a phone call to them for help!
Thanks!
Diana

Diana Stephens wrote:
Migration Assistant thinks my "macintosh HD" system disk is the only disk available as the time machine backup.
Those are your backups. Migration Assistant shows the name of the disk and system that were backed-up, not the disk they're on. It will not show the disk you're running from.
See the tan box in Using Migration Assistant on Lion.

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Well, I think there should be solution to use TIME CAPSULE restore as it should I mean I bought Time Capsule because it is easy to use and I really do not want to solve any issues or make any workarounds.
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HELP!

sorry, i don't know what else it could be then. if you have another external drive you can try doing a full system restore from the TM backups onto that drive and see if MA will recognize that drive and migrate from it. other than this there is always manual migration. slow and tedious but it can be done. see this link for help with that
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=6185507

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Thanks sanjampet.
I called Apple support and the tech had me make a bogus account with a different user account name. I then logged into the bogus account and ran Migration Assistant. MA cannot override while logged into your main account, thus the bogus one is needed.
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As far as I'm concerned, Migration Assistant ranks lower on the Apple success list than Open Doc, Newton, Pink and Taligent.
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NOT happy.

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Great news, thanks!
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Hi Guru,
I made a time machine backup today, 10.8.2, then made full reinstall of system in Apple store, in Berkeley, because my iMac experinced some unstability.
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OS: 10.8.2
BackUp made: Time Machine 10.8.2
Hard Disk: Lacie 500MB
any ideas?
Thank you

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Here are the articles I have on Migration Assistant. None of them had the answer to your problem (or at least I couldn't find it). Check what you did versus the recommendations in the articles is about the best I can offer.
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Migration Assistant (2)
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Migration Assistant Does Not See Attached External Disk

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