Migration Assistant or Time Capsule?

I have a Macbook pro w/ Mountain lion on it which I back up using time capsule. I will be buying a new iMac to replace the laptop. Should I use Migration Assistant or Time Capsule to move everything to the new iMac or both?
Thanks

The Time Capsule is a router with a hard drive inside to make Time Machine backups or store whatever you want, and Migration Assistant is an app that helps you to migrate files from another PC, Mac or a Time Machine backup. They have nothing to do.
As you are using the Time Capsule, you have a Time Machine backup, that you will use to restore the data from your MacBook Pro to the iMac. During the first startup of your iMac, it will ask you to restore a backup, so choose the option to restore a Time Machine backup and follow the steps

Similar Messages

  • Migration Assistant from Time Capsule or from a External Drive

    My old iMac (20" Ambient Light Sensor 2.1 , 2.0 GHz) just died.  Troubleshooting indicates the logic board is dead.  Time for a new iMac. I have one on order. I had set up Time Machine to backup this computer onto a Time Capsule.  The Time Capsule was backing up both my laptop and this iMAC.
    Unfortunately, I have no idea how to access the iMac Time Machine to make it think I am the old iMac so that I can restore the latest backup.  I don't seem to remember setting up a password.  I'm not even sure what the name of the iMac was on the network.  (For next time what should I make sure that I keep?)  I'm not even sure that it has been backing up regularly. This was my wife's computer and I set it up and then rarely went to it. When I look at the files on the Time Capsule, the iMac file does not have a recent date.  That was question 1.  How can I get my new iMac to recover all the files and settings from my Time Capsule?
    Question 2:  I have removed the hard drive from the iMac and will get it working in an external enclosure.  Since it was a G5 computer, this hard drive won't boot up the new computer. But, will Migration Assistant allow me to migrate from the hard drive to the new iMac?  What kind of connection do I need between the external enclosure and the new computer?
    Anyone have any guidance?
    Thanks,
    Dave

    PianomanDave wrote:
    Unfortunately, I have no idea how to access the iMac Time Machine to make it think I am the old iMac so that I can restore the latest backup.
    You'll want to use Setup Assistant when your new Mac first starts up.  See Using Setup Assistant on Lion for details.  As noted there, it will automatically use the last completed backup.
    Question 2:  I have removed the hard drive from the iMac and will get it working in an external enclosure.  Since it was a G5 computer, this hard drive won't boot up the new computer. But, will Migration Assistant allow me to migrate from the hard drive to the new iMac?
    Yes, assuming neither the drive nor the data on it was damaged when the logic board failed.
    What kind of connection do I need between the external enclosure and the new computer?
    USB, Firewire/800, or even Thunderbolt -- anything that will connect to the new Mac.  And use Setup Assistant when the new Mac first starts up, not Migration Assistant later on.
    Either way, you'll need to select From Time Machine or other disk on the setup screen.

  • I just upgraded from my 2008 MacBook to a new Macbook Pro. How do I get my time capsule to work on my new MacBook? I did data migration, but the time capsule did not pick it up. Any ideas?

    I just upgraded from my 2008 MacBook to a new Macbook Pro. How do I get my time capsule to work on my new MacBook? I did data migration, but the time capsule did not pick it up. Any ideas?

    If you migrated all the info from time machine to your new MBP. The TM will usually ask to connect to the old backups.. sorry I am not sure is this what you want to do.. Personally I think you start a fresh backup.
    BTW Time Capsule does not do anything.. it is a dumb hard disk in a box.. it is TM that does everything.
    Look at B5 and B6 here about connecting to your backup.
    http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html

  • Migration assistant versus time machine

    I am about to get a new mac, is there a reason to prefer migration assistant or Time Machine
    to transfer the data from the old to the new? Will any method allow my computer to recognize
    the time machine data as its own? Thanks

    Jhalev wrote:
    I am about to get a new mac, is there a reason to prefer migration assistant or Time Machine
    to transfer the data from the old to the new?
    Your best bet is to use +Setup Assistant+ (when your shiny new Mac first starts up), per the link supplied by Baltwo. You can transfer from your old Mac, or it's backups. It's probably best to do it directly from your old Mac, but if it doesn't have a FireWire port, or isn't available, and your backups are on a external HD, you can use that instead.
    Will any method allow my computer to recognize the time machine data as its own? Thanks
    Not exactly. Time Machine will do a new, full backup of your new Mac. But you will get a prompt about whether you want to "reuse" the backups. See #B5 in [Time Machine - Troubleshooting|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Troubleshooting.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of the +Time Machine+ forum), for details.

  • Cloning VS Migration Assistant VS Time Machine restore

    Dec 2006 MBP, disk has never been defragged or re-formatted from day 1, so it's pretty cluttered up.
    New HDD coming in today, what do you think is the best way to transfer my system, apps and files to the new drive in a clean way?
    (running OS X 10.5.8 now, think I want to do an upgrade to OS X 10.6 while I'm at it...
    Should I do that before/after transfer? How does that affect Migration Assistant or Time Machine?)

    My preference would be to make a bootable clone on my internal on an external. The clone will allow extraction of users, files, apps, and data at the end of an erase and install. Also, if your Sno install goes bad, then you can clone back to your internal to get back where you started. My preference for installing Sno is an erase and install.
    Upgrading ought to be pretty much as good as, as good as, or better than (depends on who you talk to) erasing and installing, and having done so everything still should be in place except for archived incompatible programs after the install. Having a bootable clone is just as important in the case of upgrade as in the case of erase and install.
    You bootcamp partition won't be affected under either install method. But, keep in mind that if you want to change its size, then erasing and installing will give you the opportunity to do so. No migrating needed for the Boot Camp partition.
    Message was edited by: donv (The Ghost)

  • Migration Problems with Time Capsule and New MacBook Pro

    Hopefully someone on here can help with with this problem I'm having. I just bought the new 13' MacBook Pro this week from the store and I no longer have my old MacBook Pro. I have a Time Capsule with complete backups of my old MacBook Pro and I also have the internal hard drive from it as well.
    I had installed the beta version of Mountain Lion on the old MacBook Pro and the new one still has Lion.
    The problem is that every time I have tried to use the Migration Assistant (and I've tried 3 times now) my files and applications are getting messed up.
    iPhoto won't open. It says that it needs to be updated but when I check to update it it says that there is no update needed.
    I'm seriously about to beat my head against the wall because every time I migrate the data it takes about 12 hours. I'm thinking at this point that it might be easier for me to just swap out the internal hard drives in the units because it is possibly an issue with the OS' and wait until next month to try migrating to the new drive again after Mountain Lion is officially launched.

    Bob,
    I appreciate your honest and prompt response. I was VERY SPECIFIC when I told the sales rep I was hoping to use the Time Capsule with two different MacBook Pro's on different subnets (one is behind a firewall on a router, one is directly connect to a WAN side IP with no firewall) and the sales rep made a point of saying that the dual band feature would facilitate this connectivity which left me with the impression (obviously wrong) that the WiFi features of the time capsule could be used to communicate with multiple Macs regardless of their own networking configurations. (I have been configuring fairly complicated networks for 20 years and only bought my first Mac two and a half years ago; the second Mac is only six months old; the third will be bought next month.)
    This isn't the end of the world for me... it does require reconfiguring my network and doing a lot of port tunneling for the box outside of the firewall in order to bring it inside as well as giving up some remote access redundancies (which were based on the ability to connect to both machines using VNC software which is port specific which means that it needed separate WAN side IP addresses).
    Overall I love the Mac approach compared to the nightmare that was (is) Windows (although I do also run an Ubuntu Linux box just to keep me honest). That said, your sales reps do your products a HUGE disservice when they give glib and incorrect answer to what was, I believe in my case, a very specific and precise question.
    Bill Wood
    Watertown, Mass.

  • Error using migration assistant and time machine

    Daughter dropped water on our old macbook pro.  Got a new one and trying to restore using backups to our time capsule, but we are receiving this error using the migration assistant: "Make sure that all of your network devices are connected and turned on. It appears that some backups are already in use. If you don't see the backup you need, make sure it is not currently mounted by another machine and try again."
    any suggestions on how to transfer the data from time capsule to new macbook?

    Do you see the backups in the Select Your Disk window? 
    If so, can you connect to them?
    Make sure Time Machine is OFF on all Macs on your network.  If any backups are trying to run, cancel them.  If they won't cancel after a few minutes, see #D6 inTime Machine - Troubleshooting.
    Also be sure no other Mac is looking at them.  If you continue to get that message, disconnect all users, per #C12 in the same article.
    If none of that helps, the backups may be damaged (could have happened when the old Mac died).  Try to Repair them, per #A5 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting

  • Migration Assistant and Time Machine

    I had an iMac G5 and bought an iMac Intel. Used Migration Assistant to load iMac Intel. Still using iMac G5. Time Machine can't tell difference between two, when one is on the other won't let Time machine mount. Time Machine thinks the new iMac Intel is the iMac G5. I trashed the TimeMachine preference fie on the iMac Intel but it did not help, suggestions.

    axk2 wrote:
    Thanks, yes the new Mac is running snow leopard. Can two network computers back up at the same time to one time machine.
    Ah, a bit of terminology clarification: +*Time Machine+* is the software in Leopard and Snow Leopard that performs backups, to various places, including a +*Time Capsule,+* which is a piece of Apple hardware.
    Yes, that's very common, often to a Time Capsule, or a shared drive on another Mac on the same network.
    Your problem apparently is, you told TM to "take over" the old Mac's backups. The old Mac cannot use that set any more.
    So you'll need to start it fresh. On the old Mac, go to TM Preferences > Change Disk. First select the "none" drive, then the destination. That should start a whole new set of backups for the old Mac, in a separate sparse bundle on the Time Capsule. The first backup will be a full one, so connect to it via an Ethernet cable if possible -- it will be much faster.
    Also be sure there's enough room on the TC's internal HD for a new full backup of the old Mac, plus a lot of extra space, so TM can keep a reasonable "depth" of old backups of it. If there isn't enough, post back with the sizes of the data on both Macs and the size and amount used on the TC.

  • HT4796 How to solve my situation of having several Mac users created for me as I used Migration Assistant multiple times to move files from my PC

    I recently tried to migrate data from my old and perpetually unstable PC to my new iMac through the Set up Assistant.  However, half way through the 6 hour process, my PC crashed (the exact reason why I finally bought a Mac!) and the connection was lost. I continued with the Mac set up and then tried again later to migrate the files with Migration Assistant.  Since I was nervous that my PC would crash again, I decided to do the data transfer in multiple migrations (ie. first I did photos and then after seeing that that was done successfully I did music and so on).  Unexpected to me, even though all of the 4 migrations were successful I now have 4 additional users (in addition to the one I set up durnig the initial process) because each migration created a new user.  Each user has  little bits of my data. 
    What is the easiest way to merge these users or at least the data that resides in each one?  I really only want one user.  thank you.

    You may not have created a mess, it's possible you simply don't know where your data is after migrating. Had you followed the Setup Assistant's on-screen prompts when you initially turned on your new system you would be running just fine by now. My guess is you haven't been exposed to Pondini's Lion Setup Assistant tips.
    Migration Assistant (MA) and Setup Assistant (SA) are cousins, similar but different. The primary difference is MA creates a new user account which can be confusing to some users. If you successfuly migrated then log out of your existing using account and you should see the new user account. Log into that account then you should see the migrated data. If you do then use Pondini's Transferring files from one User Account to another.
    However if you have totally made of mess out of things then I'd start over, this time using the Setup Assistant Tips beginning where he discusses Second Chance.

  • Migration Assistant and Time Machine Problems on Clean Install of OS Lion

    I just completed a clean install of Mac OS X Lion. However, the Migration Assistant application does not detect my time machine backup on my external hard drive when I try to copy my files to my mac. Is there a way where I can transfer my files?

    Are you sure its not shown?  It should have a yellow or green icon, and list the name of the system and HD that was backed-up, not the one it's on.
    If not, try to repair the backups, per #A5 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.

  • Migration Assistant versus Time Machine back-up

    I'm trying to migrate a Time Machine back-up from my recently stolen 2010 MacBook Pro (running OSX 10.6.7) to my old (2008) MacBook Pro, running on OSX 10.5.8.
    However, Migration Assistant on my 2008 MB Pro does not detect the backup folder/file on my external HD, even though Finder does.
    I've tried by making a new temp Admin User with a different name as the User on my back-up, but no luck.
    Even though it is only temporary, for two months or so, I'd still like to migrate. Anyone?

    Where is Pondini...

  • Migration Assistant Trouble - Time Machine

    Hi guys,
    I created a backup of my old MacBook's hard drive through Time Machine, to transfer to my new MacBook Pro.
    I went through the normal steps on Time Machine, selected from a Time Machine backup and it's been looking for the disk ever since.
    It showed the last time I plugged it in yesterday evening, found the backup straight away. However I added some movie files onto the external hard drive to back up from my new MacBook to make sure I didn't lose them during the migration and since then it hasn't been able the backup.
    Has this messed up the backup?
    Any help very much appreciated!
    M

    freakingout wrote:
    However I added some movie files onto the external hard drive to back up from my new MacBook to make sure I didn't lose them during the migration and since then it hasn't been able the backup.
    Do you mean you copied some extra files onto the TM drive?  If so, where did you put them?
    Unless you managed to get them inside the Backups.backupdb folder (which the Finder should't allow), it shouldn't be a problem (but those files won't be found by Migration Assistant.)
    Try repairing the backups, per #6 in Using Disk Utility.

  • Migration assistant from Time Machine - more questions

    I have recently used Time Machine with Migration Assistant to transfer account information from an old iMac I am decommissioning. At first, I decided to simply transfer account information documents, and not any programs. However, after completing the Migration, I tried to use it again to copy across programs. However, the second time I used it, the Assistant did not recognize the Time Machine backup for the old iMac (even though the sparsebundle exists). Furthermore, when the older iMac began its Time Machine 'cycle' (eg, it has not been fully shut down yet), it did not recognize this bundle either, and created a new TM backup.
    Can anyone help? I am most concerned with ensuring I have what I need on my new computer. But also would not want to have to get rid of the old sparsebundle, as it might contain information I need in the future.

    Have you run any backups of the new Mac? If so, how did you answer the "Re-use" prompt, per #B5 in [Time Machine - Troubleshooting|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Troubleshooting.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).
    It sounds like you did, and selected "re-use." If so, that may be the problem. The old sparse bundle was "converted" to belong to the new Mac, so all the new backups belong to it.
    That would also explain why backing-up the old Mac started a new sparse bundle -- the old one is now associated with the new Mac, not the old one.
    Migration Assistant uses the last backup from the sparse bundle you select; you can't pick and choose which one you want.
    Your best bet may be to use the +*Browse . . .+* option, per #17 in [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). See if you can find the last backup of the old Mac. If so, you should be able to selectively restore from it. You'll need to restore to an "alternate location;" see #15 in Troubleshooting.

  • Can't migrate files from time capsule, resource temporarily unavailable

    My old iMac 20" Intel late 2006 crashed. It got slower and froze as well as lines across, so I thought it's the graphic card. At the same time the SOPHOS Anti virous detected malware and trojan on my computer which was removed manually.
    Unfortunately with the 20" late 2006 model the card cannot be replaced. Ran hardware test and did not indicate any hardware issues. Finally could not boot from the disc. When I turned on the machine, I could hear fans running and some other noice but only black screen. We back up our computers every hour onto a time capsule.
    I purchased a new iMac 21.5 " and thought it will be easy to migrate everything from the time capsule. I done it in the past when I had to replace the hard drive on the old iMac 2 years ago.
    Unfortunately when I try to access the time capsule, I received the message of data damaged and now resource temporarily unavailable. How can I retrieve my data? Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

    You will be in deep trouble if the TM backup is corrupt..
    Run the verify disk on the sparsebundle.. Pondini has some instructions here.
    http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
    Look at A5
    Also there are manual methods of getting as much as possible from the backup if it is not corrupted too badly..
    Look at http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
    He gives several methods to restore files.. read Q14-17.

  • Using Migration Assistant with Time Machine or Super Duper data

    Can I use Migration Assistant with a Time Machine or Super Duper backup on an external drive instead of the original computer? I'm thinking of upgrading my Mini to a new one but only have one monitor. Not in the mood to hunt down an old monitor & buy adapters, etc. If I can, are there any tradeoffs using a backup instead of the original Mini? And is TM or SD preferable for this purpose? The current Mini runs 10.6 SL.

    KevinD wrote:
    Can I use Migration Assistant with a Time Machine or Super Duper backup on an external drive instead of the original computer?
    yes to both.
    I'm thinking of upgrading my Mini to a new one but only have one monitor. Not in the mood to hunt down an old monitor & buy adapters, etc. If I can, are there any tradeoffs using a backup instead of the original Mini?
    none.
    And is TM or SD preferable for this purpose?
    makes no difference.
    The current Mini runs 10.6 SL.

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