Migration from external hard drive

Hi everyone,
Im planning on upgrading to a MacBook Air 13' from MacBook (Late 06 running 10.7.5)
I would like to know if I unmounted my MB hard drive from the computer and put it in an enclosure with USB connection.
Would I be able to use Migration Assistant on the MBA with selecting Time Machine or other discs? Is this method considered as a 'clone' as I have read in several comments in this forum?
If not, is drag and drop the best option for me if it must be USB connecting method?
What I am mostly interested in moving over from the enclosed HD to MBA are :
Some applications (Hoping I can just migrate and use it on MBA as left off from MB)
Settings for the OS X such as Wifi Passwords,
iTunes - Music/iPhone back up/iPhone Apps
Documents
Thanks in advance!

Your idea of removing the MacBook hard drive and placing it into an external enclosure is not a clone but it will work. A clone is an exact copy of your computer's hard drive. You'd be using the hard drive itself. Since the MacBook's hard drive is easy to access and is a user upgradeable component there's no problem. But I think a better idea would be to purchase a USB external hard drive (assuming you don't already own one) and back up your MacBook with it using TimeMachine (or a clone program like SuperDuper!) and then migrate using it.
After migrating you will have to re-enter your passwords for email and you may have to reserialize a few programs. Depending on how you've been keeping up to date some of your software may need to be updated.

Similar Messages

Migration Assistant didn't migrate from external hard drive.

I selected copy applications and not copy files. It did something for over an hour but I'm not sure exactly what. It did copy MS OFfice which I already installed maybe a few other programs like Bbedit which was good but I need Quicken and Quickbooks apps which I will just reinstall from the CD.
Is there a way to uninstall programs or do you just delete them?
I wanted the email contacts from Mail and also from Entourage. It did not copy those lists, neither did it give me my iTunes music. Shouldn't Apple be able to get those contacts lists and the iTunes merged into the new computer apps? I also need the Quicken and Quickbooks data but there is probably a backup somewhere on the hard drive. I will look for it.
I would be satisfied with my emails and contacts. Maybe it can't do it from an external hard drive? In any case as I mentioned in another post. I had a g4 with a dead logic board so I took out the hard drive and put it in an external drive.
then I got a used g5 and now I want to transfer the address books and itunes from the external drive into the g5. How do I get that? Do I get it from a preferences file? Where is it? Is it in app data or in a plist somewhere?
I need my address books and I would also like to get all my old emails from both programs. THANKS,

The reason those components weren't copied is because they are not in the Applications folder. Those files that contain you mail, bookmarks, Entrourage data, iTunes library, etc. are all located in your Home folder and /Home/Library/ folder. Since you didn't copy any of that they are now missing.
Fortunately, this is not a disaster, but it will require some manual copying on your part. The following will outline what you want to transfer from the external drive:
Folders You Can Move to Your new Mac
From the Home folder copy the contents of Documents, Movies, Music, Pictures, and Sites.
In your /Home/Library/ folder:
/Home/Library/Application Support/AddressBook (copy the whole folder)
/Home/Library/Application Support/iCal (copy the whole folder)
Also in /Home/Library/Application Support (copy whatever else you need including folders for any third-party applications)
/Home/Library/Keychains (copy the whole folder)
/Home/Library/Mail (copy the whole folder)
/Home/Library/Preferences/ (copy the whole folder)
/Home /Library/iTunes (copy the whole folder)
/Home /Library/Safari (copy the whole folder)
/Home /Library/Calendars (copy the whole folder)
If you want cookies:
/Home/Library/Cookies/Cookies.plist
/Home/Library/Application Support/WebFoundation/HTTPCookies.plist
For Entourage users:
Entourage is in /Home/Documents/Microsoft User Data
Also in /Home/Library/Preferences/Microsoft
For FireFox:
/Home/Library/Applications Support/FireFox
/Home/Library/Preferences/org.mozilla.firefox.plist
Credit goes Macjack for this information.

Hi,disc wiped ,OSX10.9 back on ,how do I restore my data from external hard drive ?Any help welcome .

Hi,disc wiped ,OSX10.9 back on ,how do I restore my data from external hard drive ?Any help welcome .

There's Setup Assistant and Migration Assistant. The cleanest way to do it is Setup Assistant, but you only get that option once when you fire up a fresh install of OSX. If you're past that, you could reinstall OSX by booting with Command-R, or you could use Migration Assistant.
Setup/Migration Assistant instructions:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5872

How can I move my project from external hard drive to my macbook pro?

How can I move my project from external hard drive to my macbook pro? every time I try to do some editing, the sequence is very slow, thanks in advance

Try here...
Setting-up a new Mac from an old one, its backups, or a PC

Restoring itunes from external hard drive

-I used WD backup program to store itunes on external hard drive
-hard drive on mac pro crashed, replaced hard drive
-trying to restore itunes songsa from external drive and when I copied songs from external hard drive to new internal hard drive which has itunes program, only song titles appear and track number for songs I ripped from CDs. All info is present for songs I purchased from itunes (why is there a difference in the way these two are restored???)
-Can I restore itunes from external drive so that artist and album are associated with each song title I ripped from CDs?
Much appreciate all assistance. Thanks.

I know MP3 and AAC save tag data, and I believe AIFF does as well (if you want to keep them in full-quality but space-greedy format). I don't think WAV supports tagging which is why they were lost. Read:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=9558241&#9558241
This time make sure you have a complete backup of your itunes folder (which, in fact you may still have). That way you can recover your complete library and everything intact (as long as you keep your backups up to date).
Here is a related topic
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=9267109&#9267109

Importing photos from external hard drive.

I had stored my photos on a external hard drive from power book G4(which had iphoto4.0.3).
I recently purchased IMac G5. I cannot import my photos into G5(has iphoto5.4) from external hard drive. I get a message saying you have installed a new version of iphoto.
How can I get my photos back on the new machine?
Thank you in advance.

Shyman
Had another idea. Since you were not upgrading a computer to iPhoto 5 - which would upgrade your existing iPhoto Library Folder (database) and since you, I presume, already have a working iPhoto 5 Library Folder -- perhaps we have to trick iPhoto into doing the upgrade.
Quit iPhoto5. Move to the desktop or rename the existing iPhoto 5 Library Folder.
But also move or delete the existing iPhoto 5 preferences file:
You will find it in your Home directory:
(Home/your account) >Library>Preferences>com.apple.iPhoto.plist
Remove or trash the preference (.plist file) and restart iPhoto.
This will get iPhoto 5 to launch like it was the very first time. With only the backup in your Pictures Folder it will try to open with it and do the upgrade.
Peter

Importing iphoto from external hard drive

I was wondering if importing 4 gigs of photos takes longer than 30 minutes to import from external hard drive. The iphoto status after importing still shows "working" as the bar graph "charges" continuously. Does this mean it is still importing? Should it show any other info such as the number and title of photos being imported? Should I stop it after awhile and try a new method of importing? Help.

maxus2:
What method are you using, the copy files or use aliases? I imported 14,000+ files from my second HD and it took between one and two hours, I don't remember exactly as I was doing it 10-12 folders at a time. I was using the alias method thus giving me an 8G library folder on my boot drive for about 25.5G (14,100) of image files. See my reply in this thread, http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=327144&tstart=0, more some more thoughts on the alias method.

Transfering Music from external hard drive

Thought I copied music files from external hard drive to new computer sucessfully, but when I try to play music on computer I get an error message telling me that the original file can't be found and do I want to locate it. Looks like everything is there, artwork, playlists, but can't play. Help. Thanks!!!

Hi,
These Links may be just what you are Looking for...
iTunes on External Drive
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1751
Moving your iTunes Media Folder
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1364
Cheers,

Copy Data from external hard drive to tc via usb

how do iCopy Data from external hard drive to tc via usb

you can't - unless you're willing to void your warranty by removing the TC's HD from the device, put it in an external enclosure, and connect that to your computer.

Recovering data from external hard drive

I backed up music,pictures and personal documents
It said backup was successful, I they to retrieve some documents and none of the those files were in that restored folder

Very similar with your experience
Last time when I was in Rio, I took part in the famous Carnival there with my boyfriend and we took a lot of interesting photos there. About one week ago, one of my friends asked me to show her the photos. However, it turned out to be inaccessible and the PC can not read the data on the drive. And the PC suggested me to format the external hard drive for reusing it again.
people often lose their data from External hard drive, a handy external hard drive data recovery software will be highly recommended to you, ---- EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard
Launch EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard, Then click next button
Select the disk where you lost your data and click Scan button, the software will quickly scan the selected disk to find your target files.
Watch the video below, step by step, you can recover your data.
https://youtu.be/ZA4XzL1mD1s

Install data from external hard drive?

Hi, we have our old macbook data saved on external hard drive (old laptop had water damage but able to retrieve data). I now have new macbook, how do I install data from external hard drive to new macbook? Is it super easy? I didn't want to set up new laptop until I could understand how to install all our old data. Thanks

Do you have the appropriate cable to connect the external drive to to new Macbook?
If you do, the rest is easy. Connect the drive and start up the new Mac. The first steps in the setup will be to enter information about yourself, etc. etc. As you proceed you will be asked if you want to bring in data from another place. Just follow the directions, and the Mac Setup Assistant will do everything for you.
The critical part is making sure the external is corectly connected to the new computer.

Hard drive replaced on imac how to restore data from external hard drive

Hard drive crashed, replaced by authorized dealer. Need to transfer all data from external hard drive to repaired computer.

http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/14.html
See especially C.

Recover data from external hard drive that was Windows format and connected on a Macbook Pro. Did I lose everything? What happened?

Hi there this is my first question here!
I connected my external hard drive originally formatted on PC on my new Macbook. The first time I connected it I could see all my files but today I connected it and after I couldn't see any file nor even on my pc appears as NO NAME with a different name and nothing on it. I think was reformatted, any help to recover all my data?
It's really important stuff for me

If the Apple Store couldn't get files off of the drive, it is unlikely that you will be able to. If you have backups, those would be the best way to go. You could also try booting up the computer and holding down T to boot into Target Disk Mode. Plug the broken computer into another one with FireWire and see if it works to recover data from external hard drive. If you can see it, try booting up the broken computer while holding down Option. Choose Recovery HD from the menu, then choose to Reinstall OS X.
It is unlikely that this will work, because I'm pretty sure that the Apple Store would have tried this. You could try using expensive software to get files off the drive, but it would be risky and the results might not be any good.
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-4273

How to full restore from external hard drive backup

I'm a new MAC user and got myself in a mess where i need to perform full backup restore from external hard drive. Last back via time machine to external drive was 2 days ago, so the data is there.
What are the MAC boot commands to get me to system restore options. And there any useful tips you can pass on.

http://www.macworld.com/article/1165784/how_to_restore_data_from_time_machine.ht ml

HT1751 My win8 pc hard drive failed. After the hard drive was replaced, I copied iTunes Media backupfiles from external hard drive (Karen's Replicator was used). ITunes does not recognize the back up files - help! (it does show cloud & recently burned m

My win8 pc hard drive failed. After the hard drive was replaced, I copied iTunes Media backupfiles from external hard drive (Karen's Replicator backup software was used). ITunes does not recognize these back up files even though the location is the same as cloud & recently burned music that does show- help! The backup files consist of 34,000+ songs; almost all burned from my own CD collection. I do have most of the songs on an ipod classic but hesitate to try to restore from that. Can someone tell me how to get these 34,000 songs to show up in iTunes? Thanks!!

This diagram shows how a typical iTunes library ought to be set out (click on it to enlarge)
The red outline highlights the media folder and its contents, the various subfolders are only created if that kind of content is in your library. The right-hand side shows the files that should be found in the iTunes library folder; sentinel is normally hidden so may not be visible. The core of your iTunes library is the file iTunes Library.itl, you need to restore this, the other library files and the Album Artwork folder, as well as the media folder, to restore your library.
tt2

Migration from external hard drive

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for