Need to Erase/Reinstall After Failed Migration

Hi! I attempted to do a transfer via Migration Assistant yesterday from my 2009 MacBook Pro to my new MacBook Pro and it failed (it stalled for 10 hours on "Less Than a Minute Remaining..."
I powered off the new machine and quit MA on the old one. I ran Disk Repair and Repair Permissions on the old machine and everything checks out fine.
I need to restart the migration ... what steps do I need to take to erase/reinstall? The new machine shows that ALL of the date was transferred, but I shouldn't trust that - right?
From Disk Utility do I choose Erase>Mac OS Extended (Journaled)? And then wait for it to erase and then go where to reformat to GUID before doing the migration? And when I start the migration, will I need to first re-install the system software? One more question ... my old machine has 10.5.8 running, is that a problem??
I REALLY appreciate any help you can offer!! I'm crunched for time and need to get this done!

I'm not sure who your communication is directed to but I think it's me. Please reply to the person you're intending your communication to go to. If you want to start all over here are some instructions:
1. First Backup!!!! This is critical just in case and disconnect any peripherals!
2. Insert the Mac OS X Install DVD and click the icon that says *Install Mac OS X.app*
3. Click Utilities then click Restart enter the Name and Password
4. After it restarts (this takes awhile because it's loading from the DVD) Choose the language then click Utilities menu then click *Disk Utility* then choose your HD (it will be called something like MacBook Pro) then click the *Erase tab* and make sure the format is set to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) then click Erase
5. After it has reformatted the HD you can exit Disk Utility and continue with the installation, this will take about 30 minutes and it will walk you through the installation so it will think it's brand new and you can then use Setup Assistant to migrate all of your stuff from the old Mac.
6. After the migration has been completed you will now want to install the data from the Applications Install DVD that came with the computer. Click Install Bundled Software.mpkg and follow the on-screen instructions. After that has fully installed you should be up and running with you new machine.
Roger

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No Admin account after failed Migration

Hi, I have been having many problems with the new hard drive I just got to replace a failed drive.
The first thing I did was attempt to restore from a backup with 10.6, while booted into 10.4. That gave me the gray screen of death.
Reinstalled 10.5 and attempted to restore the backup using Migration Assistant, but the harddrive with the backup didn't mount and wasn't recognized by the computer.
Then I reinstalled 10.6, and after several failed attempts, finally got the computer to recognize my backup harddrive. I tried to use migration assistant from a Guest account so I could replace the Admin account on the computer with the Admin account from the backup.
When I restarted the computer after the Migration (which looked like it had gone well), there was no Admin account, only Guest. and on top of that, it's requiring a password to login to the Guest account, but I can't figure out what the password would be, it shakes no on every attempt.
I haven't been able to check if my files are there or not, because I can't login. I did verify disk permissions, and a lot of stuff was wrong, so I repaired but still could not log in.
I'm assuming I'll have to start from scratch with a new install of the OS and then run Migration Assistant again, this time without attempting to replace the new account with the backup account. Any insights as to how I can prevent this from happening again or how I can fix it?

Thank you! Got everything back to normal... only weird thing was my harddrive didn't have room for everything that was on there before from the back up. Easy to fix, though.

New Air won't boot after failed Migration

New MacBook Air arrived this afternoon.
First thing I did was run Software Update to apply the lates OS patches.
Second thing I did was run Migration Assistant to transfer data from a Time Machine backup on an external USB disk. The old computer was small. Backup is only about 25GB. It is from a MacBook running Snow Leopard.
After about half an hour of running, Migration Assistant reached the "less than a minute remaining" stage and hung there for more than an hour. Finally I quit it. My computer then became unresponsive. I had to hold down the power key and restart.
Computer won't restart. Bong is heard, Apple appears, spinner appears, no progress after that. Unplugged the external disk, rebooted, same thing.
I rebooted to the recovery partition and ran Disk Utility, did the integrity check and the permission repair on the main volume, no improvement.
Finally I gave up and started the Reinstall Lion option. I'd read about this, figured it was something I might need someday, never imagined I'd be running it within hours of getting the computer. Display says I have 5 hours and 45 minutes to wait.
What went wrong here? What should I do when it is done reinstalling? I'd like to have my old stuff back, but I don't want to kill my computer again.
Frank

For what it's worth, booting stops at the "Waiting for DSMOS" step.

Hard drive problems--is it dying or do I just need to erase/reinstall?

Have been having freeze-up problems in the last few weeks, so I've been diligent about dumping caches, keeping my permissions verified and repaired and the hard drive itself optimized. I use the Disk Utility and DiskWarrior for this.
Hardware diagnostics show no problem, but this uses feedback from the built-in 'smart' monitoring so, who knows?
Evenso, I kept getting "fun with beach balls" and often lately the hard drive goes 'missing'. When shut the machine down out of frustration and leave it alone for a while, it comes back up nicely. But not for long.
Today, after it came back up again, I decided to heck with it, erase and reinstall. But--you guessed it--the installer doesn't display my hard drive.
What do you knowing folks think? Suggestions most welcome. This has been a great machine, but for only two years.

hi kes4,
Your first reply sounds exactly like a problem I had with my iBook, and it was the hard drive. I too tried doing a reinstall, and my hard drive would not show up. Once it was replaced everything runs good as new.
The issue about it heating up sounds like it might be another concern like the battery. I think your profile said you have a 15in Powerbook? If so, they are doing a safety recall on specific models, just follow the link here,
https://depot.info.apple.com/batteryexchange/index.html?lang=en
There is a chance if it is the battery problem listed Apple might replace your hard drive if they can conclude the battery problem (if thats what it is) caused it. Its worth a shot anyways.
I hope this works out for you.

Missing hard drive space after failed migration assistant transfer

When I first got my 13" macbook pro (about a month ago), I attempted to use Migration Assistant to move my files from my old 15" MBP. After starting the transfer, my old MBP locked up (or so I thought) & I had to quit the process. When I looked to see if anything transfered to the 13", I couldn't find anything, but there was hard drive space, maybe about 15 GB, missing. I looked everywhere I knew to look, in all folders all over my computer but came up emptyhanded. Although I've been using macs for years, I have little knowledge of all the inner workings/hidden files, etc. so I've reached the end of my abilities. I've searched all over & have been unable to find an answer. I had originally decided to just let it go & deal with a few missing gigabytes, but I just have to know what's going on. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Problem solved! Ran Disk Utility not in recover mode again, and it identified that the logical size wasn't right. Repair Disk while logged in - and at the upper level "Macintosh HD" on the left sidebar - fixed the issue, and I'm going to not attempt to run Boot Camp again for a while just in case :-p

Help-Flash needs to be reinstalled after every reboot

I need a little bit of help and I'm hoping someone might have the solution to my problem. This has been going on for 2-3 weeks now. Flash installs and works perfectly fine. Then when I restart my computer and try to use a program that requires flash.. I get a white screen and it doesn't load anything, but if I look at my add-ons for my browser it does show up there. If I reinstall flash again, it works just fine until I restart my computer again. I have already tried uninstalling and reinstalling flash. That does nothing.
I have Windows 7 (64 bit) and I use Mozilla Firefox as my browser (right now it's ver 8.0)
I have tried searching online for people with a similar problem because usually I can find a solution to my problems, but this is a very frustrating one. I just can't find any topic that helps solve my problem. I'm tired of leaving my computer on and it's ridiculous to have to keep reinstalling. Please help.

XxKellsxX wrote:
No, still a white screen and now when I download flash player my antivirus program says it finds a threat called Kelihos with it. I'm not downloading from anywhere, but the official site and when I look it up it says this thing spreads by email. I haven't actually opened any email in awhile. Any thoughts?
Kelihos is, or was a botnet. It was taken down by Microsoft a couple of months ago. See Microsoft brings Kelihos botnet to a halt If you had that on your system, then yours was one of a few thousand machines that distributed SPAM all over the world.
Can you download a security app at work? If so, download the free version of Malwarebytes and then rename it to something random. The setup file is called mbam-setup-1.51.2.1300.exe
But if your machine has been compromised, then hackers will have taken the precaution of ensuring that you cannot install it. By renaming it to say, xxkekksxx.exe for example, you have a better chance of being able to install and run it, assuming of course that your system has been compromised. To rename a file, click it once, hit F2 and then call it something else. Then copy it to a USB stick and finally drag it onto to your own machine from there. Run a full system scan and delete anything it finds.
The reason I say this is because usually, once a machine has been infected with one trojan, it downloads even more malware without the need for user intervention. As you can see from this Microsoft article regarding Kelihos there are hardly any outward signs that a machine has been infected.
Message was edited by: Xircal

Flash player needs to be reinstalled after start up

I have a windows 7 professional 64 bit computer which i have to install adobe flash player every time I start up.
I am running firefox as my browser

Why you "have to" install it after every startup? Do you get any error message?
[topic moved to Flash Player forum]

After reinstalling Snow Leopard, migration assist and doesn't see my time machine disk.

I had to erase my hard drive and reinstall Snow Leopard and when I tried to us Migration Assistant, it didn't see the Time Machine disk. Restoring from Time Machine directly didn't work because I couldn't gain access to and backup prior to the reinstall although the backups are all there when I open the Time Machine disk and look at folders from before the reinstall they all open perfectly. How do I get to restore from pre-reinstall dates backups?

I couldn't get Mail to open. It bounced in the dock but wouldn't open. All other programs were very slow, Disk utility showed the disk couldn't be repaired, so I erased and reinstalled and restored from time machine. Everything we OK for a couple of weeks, then all the response times became very extended or wouldn't open at all. Took the iMac to the Apple Store where they checked out the hardware and found it to be OK. They told me to erase, reinstall and use migration assistant to bring only my profile over. The erase and reinstall were fine, but the time machine drive could not be seen by migration assistant, and I don't have access through the time machine utility to any backups prior to the first reinstall.

I have deleted my private folder and do not have enough space to reinstall my operating system. How can i transfer files from my hard drive to an USB drive to free up space when the operating system isn't working. or do i need to erase disk?

i have deleted my private folder and do not have enough space to reinstall my operating system. How can i transfer files from my hard drive to an USB drive to free up space when the operating system isn't working. or do i need to erase disk through disk utilities without erasing data (but will it delete my programs such as photoshop, office, creative suite?

Connect the computer to another Mac and put it in FireWire Target Disk mode, or use the Disk Utility to clone the drive or image specific folders with the USB drive as the target. After you've copied off everything you want, you'll likely need to erase the drive and reinstall the applications.
(69695)

I need to reinstall my original factory disc and reset my computer to the beginning. It currently has lion. Do I need to erase my HD first to clear and make new room for the install disc.

I need to reinstall my original factory disc and reset my computer to the beginning. It currently has lion. Do I need to erase my HD first to clear and make new room for the install disc.

Prepare Your Mac for Sale
Boot from the OS X Installer Disc One that came with the computer. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select the startup volume from the left side list then click on the Erase tab. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) then click on the Options button. Select the one pass Zero Data option and click on the OK button. Then click on the Erase button.
Note: You can skip the Zero Data option if you are not concerned about removing sensitive personal data from the hard drive. If you choose to skip this part of the process then it is possible for others to recover data from the hard drive. The Zero Data procedure will prevent others from getting access to your personal information.
This process will take 30 minutes to several hours depending upon the size of the hard drive. After formatting has completed quit DU and return to the installer. Now complete the OS X installation. At the completion of the installation do not restart the computer. Instead just shut it off. The next user will be presented with the Setup Assistant when they turn on the computer just as it would if new out of the box.

Am running Tiger 10.4.11; just got Snow Leopard 10.6.3 (regular OS disk, not an upgrade); when I install Snow Leopard, will it wipe everything? overwrite Tiger? Do I need to make backups of applications and files to reinstall after Sno Lprd loads? thx!

Am running Tiger 10.4.11; just got Snow Leopard 10.6.3 (regular OS disk, not upgrade). When I install Snow Leopard, will it wipe everything? overwrite Tiger? Do I need to make backups of applications and files to reinstall after Snow Leopard Loads? thanks!

Hi Donald,
No it doesn't erase anything by default, it does what we used to call an Archive and Install feature, which can give you a new OS, yet preserve your files and settings if you have enough room on your HD...
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107120
But it does it automatically unless you specifically erase the Disk, but will replace Tiger completely for the OS & several Apple Apps like Safari, Mail, etc, yet preserve your old settings for those!
If you think you may need Tiger to run any APPs that do not work in SL/10.6, then clone or backup first.
I would recomend 2 things before installing though...
Make sure you have enough RAM & HD space.
Snow Leopard/10.6.x Requirements...
General requirements
   * Mac computer with an Intel processor
    * 1GB of memory (I say 2GB at least)
    * 5GB of available disk space (I say 30GB at least)
If it's a core Duo & not a Core2Duo, then it'll only run in 32 bit mode.
"Try Disk Utility
1. Insert the new Mac OS X SL/10.6 Install Disc, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)
Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.
3. Click the First Aid tab.
4. Select your Mac OS X volume.
5. Click Repair. Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk."
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214

My hard drive is messed up I was told I need to erase and reinstall lion, but I was wondering if I could reinstall maverick instead seeing as it is the most recent one out there. Ideas? tips?

I am running Mac OSX 10.7.5 I need to erase everything and reinstall. Should I reinstall Lion again or maverick?

Ooops.
I upgraded my 10.6.8 system to 10.7.5. ..No problem, but my practice is to connect an ESATA dock to my macpro. install to the drive in the doc, use migration assistant to migrate my data and apps.   use the os in the doc for 2 weeks, if no issue then I delete the OS partiton in my Internal System Drive, do a carbon copy clone to the internal drive.
I just did the similar to upgrade to mavericks.   I installed to a new hardrive in my docking station.   (black widow esata dock). I noticed 10.9.1 is slow stayed with 10.7.5 as my operating system. now and then I would boot 10.9.1 fire up the console utility and fix the issues that made it slow....
Now I am at the "burn in stage" mavericks is now running fast and stable.   I'll use all my apps and if it does not break with the applications I run I will eventaully cc my 10.7.5 OS drive to the docking station, file the drive away.. and take my 10.9.1 drive in the doc and cc it to my internal system drive.
I always wipe out a partion when installing a new OS. Zeroing out is a bit more thorough, you will know if your drive is junk... but it's overkill for me.
I figured repartion is ok.
I'm 2 weeks away from doing a carbon copy clone from my 10.9.1 os drive in my dock to my internal drive.
by the way.. I am running Mavericks on a 8 core macpro 2,1. I have a modified bootloader that has an arbitration layer EFI32 to/from EFI64 emulated.
pretty cool.
And from new system standards, the old macpro stacks up pretty well:

I interrupted a software update and my macbook pro will not boot. I have tried to reboot using the startup disc, I have tried to verify the disc, and repair the disc. It tells me I need to erase and reformat the hard drive then reinstall the operating sys

I interrupted a software update and my macbook pro will not boot. I have tried to reboot using the startup disc, I have tried to verify the disc, and repair the disc. It tells me I need to erase and reformat the hard drive then reinstall the operating system. I do not have a back up of all my applications, my garageband music and other things. I also do not have time capsule set up on this machine, but I do have a 2 TB time capsule.
Is there anyway to back up this corrupted drive so I can restore my applications later?

There's an old saying. If you don't have a backup disc, then there must be nothing important to backup. That's just lesson #1. Lesson #2 is to never interrupt a software update. Not a good thing.
OK, I'm sure you know this. It just upsets me to read your story, knowing you have a lot of important stuff on your hard drive, and didn't use time machine.
You're pretty much in a bad place. My only hope for you is to boot to your Installation Disc, then using disk utility see if you can save the internal hard drive (by fixing what can be fixed). You might be able to see your user folder and some of your apps. I wouldn't even consider copying the library, because who knows what's been corrupted in there.
Good luck.

When starting up after a erase/reinstall of Mac OS X 10.6 it will not accept any of my passwords/names

when starting up after a erase/reinstall of Mac OS X 10.6 it will not accept any of my passwords/names, I had just entered my info and clicked on "continue", the cube began to turn and froze, a translucent screen came over the whole window and request that I restart the computer, after doing so, I got the start up sound and a message saying that OS X was starting up and then the sign in window, but when I entered my info it kept shaking/rejecting it, only thing I can think is that could I have possibly entered my password wrong twice, don't know, I'm still scratching my head.

Do it again, I'm afraid. Be sure you set up the initial admin account with a proper password you can remember - all lowercase letters and numbers. No special characters or spaces except for the "_" underline character.
Clean Install of Snow Leopard
Be sure to make a backup first because the following procedure will erase
the drive and everything on it.
     1. Boot the computer using the Snow Leopard Installer Disc or the Disc 1 that came
         with your computer. Insert the disc into the optical drive and restart the computer.
         After the chime press and hold down the "C" key. Release the key when you see
         a small spinning gear appear below the dark gray Apple logo.
     2. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue
         button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
         After DU loads select the hard drive entry from the left side list (mfgr.'s ID and drive
         size.) Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window. Set the number of
         partitions to one (1) from the Partitions drop down menu, click on Options button
         and select GUID, click on OK, then set the format type to MacOS Extended
         (Journaled, if supported), then click on the Apply button.
     3. When the formatting has completed quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed
         with the OS X installation and follow the directions included with the installer.
     4. When the installation has completed your computer will Restart into the Setup
         Assistant. Be sure you configure your initial admin account with the exact same
         username and password that you used on your old drive. After you finish Setup
         Assistant will complete the installation after which you will be running a fresh
         install of OS X. You can now begin the update process by opening Software
         Update and installing all recommended updates to bring your installation current.
Download and install Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1.

I need to reinstall CS5 on a machine that has had to be reformatted, i need a Support Code after obtaining the Challenge Code. Please help

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<moved from Adobe Creative Cloud to Downloading, Installing, Setting Up>
use your serial number to activate. if you cannot connect to adobe's server's to activate, Sign in, activation, or connection errors | CS5.5 and later

Need to Erase/Reinstall After Failed Migration

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