Restore from disc vs migration assistant

I have a new macbook pro coming any day now, and I want to transfer everything from my macbook on over. I know I could do this with a firewire cable and migration assistant, but I dont have time to wait for one to come by mail, and I dont want to pick up one from the campus store for a total rip off price of 20 bucks (especially since I can anticipate using it only once).
I have a clone of my macbook disc made with superduper!. Can I use that to transfer everything over to the new mac? Something involving disc utility, I suspect, but thats about as far as I can get.

Migration Assistant and SetUp Assistant don't overwrite the system installation. They just automatically bring over user settings and data duplicating the users/settings on the new computer and putting personal data where it belongs. Using the SetUp Assistant that launches when you first start up your new computer avoids some possible account issues. SetUp Assistant doesn't have to deal with an existing user account on your new computer while Migration Assistant does.
There is a little more information about migration here:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25773#faq1
If you use Migration Assistant I would be more inclined to migrate from a Carbon Copy clone rather than a Time Machine backup just because Time Machine software is so new.

Similar Messages

Restoring From Time Machine Migration Assistant (and other ??)

Hello
Please bear with me on this long question....
For several reasons I reinstalled ML which involves erasing the HDD first. I do have everything bakced-up to Carbonite and TM. Carbonite is slow as molassess so I opted to try Migration Assistant/TM to restore my files. MA does not allow you to choose an older (good) backup and the backup that was used was an incomplete one as evidenced by the photo library being incomplete. Another poster had a similar question and the solution involved using the install disk. There is no install disc since it was a download from the Apps store.
Carbonite has a tendency to freeze-up during a long download. Restarting it brings your download back to the very beginning. I'm not happy about Carbonite. I've heard of SuperDuper and seems to have gotten good reviews.
Questions:
1. Is there a method to access an older TM backup from MA?
2. Is there a better option that Carbonite?
3. Is SuperDuper a good option for backups?
thank you, Bruce.

If your Mac shipped with a System Install DVD then boot from it and choose "Restore from Time Machine backup".
If your Mac shipped with Lion already installed you should be able to use OS X Recovery. Boot while holding ⌘ R and choose "Restore from Time Machine backup".
Either one should present a dated list of complete system backups from which to choose. Ideally it should be the most recent one, but if you have reason to believe it is incomplete (it should not be) then try an earlier one.
You can also boot from a locally connected Time Machine backup volume. Make sure it is connected with USB or FireWire and boot while holding an Option key. This will invoke Startup Manager, from which you can select your Time Machine backup volume. It will present the same restore options as OS X Recovery.
These options will be faster and should be less prone to difficulty than using Migration Assistant.
Time Machine and "clone" software use very different philosophies. SuperDuper! is good, so is Carbon Copy Cloner. They are more customizable than Time Machine, whose customizable features essentially consist of an "on / off" switch
Of course that is also its sole advantage over the others - it's boneheadedly simple to use.
Forget Carbonite, as you learned it does not work well on Macs. I know of no similar offsite backup services to recommend.

Restore from Time Machine / Migration Assistance Utility

Sorry if this is obvious, but just want to restore wo further user complications.
_Back story:_ 2006 iMac running Snow Leopard won't boot. Genius Bar determines HD needs reformatting. Reformats and installs OS v10.5.7, not Snow Leopard. Explained to follow new setup and when prompted select from Time Machine (external HD) and restore. At home I do, it won't. Everything is recognized (External HD, Time Machine, File), but tells me OS on machine older than Time Machine files and to upgrade iMac (and can try again from Migration Assistant Utility).
Continue with prompted new setup and created User Account. iMac now ready and like new. Installed Snow Leopard. Run Migration Assistant Utility and select restore from Time Machine.
Issue: External HD recognized by iMac but not by Migration Assistant Utility. Only selection choice is internal HD. Additionally when connecting external, always get prompted (separate prompt from Migration Assistance) if I want to setup Time Machine and I've been declining. Do I have to set up Time Machine before? It didn't require that when doing new user setup.
Thanks for any and all assistance.

Chad Krukowski wrote:
Than you! that is what I wanted to do, a full restore. Unfortunately was following the direction of the genius bar.
Yup. The Geniuses (like most Apple folks) don't actually use Time Machine on their work computers, and aren't real familiar with it, so this sort of thing isn't all that unusual, unfortunately. You could even have gotten similar advice from AppleCare, depending on the expertise of whoever you happened to get. Sigh.

HP Pavilion dv6-6c29wm will not restore from disc that was made with HP recovery Manager

My HP Pavilion dv6-6c29wm will not restore from disc that was made with HP recovery Manager
Running Windows 7 64-bit on 650gb drive.
Error: "The system media does not support this computer. You are not able to restore this system with the media."
I'm about to order the recovery discs from HP and with any luck be able to bring this laptop back to factory conditionn with all the correct partitions and sizes after I format the hard drive.
This question was solved.
View Solution.

Yes our recovery disks will return your unit to the factory state. All the software that came with the unit will be reinstalled. Whatever you added you will have to reinstall.
I work for HP.
Please click the White Kudos star on the left to say thanks.
Please mark Accept As Solution if this resolves your issue.

Restore Conundrum, Time machine & migration assistant

Hi All
I have got myself in a bit of a pickle and would really appreciate some advice.
My HD crashed and after trying to repair it I got an "Invalid Node Structure" message. Disk Warrior wasn't able to repair it but at least allowed me to copy the drive folders to my external firewire drive. I wasn't able to do an 'Archive & Restore' as the disk wasn't accessible and the only option was to erase the disk. I then re-installed from my Leopard startup disk and currently have 10.5.2 on my machine.
when my machine crashed I was running 10.5.7
My last Time Machine backup was 2 months ago and is 10.5.6 (and the partition map scheme was unfortunately MBR on the external drive!!!)
What I would like to do is to restore my system from the TM backup and then update my data from the copied folders on my external FW drive that I copied with Disk Warrior. The problem is that migration assistant doesn't recognise the copied folders as the disk is not a start up disk. I am therefore in the process of using disk utility to create an image of the folders on the FW drive on another partition on that drive that has a GUID partition map scheme.
Am I doing the right thing? what else should I do or to get back up and running with the most up to date data and system settings?
This is my proposed sequence of activities:
1. Restore system using my time machine back-up
2. Use migration assistant to update data from the copied files disk image
Many thanks

I'm not sure how well the current version of Spotlight works with external drives, but you might try a Spotlight search of your backups, using the "Last Modified Date" criterion to help find files & folders you want to copy over to the startup drive. However, I think you will have to copy the files from the mounted disk image back onto some drive to do this because I don't think Spotlight works with disk images.
For Mail, iCal, & some other apps, you can probably just replace the appropriate folders (like your ~/Library/Mail/ folder) on your startup drive with the corresponding backup ones. To be safe, I would use the backup options provided with these apps (like those mentioned in How to back up and restore your important Mac OS X 10.4 files) and/or make copies of the startup drive versions in case something goes wrong or you find that there are items in one folder that aren't in the other.
Other possibly useful links:
iCal, Mac OS X 10.5: Empty "Home" and "Work" calendars may appear after installing Leopard
Mac OS X 10.5 Help: About application data and preferences
I'm fairly sure some other user will have a more detailed answer for you....

Problems Restoring From Disc Image

Hello Support Community
I'm attempting to replace a suspected failing HD on my G5. I made a disc image of the suspected drive in disc untility, and have it on an external drive. I purchased a 500GB WD Cavier Black HD for my new drive. I removed the old drive, and put the new one in. I noticed on the old drive that there was a jumper installed all the way to the right when the drive is installed in the machine. I tried restoring with the jumper installed, and without. I had better luck with the jumper installed. I got an error that said device does not support this action when I tried to restore to the new drive without the jumper installed. Now, without the jumper installed, when I go to restore from my disc image, I get a Restore Failure error saying "An error (2) occurred while copying. (No such file or directory)" Once I click ok, and try it again, I now get a message that says "An error (16) occurred while copying. (Resource Busy)"
Any ideas what my problem would be at this point? It seems as though my .dmg is functioning just fine. It mounts, and looks to have all contents of my old boot drive. The new drive is able to be formatted just fine. Did I buy the wrong tupe of drive? Is it too new?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Dave

Hello,
I think you might need a Jumper on pins 5&6 to slow the drive to G5 SATA 1 speeds...
http://wdc.com/wdproducts/library/other/2579-001037.pdf

Restore from disc

i am trying to restore my i tunes library from back up discs but 2 of the discs say there is not enough memory and wont restore can anybody help please?

Hi, connect your external HD to your Mac and switch on the external HD.
Then switch your Mac and hold down the "option" key.
This will give you a choice of "boot-able" drives, one of which will be your ext. HD. - select this one.
When it's finished booting up, you will be running from your external HD.
Then run Disk Utility and repair permissions and also do a Disk check.
(This will, I hope, repair the problem you were having before).
Now run CCC to clone FROM ext. hard drive TO your internal Mac drive.
When it's finished, re-boot and hold down "option" key once more, and this time select your Mac's internal drive to boot from and your done!
Regards,
Robert.

Error "The Connection Failed" in Time Machine, Migration Assistant and Restore From DVD

I am receiving this error when trying to connect to my Time Machine Backup in my Time capsule. I input the proper password to access my Time Capsule and It returns me to the screen with the caption "The connection failed" under the Time Capsule name in the "Select your Disk" screen. What would cause this error. I am connecting via WIFI (AirPort) and have full signal. I am using Mac OSX 10.6.8
I recently had my 1TB hard drive replaced and I am attempting to restore using Time Machine, migration assistant or from the startup dvd (tried multiple ways, no success). The initial setup of mac OSX 10.6 would not let me connect or other attempts after erasing hard drive and reinstalling OSX from disk.
Worked on it all weekend and don't have enough beer to drown the frustration, any help is appreciated.

You are correct TM is not at all easy to do a full restore.
To answer your question: Yes TM disk does show up in finder.
After my initial startup setup I was able to start TM and access all my previous backups. I migrated some files and was able grab the data from finder. Not satisfied with that I tried to do a restore to that previous date, to no success. I then erased the HD and reinstalled OSx and tried again from the setup screen. That didn't work, sulked over some beers. I then tired with Migration assistant...same result (more beer).
In starting TM after trying MA, only one backup was showing in the Star screen (today). None of my previous backups were showing. Since exiting TM it has been "Making Backup Disk Available" ( xGB of 6.29GB). Considering the size, I can only assume that these are my previous backups.
I have reviewed Pondini's posts, FAQs, and tutorials. I am a little scared to try and locate the drives through Terminal as in Pondini's TS #6 guide. If I can get my previous backups to show up, I will be happy with dragging files from Finder to restore my data and slowly work at restoring my settings/applications.

Migration Assistant Crashes when importing from ext HD using Time Machine

Hi there,
I'm having issues restoring a harddrive using migration assistant to import a TimeMachine backup.
I've just reinstalled Mac OS X 10.5.8 onto a Mac Pro 2.66 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon with 2GB RAM.
I've done all updates and repaired permissions on bootable drive and repaired the external disk where the TimeMachine is stored.
The TimeMachine is stored on an external harddrive with USB2.0 connection.
I can load Migration Assistant, select migrate from TimeMachine, but when the import users screen appears after 40 seconds or so Migration Assistant crashes.
Here is the console report:
Querying receipt database for system packages
01/12/2010 17:07:20 Migration Assistant[123] Long name checked : admin05
01/12/2010 17:07:20 Migration Assistant[123] Long name checked : aeroplane05
01/12/2010 17:07:20 Migration Assistant[123] Long name checked : apple05
01/12/2010 17:07:20 Migration Assistant[123] Long name checked : bike05
01/12/2010 17:07:20 Migration Assistant[123] Long name checked : boat05
01/12/2010 17:07:20 Migration Assistant[123] Long name checked : car05
01/12/2010 17:07:20 Migration Assistant[123] Long name checked : cat05
01/12/2010 17:07:20 Migration Assistant[123] Long name checked : dragon05
01/12/2010 17:07:20 Migration Assistant[123] Long name checked : duck05
01/12/2010 17:07:20 Migration Assistant[123] Long name checked : fish05
01/12/2010 17:07:20 Migration Assistant[123] Long name checked : football05
01/12/2010 17:07:20 Migration Assistant[123] Long name checked : lily05
01/12/2010 17:07:20 Migration Assistant[123] Long name checked : mouse05
01/12/2010 17:07:20 Migration Assistant[123] Long name checked : panda05
01/12/2010 17:07:20 Migration Assistant[123] Long name checked : rhino05
01/12/2010 17:07:20 Migration Assistant[123] Long name checked : shark05
01/12/2010 17:07:20 Migration Assistant[123] Long name checked : snowflake05
01/12/2010 17:07:20 Migration Assistant[123] Long name checked : starfish05
01/12/2010 17:07:20 Migration Assistant[123] Long name checked : sunflower05
01/12/2010 17:07:20 Migration Assistant[123] Long name checked : tiger05
01/12/2010 17:07:20 Migration Assistant[123] Long name checked : zebra05
01/12/2010 17:07:20 [0x0-0x11011].com.apple.MigrateAssistant[123] mmap: Cannot allocate memory
01/12/2010 17:07:20 [0x0-0x11011].com.apple.MigrateAssistant[123] vm_allocate failed
01/12/2010 17:07:20 [0x0-0x11011].com.apple.MigrateAssistant[123] vm_allocate failed
01/12/2010 17:07:23 Migration Assistant[123] An uncaught exception was raised
01/12/2010 17:07:23 Migration Assistant[123] connection went invalid while waiting for a reply
01/12/2010 17:07:23 Migration Assistant[123] * Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSInvalidReceivePortException', reason: 'connection went invalid while waiting for a reply'
01/12/2010 17:07:23 Migration Assistant[123] Stack: (
2459639787,
2478489147,
2459639243,
2459639306,
2540575982,
2540572201,
2459662410,
2459662514,
240556308,
2540350973,
2540349860,
2462499157,
2462498834
01/12/2010 17:07:24 com.apple.launchd[75] ([0x0-0x11011].com.apple.MigrateAssistant[123]) Exited abnormally: Trace/BPT trap[/SIZE]
Has anyone experienced a similar issues?
Many thanks in advance.

saleemmartin wrote:
Hi Pondini,
Thank you for your reply, your help is much appreciated.
The original problem was: On one user account the user root directory was not writable (i.e. the user couldn't save any work to their documents), so I tried to reset the permissions in the "get info" menu, but after that the OS X directory didn't start. I did successfully repair all permissions using Disk Utility (running from the external harddrive OSX i mentioned in my last post).
Do you think Disk Utility didn't repair all the permissions? In this case, the permissions on the Time Machine backup might still be corrupted.
That doesn't affect user permissions, only permissions on files installed by OSX or Apple apps. And you can't repair permissions on your backups, since that's not a "bootable" volume.
It seems that my Migration Assistant crashes routinely after 40 seconds (or so) no matter which options you select (if any). Even if I leave the app searching for user accounts on the Time Machine it crashes.
If I'm quick i'll be able to deselect all users except admin, or if I'm slow I won't get so far. No matter what, it still crashes.
Oh, it hadn't sunk in that it was crashing before you make selections. Now that I re-read your first post, I see you did say that, sorry.
The app never allows me to view installed applications.
No, it won't. You can only select or omit them.
I don't know whether you have a problem with your Mac or the backups.
You mentioned earlier that you'd done a +*Repair Disk+* on the TM drive, so if there's a problem with them, it's something DU can't fix.
Have you done a +*Verify Disk+* on your internal HD? If not, make sure it's ok.
If so, something may be amiss with the +Migration Assistant+ app. I'd suggest downloading and installing the "combo" update. That's the cleverly-named combination of all the updates to Leopard since it was first released, so installing it should fix anything that's gone wrong since then, such as with one of the normal "point" updates. Info and download available at: http://support.apple.com/downloads/MacOS_X_10_5_8_ComboUpdate Be sure to do a +Repair Permissions+ via Disk Utility (in your Applications/Utilities folder) afterwards.

Problems using Migration Assistant from Tiger to Snow Leopard

I want to scavenge files and apps from a Power Mac G4 (PowerMac3,5) running Tiger 10.4.11 before I turn it out to pasture. Most of them were migrated years ago to another system and have been updated and upgraded over the years, but a few apps have no modern equivalent. Now I want to do one last "pull" to pick up anything left behind all those years ago, particularly apps for which the install discs are in deep storage at best and possibly discarded.
I'm trying to use Migration Assistant in a nearly virgin Snow Leopard 10.6.8 system (installed fresh from 10.6.3 retail optical disc, updated over the network, lightly tested). It has a single admin account, no other user accounts.
Possible complicating factors: the Snow Leopard system is Server running under Parallels 10.1.4 on Yosemite 10.10.2 on an Early 2008 Mac Pro (MacPro3,1) with third-party USB3 controller in a PCI slot.
At present, I'm using a portable drive with both FW and USB interfaces as an intermediate storage (FW on the G4 to clone the system drive, USB on the Mac Pro to connect it to the virtual machine). SL sees the drive just fine, can copy files from it, and can even run apps from it. Migration Assistant sees the drive and offers to migrate from it.
Two problems:
1. No matter what user(s) I select for migration, Migration Assistant tells me it is a duplicate account. Proposing an account name never used before does not help. As a result, no user files can be migrated. (Obviously, I could copy them in other ways, but I think MA should do a more thorough job.)
2. Migration Assistant offers to migrate absolutely no applications. Even applications that SL will run from the drive cannot be migrated. (Some are PPC apps, but SL will run them via Rosetta. Others are Universal apps.)
Am I expecting too much of Migration Assistant?
Is the Migration Assistant shipped with SL Server (and updated through Software Update) not capable of running under SL Server?
Should SL MA refuse to migrate any applications from a Power Mac, even Universal applications?
Am I missing something obvious?
Is there key information I have omitted?

markwmsn wrote:
...It's not the twenty bucks, it's the principle of the thing.
Not sure what you meant by that statement. Although this "principle" may be more important to you than the twenty bucks, I know that my time is worth more to me than your twenty bucks!
What apps are you using?
markwmsn wrote:
I was able to install Snow Leopard (client) in a partition, and it was able to migrate users and many applications from the G4 clone on the portable drive. Some of the apps even run.
Then I went back to my SL Server virtual machine and tried to migrate FROM the SL client partition. Migration Assistant showed the same symptoms as importing from the clone directly (no apps offered, bogus "dup user" errors). I am forced to conclude that either (a) Migration Assistant 3.0.4/1.1 is broken when run on SL Server or (b) my new SL Server installation is broken. I'm either going to have to boot back and forth to run the old apps or find their installation media and reinstall them in my SL Server virtual machine.
Even worse, I realized that one of the antique programs I still haven't dug everything out of is a Classic application that had to be kludged to survive Y2K!
Thanks again, MIchaelLAX.
Anybody else have any clever ideas?
So, glad to see that Migration Assistant did work for you in Snow Leopard...
More clever ideas:
Install Snow Leopard client in Parallels and use its Migration Assistant:
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1365439
Here is a recent post I assembled for running Classic apps on Intel Macs:
With the newer Intel Macs, you have to run a Classic emulator such as SheepShaver, which requires you to extract the Mac ROMs from your older Classic Mac and then install Mac OS 9.
A related program is Chubby Bunny, which comes bundled with all of that included (google the term "Classic-On-Intel v 4.0.1 chubby bunny").
More information on SheepShaver:
http://www.emaculation.com/doku.php/sheepshaver_mac_os_x_setup
and
http://www.everymac.com/mac-answers/mac-os-9-classic-support-faq/run-macos-9-on- intel-macs.html
and more information about Chubby Bunny:
http://www.macwindows.com/OS9_on_Intel_Mac.html#092408b
and
http://hackthemac.blogspot.co.uk/2008/08/chubby-bunny-old-virtual-machine.html
Here is the Classic CD-ROM version of RISK II running in SheepShaver on my Lion Mac Mini:
[click on image to enlarge]

I used Migration Assistant to transfer from MBP to Mac Mini. Documents cannot be "seen" or "found". Stumped!

I used Migration Assistant to transfer from MBP (Leopard OSX 10.6.8) to Mac Mini (Lion OSX 10.7). Documents cannot be "seen" or "found". Ditto Music , movies, and pictures.Stumped!

System Preferences/Users & Groups shows you the various user accounts you have.
Look at your hard drive in the Finder sidebar. You should see Applications, Library, System, and Users. If you look in Users you will see a Shared folder. From the user Migration Assistant created, find the iTunes folder and drag it to Shared. Log out and log in using your normal user account, go to the same place and copy it to Music in your normal user account. Another option is to leave it in shared so any user can access it. You will have to tell iTunes where to find the music by going to iTunes/Preferences/Advanced.
Welcome to the world of Mac. Some ‘light’ reading to help the transition. I don’t recommend trying to get through all of this at once.
A guide for switching to a Mac
Anatomy of a Mac
Mac Basics—Tutorials on using a Mac
Mac OS X keyboard shortcuts,
Mac Basics – Mac Find Out How
Mac Basics – Switching From Windows
Mac OS FAQ
MacTips,
Quick Assist
Switch Basics
Switching to Mac Superguide
Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Mountain Lion Edition
Take Control E-books
Welcome to the Switch To A Mac Guides

Can u use Migration assistant from 10.5.8 to 10.7.2?

My new MacPro is OS X 10.7.2 and my old one is 10.5.8. Migration assistant does not work either from eithernet hookup or Firewire 800. Is there a software patch or update for either box to allow migration from Old OsX 10.5.8 to 10.7.2?

Yes, but you must use Migration Assistant from the new computer and boot the old computer into Target Disk Mode - Transferring files between two computers using FireWire.
Mac OS X 10.7 Help- Transferring files between two computers using target disk mode
How to use and troubleshoot FireWire target disk mode
OS X Lion- How to use Migration Assistant to transfer files from another Mac
Migration Assistant tips and tricks

I used Migration Assistant to transfer my iTunes from pc to mac. Everything seemed to work fine and it took 15 hours and said that it was successful, but I cannot find my music on my mac?

Any advice would be apprecitated.
Thanks

System Preferences/Users & Groups shows you the various user accounts you have.
Look at your hard drive in the Finder sidebar. You should see Applications, Library, System, and Users. If you look in Users you will see a Shared folder. From the user Migration Assistant created, find the iTunes folder and drag it to Shared. Log out and log in using your normal user account, go to the same place and copy it to Music in your normal user account. Another option is to leave it in shared so any user can access it. You will have to tell iTunes where to find the music by going to iTunes/Preferences/Advanced.
Welcome to the world of Mac. Some ‘light’ reading to help the transition. I don’t recommend trying to get through all of this at once.
A guide for switching to a Mac
Anatomy of a Mac
Mac Basics—Tutorials on using a Mac
Mac OS X keyboard shortcuts,
Mac Basics – Mac Find Out How
Mac Basics – Switching From Windows
Mac OS FAQ
MacTips,
Quick Assist
Switch Basics
Switching to Mac Superguide
Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Mountain Lion Edition
Take Control E-books
Welcome to the Switch To A Mac Guides

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.
|
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].

Restore from time machine to SSD/HDD iMac

Hi,
I had to erase HDD/SDD on my 2011 iMac with both SSD and HDD drives. The system was installed on the 256 GB SSD ("Macintosh HD) and the user accounts on the much larger 2 TB HDD ("Macintosh HD 2"). I was able to restore the SSD with the system, software etc. Also one smaller account that was previously on the SSD also made the cut. However, I didn't figure out how to restore also the contents to the HDD and whenever I've tried to use the Migration Assistant I was told that there is no need to restore the user accounts that were sitting on the HDD (in fact, Migration Assistant said that there is only "1 kb" to transfer). I've then tried to manually copy the user accounts from time machine (on a Time Capsule) to the HDD but I've waited for hours (my account is roughly 1 TB big) - only to get error messages about permissions. Same story happened when I tried to log into my empty user account and tried to use time machine to restore my folders.
How is this system supposed to work in the first place? Shouldn't the user accounts on the HDD be restored 'automatically' during a restore or when using migration assistant?
Look forward to hear from you.

samaki wrote:
"This user's data doesn't need to be transferred")
That seems to mean, their home folders aren't on the OSX drive, so Migration Assistant doesn't need to (or can't) transfer them.
We've asked Apple to address this, but it doesn't seem real common, and would make the Assistants rather complicated, especially for newbies.
I've tried out many things I had come to get used to from 12+ years on the Mac
Yeah, it ends up being a bit of a conundrum. That's why it's often best to leave the home folders on the Startup drive, but put the data on the HD.
I've made a note to try to find a better workaround for your situation (the Disk Utility thing is fine, space permitting). I tried a bunch of finagles when I wrote that page, but maybe something will turn up with a fresh start.
Retrospectively, perhaps, it was a mistake to have the time machine backup sitting on a user account specific folder on the time capsule (named after my first name) instead of the standard "Data". Both the setup assistant after flatting the drives and reinstalling 10.8 and the Migration Assistant seem to have had trouble to recognise the password protected location.
It does complicate things.
For the future I'd loved to know what one could do to streamline this should the need arise again?
What I'm thinking of is, if you still have access to the old Mac, to create default home folders on the SSD, point the accounts to them, so they can sign on. Then either transfer directly from the old Mac, or do a backup and transfer from it. Log on to each user account, copy the home folder, then redirect the account to that one. Sounds promising, but there are a couple of "gotchas" there, I think.
I'll let you know, and revise that page accordingly, if I figure something out.
Thanks for the feedback - - it gets me thinking.

Restore from disc vs migration assistant

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