The Mac HD has booting issues - how do I make a clone that is free of these?

Question

I spilled water on my MacBook Air (10.6.8) and now it has booting issues.
When I shut it down, the power button doesn't work to boot it. But when I close the lid, it powers up. However even when I shut it down AND close the lid, it keeps booting up and staying on.
So I have to send it for repairs.
I cloned the Mac HD using Carbon Copy Cloner and put the clone using Migration Assistant onto the new machine (MacBook Pro - 10.7.2). Now the MacBook Pro won't boot at all. Before this, it was working fine.
So I want to know how to make a clone of the Mac HD of the MacBook Air that won't have booting issues when I migrate the clone to another machine.
I have to make a clone of the MacBook Air before I send it off for repairs as the last back up is quite old and out of date.
Also the fact that the Mac HD of the MBA has booting issues affects the ability to access the Boot Camp (Windows 7 partition) as now I can't even boot the new machine. (But I am asking about Boot Camp in another section.)
It seems like a catch-22 situation. I can't fix the booting problem until I send it off to the repair center to get the computer fixed. And yet the booting problem is preventing me from making a usable clone of the Mac HD.
I think the booting problem is a software problem because the MacBook Pro was working perfectly before I migrated the Mac HD of the MBA onto it, The MBP is only two days old. I migrated another Mac HD backup  (one I made before the booting issues came up) onto the MBP on the first day I bought it and the MBP worked fine.
Do you think I will just have to clone things separately manually? I mean should I format an external hard drive, plug it in the USB port, and transfer the files I need to save? What files/folders should I save? Can I move folders or do I have to move files? I have many files in Desktop, Downloads, Documents. I also want to save my applications. I want to save the BookMarks of Opera, Firefox.
Will this take a long time? I have used about 200 GB of the MBA's hard drive.
Any advice? Thanks.
I don't use Time Machine and am not confident about using it. Will it be substantially different to CCC in the way it clones files? Will a Time Machine clone after migration contaminate the second computer with booting issues?
I am not so worried about the booting issues on the second computer. I know it's from the faulty clone and nothing to do with the machine itself. I can take it to Apple Genius Bar and they will probably be able to reinstall a new operating system on the machine and I can start from scratch, I think. I am more worried about how to save and restore my data from the old machine. Thanks for any advice.

Answer 1

applecore_eater wrote:
I cloned the Mac HD using Carbon Copy Cloner and put the clone using Migration Assistant onto the new machine (MacBook Pro - 10.7.2). Now the MacBook Pro won't boot at all. Before this, it was working fine.
Ok, you used Migraine Assistant to try to transfer the account from the clone drive to the MBP and it didn't work, that's ok, it can be fixed by command r booting into Lion Recovery and simply erasing and reinstalling Lion from Apple's servers. (AppleID)
I suggest you transfer the account data manually because the clone is a copy of a failing drive/corruption, use the same name in System Preferences >Accounts, drag and drop files transfer and hold option key, click on Purchases in crapStore to redownload to the new machine, install other programs from fresh sources. Cleaner machine that way. So that shoudl fix the MBP.
in the future, try to avoid Apple's "answers" like Migraine Assistant as much as possible, it's really not reliable in any sense in actuality.
So I want to know how to make a clone of the Mac HD of the MacBook Air that won't have booting issues when I migrate the clone to another machine.
You can't boot a clone of OS X from another type Mac on another type Mac, only the same exact machine model.
In your case the Migraine Assistant didn't work, so you'll have to manually install.
Also the fact that the Mac HD of the MBA has booting issues affects the ability to access the Boot Camp (Windows 7 partition) as now I can't even boot the new machine. (But I am asking about Boot Camp in another section.)
Well it's possible that Windows or something messed up the GUID partition map of the Mac, why it has booting issues. Likely why Migraine Assistant didn't work.
You'll have to set up BootCamp again on the new MBP machine, talk to Microsoft about validation on the new machine and return your Windows files, programs from fresh sources.
Likely you got malware and it was trying to write to the boot sector of the Mac, mistaking the MBR portion of the GPT for a full Windows one. This also happens when Mac users try to install Linux on their Mac's.
Unless you need full hardware performance, you really should look at virtualization software like VMFusion, Parallels Desktop or even VirtuaBox (might be outdated) and run Windows in a window on OS X instead. Much easier to recover from malware that way.
It seems like a catch-22 situation. I can't fix the booting problem until I send it off to the repair center to get the computer fixed. And yet the booting problem is preventing me from making a usable clone of the Mac HD.
Well if you make a clone, it's going to be junk any.
What you need to do is fix the new MBP machine first then use Firewire Target Disk Mode (firewire 800/400 cable and adpater if needed) and grab a copy of your files off the sick Mac or off the sick clone.
The drive is likely fine, it's just not booting and that could mean some sort of malware/drive/data corruption.
You'll have to install third party software on the new fixed MacBook Pro to read the NTFS drive format of the Windows 7 bootcamp parittion when the sick MacAir is in Firewire Target Disk Mode.
http://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-mac/
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT1661