Transferring data from crashed hard drive to new?

My trusty 6 year old mac book crashed. Took it to apple, they couldn't recover. Purchased new 15 mac book pro with 1TB. drive. Removed my HD from the old mac book and trying to transfer files via sata cable to USB directly to my new mac. Been successful with lots of files. Problem is, new mac shows old file icons from Applications, library, users, etc. but not contents. I tried copying entire hard drive... Wont work. Then went into users, from my main folder with most of my saved stuff. The largest two folders I want to recover is the Documents folder and the Images folder. I cant open and see the files inside because for over 24 hours now it has been showing "Preparing to copy files". When I went to the images folder after about 6 hours it went from preparing, to copying with estimated time of 6 days to complete. Is there a better way to do this? If I could see the contents in the folders, I could simply just transfer the main Items needed? Any help is appreciated!

I have not tried a recovery program or repairing the HD. I thought Apple tried to repair at the Genius bar when I brought it there. They said I should contact a recover company that may cost thousands of dollars because they wont do recovery. "So far I have copied a ton of files form smaller folders that didn't have so much data". The problem is that the main documents file is so large, that when you click into the folder, you can't see which files to copy... Kind of like its buffering? So I clicked on copy entire folder and it been preparing to copy.. so far up to 6,162 files... It has been doing this for over 24 hours. When I copied the smaller folders, it would say the same thing until it read everything in the folder, then copied them just fine. On some files it transferred in a few hours because there were only a few gigs of data.
Maybe a data recover program would help buffer and read the files faster so I could simply choose the files I want... the copy?

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Transferring data from external hard drive to new replacement Macbook Pro...

Hello,
Apple have arranged to give me a replacement Macbook Pro due to faults with hardware on the one I am currently using. I will be going to pick up the replacement Macbook Pro tomorrow morning.
As a complete novice I just wanted to check that I have backed up the data from my current laptop onto my Iomega external hard drive properly, as I am slightly nervous about losing all my work and not being able to transfer all my files onto my new Macbook Pro tomorrow.
I did a back up using time machine earlier today which took quite a long time and seemed to go successfully. Is this the right thing to have done to save all data from my current laptop onto the external hard drive?
Will transferring data from the external hard drive onto my new Macbook Pro be a simple task?
Will I have to reinstall all my software such as Logic and Pro Tools? Also will my preferences and settings for music software be changed?
I'd greatly appreciate any advice.
Thanks,
Deena

Well it's like this.
If your problem on the Mac didn't affect the software or the TimeMachine backup, then restoring from that using SetupAssistant (when you first set up a new Mac it will ask you to restore) should go fine.
HOWEVER, if there are software issues on the Mac that also transferred to the TimeMachine drive, that will only transfer them back onto your new computer.
You can't very easily just pick out the things you want to restore from TimeMachine with, it doesn't give that fine detail of control, and if it's really messed up, it might not restore anything at all.
The golden rule of backups is to maintain two separate and easily accessible hardware copies of your data off the machine at all times.
Since you don't know for sure if the TimeMachine restore is going to work as intended, and your only other source is going to disappear, I'd advise a additional backup of your Music, Documents, Pictures and Movie folders etc., to another regular external drive via regular drag and drop copy methods.
The operating system and programs can all be reinstalled from fresh sources on the new machine, provided you have the AppleID and password, license codes for your programs, email passwords and any other necessary information to re-establish the license on the new machine.
(In some cases licensed software HAS NOT transferred to a new machine with a TimeMachine restore and had to be reinstalled)
Some times you have to contact the developer or "uninstall" the licensed program so it sends a signal to their servers that the program has been removed, else your license code may not work on the new machine.
You might decide the new machine would be better off with a fresh install of your programs that you know are 100% compatible with Lion etc., leaving a lot of older stuff you installed over the years off the new machine, if you restore from TimeMachine, you don't have this option. You pretty much get all the crap along for the ride,
If your new machine gets all crapped up, then restoring Lion is going to going to be a tough challenge, as you need a strong reliable Internet connection to download a fresh copy of Lion from Apple servers (no more disks). Once you do that, then somehow you have to use third party software ($$) to cherry pick your files out of TimeMachines trap. More headaches than you anticpated, and likely a charge by a specialist.
So I'd advise another hard drive with a copy of just your files, just in case a crap-up occurs
You can restore Lion yourself if it craps up, install programs from fresh sources as you know how to do, use the old license codes and then return your files manually exactly back into their same Music, Pictures, Documents, and Movies (etc, not Library) folders as before.
The key to this manual method is to make sure to use the same user name as before, so all your file location data pathnames retained by program files like iTunes to where the songs are located on the drive, are matched. Once you open these programs and restablish the links in OS X, then you can move them around.
Some tricks, if you use iPhoto, you can right click "show package contents" and inside is a folder with your Originals, copy that out and you can reimport your pictures into the new iPhoto Library on the new machine.
So use TM if you dare, but prepared to do things manually is my opinion.
TM restores have not been all that reliable or dependable, the more messed up your machine is, the worst the restore seems to be.
Good Luck

Transferring data from old hard drive to new computer

The hard drive on my MacBook Pro went bad and had to be replaced. I was told it would be simple to transfer its contents onto the new installed hard drive, but I have yet to figure it out. Can anyone tell me what equipment I need and how to do this? Any help would be appreciated.

Perhaps I'm missing something here, but if your old hard drive in fact failed, requiring its replacement, unless you have a separate backup, other than using a data recovery service, your data is gone.

Recovering data from "crashed" hard drive - white macbook

I have a 13" white macbook (my daughter's macbook). It looks like the hard drive crashed. She took it to Apple store they told her they can replace the hard drive (still under Apple care), but I am trying to get the data from the hard drive.
I pulled the hard drive out of the macbook, and put it in a external hard drive enclosure, with USB2 connector. Unfortunately I have to connect the USB to a Windows PC, since that's what I have (she took my PowerBook for school work). The wondows machine does not recognize the hard drive. I tried to connect to a Vista machine and an XP machine same problem.
Do I have to connect it to a Mac to be able to recognize this hard drive? I thought as long as I put it in a external disk enclosure I will be able to recognize it even with Windows machine.
I would appreciate any help.
p.s. I do hear (faint) clicking noise from the hard drive - both when it is in the macbook and when it is in the external enclosure.
Thanks.

The enclosure is format "agnostic". A drive could conceivably be formatted in several different Apple formats; HFS+ (aka Mac OS Extended) is likely what you have. There's Windows based FAT32 or NTFS.
Windows doesn't properly recognize Mac drive formats unless you add software. There are a couple of commercial tools that might work.
http://www.macdisk.com/mden.php3
tp://www.paragon-software.com/home/hfs-windows/

Moving Data from old hard drive to new hard drive

I'm posting this question in this category , I hope it's the right place. Here's my situation and general information. I have a Toshiba L35 S2161 laptop, it's about 5 yrs old, running WinXP Service Pack 3. just got the blue screen, wouldn't boot, tried everything and I only have the factory provided "recovery" disc that will wipe my drive and lose all my data if I use it. I hadn't been doing regular backups, so I want to save as much if not all of my data as I can. I don't want to spend time here going over everything I've tried (boot disc like Knoppix, etc) which didn't work, just need to get to the bottom line and make sure I'm doing the next steps correctly.
Here's my plan:
l. Remove old hard drive from laptop
2. purchase new hard drive - I've been told any drive will work, it doesn't have to be designed for a Toshiba. I've been looking at best prices, etc. mainly Western Digital. I may purchase a larger drive to at least get more memory , although I really didn't have that much on my old drive, but had a lot of apparent memory-related problems, freezes, etc.
3. Install new blank drive into laptop, using the Toshiba factory recovery disc to reformat the disc and get it ready to receive the data.
4. Insert the recovery disc into the drive, turn on the computer and HOPE that it boots it up and installs a fresh install on the new drive. Not sure what the screen willl show at this point - I've never installed a new drive in a laptop, so will be somewhat nervous at this point to see what happens.
5. Assuming the new drive is recognized by the recovery disc and installs a clean version of WIN XP (I'm assuming that's what's on the recovery disc that came with my computer, because it had WIN XP pre-installed), I will now be ready to transfer data from the old drive.
6. This is the step I'm not sure what or how to do next. I would like to clone my entire old drive onto the new drive but I'm afraid if I do that it might load damaged files that would mess up my new install. I purchased a disc enclosure with a USB cable (haven't received it yet), and was going to use that somehow. I presume I will plug it in and it will show up as an external drive and I can access that drive and transfer my priority files or data first and then try to transfer as much more as I can....
I need further help and information about this last step...the critical data transfer method. There are cloning kits that are plug and play and would transfer my entire system as it was before the blue screen, but again, I'm concerned about transferring everything onto a clean install and finding myself with a computer that won't boot again because it transferred a bad file. Also, would it overwrite or interfere with the clean install on the new drive? I'm stuck at this point....hopefully someone out there can walk me through this final step with the best option for transfer. I'm trying to avoid purchasing pricey software like Acronis (which I looked at online and it seemed difficult to use, to figure out what to transfer).
My laptop is obviously out of warranty, being five years old, and I am not interested in taking it in to repair tech, I want to do this myself and I think I can with a few helpful tips. Thanks for any help asap...

Hi!
The error message I received on the blue screen was "unmountable boot volume" which leads me to believe i have a corrupted MBR. This fiasco happened when I turned off my computer when it was running a program (I know, bad thing to do).
I'm waiting on a new hard drive with a 120 GB (my old drive was 80GB). I was told not to go above 120 or I'd have partition problems.
The SATA drive enclosure powers up the old drive (I can hear the disc spinning) so the disc isn't dead. If I''d have the full retail vesion of WinXP I would of course have used the recovery console, but I only had the toshiba recovery disc that came with my system. Also, I couldn't burn a CD boot disc...didn't have access to another computer nor would a tech friend do it for me as he apparently made a disc for someone and their system crashed so I had no choice but to buy a new drive and try to transfer the data via the SATA external drive/usb cable.
My big question now is: Will the Toshiba recovery disc actually reformat my new drive? Someone on another forum with a Toshiba laptop had purchased a new drive, used the recovery disc and the cd just went into a constant loop and never went into a full install. I'm thinking that maybe on a new drive there isn't enough knowledge base there for the recovery disc to install and reformat a new disc. That would be a bummer because then I'd have no choice but to purchase a retail version of WinXP which I was hoping not to have to do. Thats' getting into some $$ when added to all the other thing I've tried to get this laptop up and running . (A Knoppix live CD boot disc didn't work either).
I don't know what service pack was on the old disc...possibly SP2, but if it was only SP1, I fear it's not going to have the ability to format a new disc. The disc does have drivers, etc. but the question is, are they able to install the OS. I was running XP3 when it crashed, so I know i would have to download that again. I just want to get the darned system back up and running with my new drive and restore disc. IF I can do that, then I'll try to transfer the data from the old drive via the external drive enclosure.
I also decided against the clone....I was afraid I'd be cloning a bad disc or errors onto a new drive, and didnt' want to stress a possibly wonky drive even more than it possibly is.
So, that's where I'm at now! Thanks so much for any further insight into this....something tells me the recovery disc isn't going to format my new drive but fingers crossed...more thoughts/feedback appreciated!

How do I transfer data from external hard drive to new computer

We had been using a PC with XP that had four different users and ITune libraries. It was attacked by viruses that got deep in op system and could not be fixed. We purchased a new PC with Windows 8. I had transfered the itune files by copying them from the hard drive to a external hard drive. Is there a way to transfer the files from the external hard drive to the iTunes that I just downloaded onto the new computer. I thought that it would be as easy as copying the files from the external hard drive to the iTunes file on the new computer but this did not work. If I go into iTunes and select copy file from library it will import the file just file but I really don't want to copy thousands of files one by one. However, when I try to open those files I get an error message. We have two iPads and four iPod Touches. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

I found a posted answer from someone else who asked the same question and it worked. It said to copy the entire file that was saved on the external hard drive to the my music folder before ever opening ITunes that was newly installed and it worked.

Folder missing after transferring data from external hard drive

Hello.
I have a big problem and I hope somebody can help.
I transferred 350gb from my SAMSUNG external hard disc to my new Macbook Pro, in order to format it (my external hd) and configure it for Mac as I wasn't able to delete anything off of it, which bugged me. So I did it and everything seemed ok.
Then I formatted my external hard disc and everything was erased from it.
Then, problem begins: One day after, I realized that one folder is missing from the 350gb that I transfered day before, which is very very very important for me.
I tried to recover files from my external drive with a program called StellarPhoenixMacDataRecovery and it did recover everything except for that folder! I tried to find it with Finder and I had no luck. I tried both name of the folder and also the names of the files that folder contained. No luck either. I also tried to list files in Terminal and again, no luck. For some reason, only that one particular folder (that is the most important for me!) is missing.
What could be the problem?
Folder's name contained some German letters and dashes and I was thinking if this maybe caused Mac changing its name and maybe moving it somewhere without me noticing it? Or it's hidden for some reason? Or it's gone forever?
Please help, any idea is much appreciated.
Marijeta

Hello.
I have a big problem and I hope somebody can help.
I transferred 350gb from my SAMSUNG external hard disc to my new Macbook Pro, in order to format it (my external hd) and configure it for Mac as I wasn't able to delete anything off of it, which bugged me. So I did it and everything seemed ok.
Then I formatted my external hard disc and everything was erased from it.
Then, problem begins: One day after, I realized that one folder is missing from the 350gb that I transfered day before, which is very very very important for me.
I tried to recover files from my external drive with a program called StellarPhoenixMacDataRecovery and it did recover everything except for that folder! I tried to find it with Finder and I had no luck. I tried both name of the folder and also the names of the files that folder contained. No luck either. I also tried to list files in Terminal and again, no luck. For some reason, only that one particular folder (that is the most important for me!) is missing.
What could be the problem?
Folder's name contained some German letters and dashes and I was thinking if this maybe caused Mac changing its name and maybe moving it somewhere without me noticing it? Or it's hidden for some reason? Or it's gone forever?
Please help, any idea is much appreciated.
Marijeta

Transferring data from 750GB backup drive to new MacBook Pro with 256 Gb PCI-e flash storage?

Yesterday my late-2008 aluminium unibody MacBook died - absolutely and definitively. I've tried SMC reset multiple times to no avail. However, it served me well for almost six years and it's now time to move on. I've decided to buy a 13 inch MacBook Pro Retina with 256Gb PCI-e flash storage. Obviously, it will come with Mavericks installed as the operating system.
When it died, my MacBook was running OS X 10.8.5, the original hard drive had been replaced with a Western Digital 750GB, 7200 rpm drive of which I believe about 350GB was used. I keep two x 1Tb Lacie Rugged backup drives, each of which has both Time Machine and SuperDuper Bootable Clone backups.
My questions are these -
1.     How should I proceed to transfer my data from my external backup drives to my new MacBook Pro Retina, given the difference in storage capacity of my existing backup drives and my new MacBook Pro?
2.     I have over 32,000 photos in my iPhoto Library which, obviously, consume a big slab of disk space. I'm not sure how I go about 'quarantining' the iPhoto Library so that it doesn't use all the flash drive storage.
3.      One of the Lacie Rugged's has a 'triple interface' - i.e. USB 2, Firewire 400 and Firewire 800. The other has a USB 2 and 2 x Firewire 800 (IIRC).    The MacBook Pro Retina has two USB 3 ports and two Thunderbolt 2 ports. I want to continue to use the Lacies as my backup drives. Am I better off to use the USB ports or should I invest in a Thunderbolt to USB cable? Does it make any real difference in terms of backing up (which, in my case, doesn't have to be all that speedy).
4.     What else should I be thinking about? I know I'm bound to have overlooked the most obvious problems but can't think what they may be ...
Cheers
Tricia

Patricia Henwood wrote:
3.      One of the Lacie Rugged's has a 'triple interface' - i.e. USB 2, Firewire 400 and Firewire 800. The other has a USB 2 and 2 x Firewire 800 (IIRC).    The MacBook Pro Retina has two USB 3 ports and two Thunderbolt 2 ports. I want to continue to use the Lacies as my backup drives. Am I better off to use the USB ports or should I invest in a Thunderbolt to USB cable? Does it make any real difference in terms of backing up (which, in my case, doesn't have to be all that speedy).
USB3 is backwards compatible with USB2, so you can use the old USB cables. For faster data transfer rates, Firewire 800 would be available using this adapter:
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MD464ZM/A/apple-thunderbolt-to-firewire-adapte r
Firewire 800 is about twice as fast as USB2, theoretically.
Ciao.

How do I transfer data from old hard drive to new mac exactly the same as it was on my old one?

Unfortunately my 2009 iMac has been written off due to a faulty motherboard. Thankfully the company we got the mac from are providing me with a brand new one at no cost as I am under warranty. My old hard drive had many important documents and applications on it and we have requested for the old hard drive back. What I would like to know is how to I go about transferring all the stuff of my old hard drive to my new iMac? I would like everything to be set out exactly the same as it was on my old mac so basically I would like it cloned identical on my new mac from my old hard drive.
Thanks Nathan

In general, most people will recommend Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper! You can find either one easily enough with a web search.
However, in your case, I imagine you are going to have a hard disk returned to you all by itself, and you will need to install it in an enclosure. Don't let that bother you as this is easy to do and the enclosures are not expensive ($40 or so).
Once that is done, I would recommend you set up your brand new Mac by answering all the questions during initial setup as usual. Be sure to use your correct Apple ID - probably the same one you used to log into this support forum. When you reach the point in which it asks you if you would like to transfer your old documents and settings, connect the old hard disk and select it as the source. It will take some time as it copies all its contents to your new Mac. All your familiar items will be exactly as they were on the failed Mac.
After that, you can use the old hard disk as a Time Machine backup. When you are satisfied everything on your new Mac is running as it should, go ahead and erase the old disk. Then, tell Time Machine to designate it as a backup, and the rest is automatic.

How do i move data from old hard drive to new one?

Just bought a 750GB Hitachi hard drive for my MacBook Pro. What is the best way to move the new data to it? Load it from a time machine backup, or as one source says, install a clean copy of Snow Lepoard, then upgrade to Lion, then copy the data? Any thoughts?

I just used this posting from Apple to copy all my Time Macine files from one drive to a new one, using OS 10.8.4 http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5096

How do I import data from external hard drive onto new iMac?

How do I import data from an external hard drive onto my new iMac?

If you think about it logically if you want to move something from one place to another well do just exactly that
Drag & Drop its as simple as that click on the file/folder keep it pressed down & move the file/folder to where you want it on your Mac
If its photo's drag them onto the iPhoto icon on the dock if its music drag it onto the iTunes icon documents into guess what documents
Hope this helps

Tarsnferring data from old hard drive to new hard drive

Subject:
I have a 2006 MacBook pro 1,1 with snow leopard 10.6.3 (I think). I have used time machine to backup my initial 80gb internal hard drive but I now want to install a new 1TB hard drive. Do I use time machine to transfer all my data from my old to new drive? If so how do I do this?

Instead of using Time Machine, I recommend to make a clone with Carbon Copy Cloner on that external disk. Time Machine can fail and leave OS X or your files damaged. To restore the clone:
1. Install the new hard disk.
2. Insert the Snow Leopard DVD and press C key while your Mac is starting.
3. Go to Utilities menu > Disk Utility, select the hard disk at the top of the sidebar and go to Partition tab.
4. Press "Options" button and choose "GUID Partition Table". Then, press + button to add a volume, format it with "Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and press "Apply".
5. Go to Restore tab, drag the external disk with the clone to "Destination" box and press Restore.
6. When it finishes, restart the Mac

What is the correct way to transfer data from old hard drive to new Crucial SSD on a mid 2010 13" MBP

I just bought an Crucial M550 256GB for my mid 2010 MBP. And I'm not clear on the data transfer instructions.
1) it came with Acronis instalation kit with a blank CD and a usb cable. I'm not sure what this CD is used for?
2) is it best to install the SSD with a fresh OSX download and then just use time machine to load all my previous settings?
3) or do I partition the SSD before I install it in the MBP and transfer using a clone?
Not sure what to do here...

Well, I am not familiar with the Crucial kit you got - you might want to ask them about that blank CD...... however, I did install an SSD and this is what I did:
I ordered a kit from OWC which included an external USB hard drive enclosure and tools. When it arrived, I first installed it in the external enclosre, hooked it to my MBP and then used CarbonCopyCloner to make a full bootable clone of my system on the new SSD after formatting it to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and the GUID partition scheme. I then uninstalled the internal, installed the SSD in its place (following the install video availabe at OWC) and booted up - that was it. I installed the old internal drive into the external enclosure for an instantaneous bootable cbackup.

Transfer data from old hard drive to new G5

I have an older MAC (IDE) interface and the IO board has gone out. It will no longer power up. I need to somehow copy my data over to a new G5 system. If I understand the specs correctly the new G5 is SATA. Does it also support the IDE drives. What is the easiest way to get my data copied over?
Please advise...Thanks

Hi,
The easiest way is probably to install the old IDE hard drive in an appropriate USB 2.0 or FireWire enclosure, and then connect the unit (externally) to the new computer. There are also USB-to-IDE adapters without a case (but with a power supply). You should find the necessary equipment in most computer stores.
Jan

Can I retrieve data from crashed hard drive on MacBook Pro?

Any help appreciated

First, get yourself an External Enclosure and a new drive that can be used eventually to place inside your MacBook.
Install Mac OS X on the new External and Boot from it. Now your Mac is operating again.
Later, you can swap the new drive with the old drive and get back your portability.
Mac OS X has over 250,000 files in it. Booting is very complex. Just reading a few files off your old drive may be relatively easy -- or may be completely impossible.
If you have a spare drive, programs like DataRescue may be able to grab a few files off it -- or maybe not.

Transferring data from crashed hard drive to new?

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