Upgrading: Migration Assistant with FireWire or Time Machine Restore?

Hello,
I recently ordered a new Black Penryn MacBook to replace my 17" iMac. Would you recommend using the Migration Assistant with FireWire or a Time Machine restore in order to copy all of my data to the MacBook? I have the option to do both, but am unsure of which would be the best. Is the time machine restore more suited to restore a failed drive as opposed to facilitating a data transfer between two machines? Finally, regarding either of the transfer options, will there be any issues with keychain or application data that I should be aware of? Thanks for your help!

Those are two of the option presented by Migration Assistant. I think the end result will be the same. If I was doing it, I'd use the FireWire method, just because it's coming directly from the source instead of through a backup archive structure.

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Migration assistant does not recognize time machine backup

Hi Guru,
I made a time machine backup today, 10.8.2, then made full reinstall of system in Apple store, in Berkeley, because my iMac experinced some unstability.
we installed new Mac OS, and now I face a problem: migration assistant does not recognize hard disk with buckup.
Finder sees this disk, it has Backups folder.
OS: 10.8.2
BackUp made: Time Machine 10.8.2
Hard Disk: Lacie 500MB
any ideas?
Thank you

I am conserned about restoring using setup assistant because I need to transfer personal files and applications only.
You can do that in Setup Assistant.
Migration Assistant doesn't accept Time Machine backups of the computer it's running on; it only accepts compatible backups of other computers. You can't migrate a system to itself. To restore files from the same computer, enter Time Machine in the usual way, or else boot into Recovery and either restore the whole startup volume or erase, reinstall OS X, and restore in Setup Assistant.

ISO x 10.8.3 migration assistant will not recognize time machine disk

I recently had my computer wiped clean by Apple genius bar. After updating the ISO X 10.8 software to 10.8.3, I attempted to restore files from my Time Machine backup to the computer. Unfortunately, the migration assistant would not lock onto the Time Machine disk, as if it were not there. What can I do to restore my original files back into the repaired computer?
My imac was purchased new in December of 2008 and the back up disc was connected to it in Aug 2009. I think the original operating system was pre Snow Leopard - the only CD I have and dated 2010.

I am conserned about restoring using setup assistant because I need to transfer personal files and applications only.
You can do that in Setup Assistant.
Migration Assistant doesn't accept Time Machine backups of the computer it's running on; it only accepts compatible backups of other computers. You can't migrate a system to itself. To restore files from the same computer, enter Time Machine in the usual way, or else boot into Recovery and either restore the whole startup volume or erase, reinstall OS X, and restore in Setup Assistant.

Migration Assistant Won't Recognize Time Machine Back Up

My old white macbook just died. I bought a new macbook air to replace it. I am trying to use the time machine back up in migration assistant but it won't work. Since the Air doesn't have firewire I am connecting the external drive to my AirPort Extreme. It recognizes the drive but when I click to use it I get a connection error message. I tried hooking up the drive by USB but it won't mount at all. What am I doing wrong? I don't really want to do a full Time Machine restore because the Air has iLife '11 and the macbook only had iLife '10 and I don't want to have to pay for it again.

First of all, Migration Assistant is smart enough to keep the newer version of iLife.
Second, your MacBook Air came with a restore drive (a little flash drive) that has iLife on it. You don't have to purchase it again.

Migration assistant - doesn't see Time Machine drive

I'm using a netatalk based Time machine drive which works perfectly from my old 2006 MBP.
I'm trying to use Migration Assistant to restore the data to my new 2010 MBP. Time machine on both macs sees the netatalk drive, however, Migration Assistant does not - there is just an empty window with a spinning progress wheel.
Any ideas?

This seemed to be a problem with mounting the Time Machine sparsebundle from the old MBP.
I solved it by:
1. Launching Disk Utility,
2. Drag sparsebundle into the drive list on the left (takes ages, ignore spinning wheel)
3. select the sparsebundle
4. Click Repair
took a few hours, but now I can mount the image and once mounted manually, Migration Assistant sees it.
Although it makes sense, it's not obvious that you need to mount the disk image manually for Migration Assistant to see it when Time machine sees it as a destination without doing that step.

Migration assistent and built out time machine hdd

Hi all,
my MacBook Pro got stolen and miraculously my time machine died at the same time. I got out the hard drive and put it in a casing with firewire.
My problem is: I try to run Migration Assistant on my new MacBook Pro, but when I select "From a Time Machine backup or other disk" it doesn't recognize my external disk and just shows a spinning wheel. The disk does show up in Finder.
I would appreciate if somebody could give me a hint on how I can best solve this, because I really need the backed up data.
Thanks in advance,
Roy

Time Machine uses a different method to manage its backups on a locally-mounted disk as on a network disk.I 'd first try mounting the "sparsebundle" volume on that disk. If that doesn't let Time Machine access the saved data, then see item #18 of the Time Machine FAQ, particularly the third point under "How to".

Migration Assistant doesn't see Time Machine volume

I'm moving from a MacBook Pro running 10.6.8 to a MBP running 10.7.5. I thought this would be pretty simple ... just attach my Snow Leopard Time Machine external drive to the Lion MBP and run Migration Assistant.
But when I go through the MA steps, MA does not see my TM drive. I've made sure I have the latest upgrades and have run Disk Utility's First Aid on the TM drive.
Ideas? I know I can try MA with other interfaces but using TM allows me to work on my old computer until my new one is ready.
The TM drive is a 500GB Iomega eGo drive.
Thanks.

jtfey wrote:
I've done Migration Assistant installs before and when MA asks if you're restoring from another computer or a TM drive, and I select TM, the name of the TM drive shows up.
Not if it's directly-connected. It shows the Computer name and the name of the HD that were backed-up, per the sample posted earlier.
If it's on a network, the name of the volume it's on is shown, like the 4th item in the sample.
Plus, the first time I tried doing a restore I saw the source as "Macintosh HD" and went ahead and ran MA. About 85 minutes later it was done and no data had been transferred from the 10.6 MBP to 10.7 MBP. Nothing.
The data would be in the transferred accounts, not the one you ran the Migration from.
This is the first 10.7 MA I've done. I would not have imagined that Apple would design software that asks you for your TM drive and then, when you make that selection, you never the name of the TM drive show up.
I couldn't agree more. I've submitted requests to change that several times, including during beta testing of both Lion and Mountain Lion. Please add your voice here: http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html Maybe if enough of us do so, they'll listen.

Migration Assistant Doesn't See Time Machine

I've seen a few threads on this topic but no answer.
I upgraded my Mac Pro from 10.5 to 10.6, but when I tell the Migration Assistant that I want to restore from Time Machine, it doesn't see it or any of the other 3 drives that are in this machine. I just want to restore the user accounts and groups because one of the other drives is a data drive with lots of folders that only certain users have access to.

Yes, I could, but I gave up and just re-created all of the users and groups and reset folder permissions manually.

Using migration assistant with firewire disc

I am trying to transfer my settings and applications etc. from a firewire disc that was previously connected to my old but good G4. The iMac and the external volume have the same OS and there is no problem booting from either volume. When I first tried using Migration Assistant, I selected the transfer from another volume on this computer option and the process started and then the drive stopped transferring; I had to Force Quit Migration Assistant. I repaired permissions on both volumes and tried again. This time the process got as far as listing the accounts, which I selected only to get a message that there was a name duplication and to alter the account name for transfer; the result was to flip back to the same message. Since then I have been unable to get even that far. Any ideas?

Perhaps you could give me some assistance?
My HD was just replaced by Apple. I decided now was the time to upgrade to 10.4. This I did and used software update to bring everything up to date.
I had cloned by defective drive to an external FW and would like to use Migration Assistant to move as much as possible back to the new PB drive. I realize I could run into some trouble since I don't know what info was lost on the defective sector(s).
When I try MA, it recognizes the external drive but the user accounts will not show up in the next screen--the "rotating bars" (I don't know what it's actually called) just goes on and on. I left it running for over 6 hours with no result.
Should I just do a straight copy of the user folders? Can I do that with the applications folder?
Al PB 1.5GHZ Mac OS X (10.4.3)

Migration assistant can't see time machine disk

New hard drive to replace broken one - Migration Assistant doesn't see the external hard drive with my time machine backup, even though it mounts to the desktop... Anyone else had this problem? Using a MacBook pro with OSX 10.8.4

Here are the articles I have on Migration Assistant. None of them had the answer to your problem (or at least I couldn't find it). Check what you did versus the recommendations in the articles is about the best I can offer.
Migration Assistant
Migration Assistant (2)
Migration Assistant – Tips and Tricks

Can Migration Assistant copy from a Time Machine volume?

My PowerMac G5 died, and I'm replacing it with a MacBook Pro. Is it possible for the Migration Assistant to copy my files from my old system's Time Machine backup, since the machine itself doesn't work?
Also, any complications running Migration Assistant going from a Power Mac system to an Intel-based system? (Aside from the obvious: that any Power Mac native apps won't work...)
Thanks!

yes, it's possible but it's actually not advisable to use Migration assistant when migrating from PPC to intel. definitely do not migrate the applications.
also, you might consider doing a completely manual migration. see kappy's post in this thread
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1571689&tstart=0

Unable to use Migration assistant to access my Time Machine backup???

I recently had hard drive issues in my IMac G5, archive and install would not work and required an erase and install this happened twice over two months so I decided to install a new hard drive on my four year old machine, replaced a 160 with a 500 and beefed the RAM up to 2 gb -- a friend and Mac 'expert' did the installs for me... after bringing the machine home I went to reinstall all my files & profiles from time machine using 'Migration Assistant' - I choose the second option, and my external hard drive fires up but then in the Select System to Transfer screen it remains blank, I click on Time Machine and get 'A storage location for Time Machine backups isn't setup.' I click on 'Setup Time Machine' and it opens Time Machine with an On Off toggle, it is Off so I toggle to ON, then get a setup Time Capsule screen, I click on that, it opens Airport Utility and scans for my network, it finds my Airport Extreme and two Airport Expresses, but what does this mean? I have no idea what to do from there... Any suggestions would be appreciated

Should be, if the eMac is running 10.5.x be sure to turn off TM backups though.

Upgrading: Migration Assistant & External Firewire Drive w/ Image

Hello, and thanks in advance for your guidance with this inquiry! I am considering upgrading from my PowerBook 12" to a current MacBook Pro 13": If I back up the PowerBook to an image via Disk Utility or SuperDuper and onto an external firewire drive and restore it there, will I be able to then use Migration Assistant to transfer that data to the MacBook-or can Migration Assistant be used only to transfer data directly between the two laptops? Thanks again so much, and a quick reply is especially appreciated since I may be selling my PowerBook tonight! : )
Best Regards,
Robert

Migration Assistant offers the option of migrating data from "Another volume" or something like that, which includes external hard drives. I used that option to migrate data from an external USB drive to my daughter's new unibody MacBook last December, when it proved impossible to migrate directly via Ethernet or FireWire connection from her old Powerbook running Panther. We cloned her internal drive to the USB drive using SuperDuper, and then the migration from that drive worked flawlessly.

Migration Assistant Won't Recognize Time Machine Disk

Hi,
I'm trying to restore a Time Machine backup using migration assistant. The backup is on a USB disk connected directly to the computer. I can open the volume and browse the files. I used Disk Utility to check the volume and it found no errors.
When I run Migration Assistant, it sees no backup disks and instead tries to search the network for other computers, even though I said I had a disk.
This is very frustrating. What am I doing wrong?
Frank

You may have been bitten by a bug we've just identified.
See #D10 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.
If so, home folders are not affected, and there may be a way to recover them.
Post back with your results and we'll work on a recovery plan.

Migration Assistant won't recognize Time Machine Backup

I recenly got my old thunderbolt-less macbook pro back from a repair and I can't seem to resotre my data. My external drive it reconized in finder, but not in Migration Assistant. I have updated to the newest OS and still nothing. I was tunning mavrics before the repair so this should be working right? Thanks for any help you can offer.

A possible reason for backups not to be available in Migration Assistant is that the computer doesn't have a name, or the name is corrupt. Open the Sharing preference pane and check the name. If you can't do that, reset the PRAM. Credit to ASC member Csnote for this observation.
Most likely, some folders were excluded from your backups as the result of a failed or aborted software installation.
Starting from a clean installation of OS X, set up a new administrator account and log in. Enter Time Machine and press the key combination shift-command-C. The front window will show all mounted volumes. All snapshots should now be accessible.* Select the one you want and navigate to your home folder (in the Users folder at the top level of the old startup volume.)
You should now be able to restore your user data. I suggest you do this in two stages. Quit all applications except the Finder before you begin.
Restore all the visible items at the top level of your home folder.
Hold down the option key and select Go ▹ Library from the Finder menu bar. Enter Time Machine and restore all items in the Library folder. Log out and log back in as soon as the restore is complete.
Any other invisible folders or files at the top level of your home folder that you want to preserve will have to be restored separately. For most users, that isn't necessary.
You'll have to reinstall all third-party applications from scratch, or restore them from another kind of backup, if you have one.
You'll have another problem if this is a new computer, or if you erased the startup volume: The next time you back up, Time Machine won't recognize any files as being the same as they were before, and will make a full copy of all files. There might not be enough space on one or more of your backup volumes for that. There are different ways of dealing with that situation, depending on your needs. The easiest way is to set your backup drives aside, if possible, until you're sure you'll no longer need the data on them, then erase them and start over. Meanwhile start a new backup on one or more empty storage devices. If that solution isn't workable for you, ask for instructions.
*If you don't see any snapshots in Time Machine, exit the time-travel view and then hold down the option key while selecting
Browse Other Backup Disks...
from the Time Machine menu, which has an icon that looks like a clock running backwards. Select the backups of your computer by its previous name. If you don't have the Time Machine menu, open the Time Machine preference pane in System Preferences and check the box marked
Show Time Machine in menu bar

Upgrading: Migration Assistant with FireWire or Time Machine Restore?

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