What is a good way to transfer files from an old hard drive to a new one.

I am running low on space on my 80GB hard drive. I want to replace it with a 320GB hard drive. I was wondering what the best way is to transfer all of my files from the 30GB hard drive to my new 320GB hard drive. Not looking for any secure ways. I dont have many important things. Would appreciate help. Thanks.

HI,
Freeing space on your Mac OS X startup disk
Carolyn

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What is the exact name of the cable I need to connect my old hard drive from my macbook pro (it has been taken out of the computer) to my new macbook pro? I need to transfer files from the old hard drive to the new computer.

What is the exact name of the cable I need to connect my old hard drive from my macbook pro, which has been removed from the computer, to my new macbook pro? I need to transfere files from the old hard drive to the new computer.

No eSATA to USB. Just a SATA/IDE to USB adapter. Google SATA/IDE to USB adapter and you will get tons of links to buy them. Most likely your local computer electronics store has them, although they might be more expensive buying locally than online.
I have several. You can get either USB 2, which what I recommend, or USB 3. USB is backward compatible so a USB 3 adapter will work on a USB 2 port and a USB 2 adapter will work on a USB 3 port. Backward compatible in both directions.
I suggest a USB 2 type because there have been some problems with certain USB 3 devices, the USB 3 interface used isn't all that good in those certain devices. USB 3 is still fairly new where as USB 2 has been around for over 10 years.
synghem wrote:
Thank you LowLuster,
At the apple store they said I needed an esata to usb wire. But looking at wires on line has been confusing. Is sata the same as esata? How do I know if I need a usb 3 or usb 2?

What's the easiest way to transfer data from an old external disk to a new one?

Hello!
My external hard drive (SimpleTech 250GB) is almost full so I bought a LaCie P'9230 3TB hard drive to take the place of the old one. What is the easiest way to transfer the data from the old one to the new one? Also, any tips on how to format the new drive will be appreciated since I haven't done this in a while.
Thank VERY much!!!
tenntooter

Hello rkaufmann87 and Linc,
Thank you both for your responses. It ended up that it was REALLY easy to set up and use the LaCie drive. The drive came with very simple instructions and a very easy to use setup assistant. Setup took about 2 minutes without ever leaving the assistant to get into Disk Utility, etc. Once the drive was setup I simply dragged the older external drive on top of the LaCie drive and the LaCie copied the data in about a minute.
After backing up the old drive I set Time Machine to use the new LaCie drive and selected the encryption option. It took the LaCie drive about an hour to totally back up my iMac's hard drive and to encrypt it as well.
VERY IMPRESSED with LaCie for sure!!! (As well as continuing to be VERY IMPRESSED with my MAC!!!)
Thanks again!
tenntooter

HT201250 My macbook pro crashed and I had to install a new hard drive. I restored from Time Machine backup all the files from my old hard drive onto my new one.

Does it really back up the whole new drive or does it only back up what's been added? It seemed like it was doing the whole thing when I tried it. I stopped it. Don't want to use up all the space on my external. Is there something else I need to do or did I mess up by not doing the migrating thing? thanks!

If you installed a new hard drive, it has nothing on it and yes TimeMachine is going to take forever to restore everything back.
I guess you'll have to erase and start over again now.
Too bad, you should have made bootable clones in addition to TimeMachine, they can restore in a hour or two depending upon content, they are also option key bootable.
TimeMachine has to go through and calculate all the files it needs to bring forward, the files are strewn all over the drive. The read heads are moving all over the platters all the time from fast sectors to slow ones, not matching what's occuring on the internal drive.
With a clone the files are defragmented and optimized, the drive reads one file, moves the heads a tiny bit and reads the next all the while transferring exactly to the internal drive, they are more in step with one another, thus it's much faster restoring from a clone than TM.
Most commonly used backup methods

Trying to transfer files from a failing Hard Drive to a new one

Every time a try to transfer to the new drive, some sort of error pops up and the whole transfer needs to stop. I'm trying to find a program that will continue to copy files over without stopping. It's fine if I lose some things along the way.
The old drive is formatted incorrectly, so I can't use super duper for some reason. Is there any other program I could use to copy/back up the failing drive? Or some setting in OS X that will continue the transfer of files despite error?
Thanks in advance.

HI Greg,
Tri-Backup...
http://www.tri-edre.com/english/tribackup.html
30 day free trial and it'll copy & just report he errors at the end.
If DiskWarrior can't fix it, (has a god scavenge by holding option key at start), you might try Data Rescue II...
http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/
http://www.prosofteng.com/products/data_rescue.php
(Has a Free Demo to see if it could or not, but you'll need another drive to recover to).
Or FileSalvage...
http://www.subrosasoft.com/OSXSoftware/index.php?%20mainpage=product_info&productsid=1
to recover what you can.

How do i transfer files from my external hard drive to my new macbook pro?

how do i transfer files from my external hard drive to my new macbook pro?

Hi niel, when I open my hard drive in my mac, I cannot find any files in there. I guess its not reading my hard drive.

When transferring data from an old hard drive to a new one, is there a way to keep alias files and folders in tact?

My mac and I rely HEAVILY on the use of alias files and folders. The simple version of my question is: When transferring data from an old hard drive to a new one, is there a way to keep alias files and folders in tact? These are not symlinks or symbolic links, they're all alias files and folders.
Is there any software out there that might help me with a solution? Are there any tricks or tips you can give me to try?

Use either Setup Assistant at first start, or Migration Assistant on subsequent occasions and all will be transferred intact. Given your wording I presume you are Unix savvy and will appreciate the problems that duplicate userids would cause, so of you use MA for the migration, make sure the target Mac has no userid equal to that on the source and you will be fine.
SA does not have these issues since it runs before any user account is created, so it can simply copy over everything. But MA runs after the fact and only solves the issue partially by changing the UID in the user directory, leading to permission problems.

I have upgraded to a new computer. I have installed iTunes from the internet and copied my music from the old hard drive to my new one. What do I need to do to get my new computer to recognize my old playlist?

I have upgraded to a new computer. I have installed iTunes from the internet and copied my music from the old hard drive to my new one. What do I need to do to get my new computer to recognize my old playlist?

See https://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Backing%20up%20and%20restoring%20bookmarks
and
https://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Backing%20up%20your%20information?s=new+computer&r=4&as=s#os=win&browser=fx8

How do I transfer applications & data from my old hard-drive to my new one?

My old hard drive started to crash, it was on it's way out and making funny noises. I have brought a new hard drive and connected it to the same leeds as the old one. I have put the opperating system on to the new hard drive and it is all up and running..... but.
I want to transfer all my old applications like garage sale and limewire without having to pay for them again and transfer all my music and photos from the old hard drive to the new.
So:
1: How do i get the old hard drive out of the position it's in it seems glued in and i can't see any screws?
2: How do i connect both hard drives and transfer everything from the old to the new? Do i need to buy another set of leeds or should they be in the computer
Your help would be most appreciated.....
power mac G4 466MHz Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Hi
You should be able to have both drives installed at the same time in the rear U shaped bracket. One needs to be mounted in the bottom of the bracket, have it's jumpers set to master and be connected to the end connector of the ribbon cable. The other needs to mounted above it, have it's jumpers set to slave and be connected to the middle connector of the ribbon cable. The computer should have the leads to do this, i.e. one ribbon cable with two connectors and two molex power connectors. With both drives installed, you can then drag your music and photos etc from the old to the new. You could try dragging the applications, although if they install additional files elsewhere they'll need to be reinstalled from the original CDs or DVDs.
The old drive may be screwed into the U shaped bracket from below. There should be a single screw which secures the bracket to the chassis at the front, although it may be hidden under the ribbon cable. If you unplug the ribbon cable and undo the single screw you can remove the bracket still containing the old drive, by sliding it forwards and lifting it up at the front. The screws securing the drive to the bracket can then be undone from beneath.

How do i transfer file from my external hard drive to my new mac

How do I transfer my files from my external hard drive (all files coming from a PC) to my new macbook pro?

What sort of files? Are you looking to transfer an entire user account or some data files?

Fastest way to transfer information from my old MacBook Pro to a new one?

What is fastest way to transfer data between MacBook pros? It takes forever on wi-if.

Sometimes the fastest way would be just to transfer only your files via a external hard drive via drag and drop methods into the same named accounts on the new machine. This is especially useful if you want to avoid corruption of the old machine and have a chance to clean house of older files.
By the time one fiddles around finding a Firewire cable and adpaters, a standard USB 3 external hard drive could be done already and be gotten at any local computer or office store.
Also Retina's have SSD's and any data on them is not scrubbable like hard drives can be. Scrubbing SSD's would involve the entire drive being filled and this would wear them out prematurely as they have limited writes to each sector.
If you want to use Migration or Setup Assistant, there is some element of risk involved because your copying the corruption over from the previous machine if it exists. If you know the previous software is fine on the older machine, then you can use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the whole OS X boot parititon to the external USB drive, then hook this up to the new machine and run Migration/Setup Assistant against it, just like you would in Firewire Target Disk Mode if you don't want to wait to get a Thunderbolt to Firewire adpater from Apple.
If you already have the Thunderbolt to Firewire adapter and a cable/adpater to the old Mac, then that's the fastest way.

What's the easiest way to transfer files from an old Mac to a new one?

Alright, when I originally purchased my Macbook Pro in 2006 - I had no intentions on replacing for many, many years to come. However, purchased the 17", to have more screen space for design, and that career sort of fell through. I don't have a need for such a large display, and it gets very heavy when carrying it around. I've recently decided to opt for the 13" Macbook. Now my question is, what is the easiest, fastest, and safest was to transfer the files that I do want, from the old to the new? I considered buying an external hard-drive? And for that matter, once I do get everything transferred - does Mac offer anything where I can basically set the old on back to factory defaults?
Help is much appreciated.

In addition..........
If you have a High-speed connection, the easiest & fastest way is through AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) or any IM that has file transfers.
iChat has the same ability of transferring large files as AIM.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=150934
Adium has file transfers.
Yahoo Messenger has file transfers.
Both computers must use the same IM program for file transfers.

How can I transfer specific date from my old hard drive to a new one?

I'm planning on buying the OWC Data Doubler and installing an additional drive [240GB OWC SSD]. I want to transfer everything except my iTunes library to the SSD so that it will run faster. I can't transfer the iTunes library because it's too big. How can I transfer just the data I want [OS, Documents, etc.] but leave the iTunes library on the drive. I do have an external drive/time machine backup available.

Hello,
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1449

What is the best way to transfer files from a Power PC G4 that has NO power? Thanks.

What is the best way to transfer files from a Power PC G4 that has NO power? I have a newer iMac. Thanks.

Remove the hard drive and get one of these USB hard drive adapters. http://tinyurl.com/a5l2htj Then plug the adapter into your iMac to see/retrieve the files.
 Cheers, Tom

Im new to Mac and wanted to know what is the easiest way to transfer files from a mac computer and mac extenal hardrive to windowns and vice versa?

Im new to Mac and wanted to know what is the easiest way to transfer files from a mac computer and mac extenal hardrive to windowns and vice versa?

For small amount of files, a regular USB stick or drive, it's already formatted with a MBR and FAT32 most likely which works both on PC's and Mac's.
External drives if you need more space.
However FAT (or Fat32 or MSDOS) has a 4GB file size limit. So if your transfering files bigger than that then you need to format it exFAT on the Windows machine.
Vista and Win 7 can do this, Windows XP one can download a free exFAT upgrade from Microsoft.
Mac's can read/write the MBR and FAT/exFAT (10.6.5 and later) formats, it's best to format it on the Windows machine, even though the Mac can format it too, it's better to do it on Windows then take it to the Mac to confirm.
Rack your brain here on it.
https://discussions.apple.com/message/16317478#16317478

What is a good way to transfer files from an old hard drive to a new one.

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