Why are Setup Assistant and Migration Assistant forcing me to copy everything from an old mac?

Hi,
I just bought a new Mac Mini (Late 2014, ships with Yosemite) to replace a defunct MacBook Pro (Late 2008, last ran 10.8.5). I have a local administrative user account and some server and network data that I want to migrate from the latest Time Machine backup of the MacBook Pro to the Mini. I don't want to copy anything else to the Mini. Neither Setup Assistant nor Migration Assistant will let me deselect anything though. All the check boxes are greyed out. Clicking on them does not uncheck them. This forces me to copy everything from the Time Machine backup to the Mini. Then the Mini won't restart. It won't even boot into safe mode. It just gets stuck in a reboot-loop until I enter recovery mode, wipe the system drive, and reinstall Yosemite. Does anyone know why those check boxes are greyed out and how to fix them. Thanks in advance for any help.

Since it's a new machine, contact Apple's Support and let them deal with it.
27" i7 iMac (Mid 2011) refurb, OS X Yo (10.10.1), Mavs, ML & SL, G4 450 MP w/10.5 & 9.2.2

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caitlinfromcambridge wrote:
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Hello Majorie,
Could be many things, we should start with this...
"Try Disk Utility
1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu at the top of the screen. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)
Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.
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http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
Then try a Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, reboot when it completes.
(Safe boot may stay on the gray radian for a long time, let it go, it's trying to repair the Hard Drive.)
Also, how much Free Space is on your Hard Drive?
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PS. Safe boot may stay on the gray radian for a long time, let it go, it's trying to repair the Hard Drive
Reboot, test again.
If it only does it in Regular Boot, then it could be some hardware problem like Video card, (Quartz is turned off in Safe Mode), or Airport, or 3rd party add-on, Check System Preferences>Accounts>Login Items window to see if it or something relevant is listed.
Check the System Preferences>Other Row, for 3rd party Pref Panes.

Why are Setup Assistant and Migration Assistant forcing me to copy everything from an old mac?

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