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NbinHD

macrumors 6502
Original poster
A while back I started a thread and asked about moving all my content on my current MBP to a new iMac - the result being that it is easiest to use migration assistant and because i use parallels 8 for my windows usage that it was part of the OS X portion and will transfer over no problems. Now im going to be waiting out for the Haswell iMac's coming later this year, but the person i have lined up to purchase my MBP wants it ASAP. So, the question is, is it safe to do a time machine backup to a external hard drive, completely wipe my MBP and sell it, then when i get my iMac choose migration assistant and choose the hard drive to set the iMac up. Will this work? And successfully transfer over windows 8, parallels 8 and microsoft office 2013 without any drama's? Thanks in advance.
 

Macman45

macrumors G5
Jul 29, 2011
13,197
135
Somewhere Back In The Long Ago
I'm not sure about the Parallels side of things, but I do know that MS Office will require you to re-enter the product key when you restore. As long as you have that, it will go over fine. Last time around I used Thunderbolt and MA and there were just a handful of things ( mostly games ) that needed downlaoding again, or their respective product key's entered.
 

NbinHD

macrumors 6502
Original poster
I'm not sure about the Parallels side of things, but I do know that MS Office will require you to re-enter the product key when you restore. As long as you have that, it will go over fine. Last time around I used Thunderbolt and MA and there were just a handful of things ( mostly games ) that needed downlaoding again, or their respective product key's entered.

Mmmm k. Worst comes to worst i think i will be able to just call microsoft, explain the situation and get the code reactivated - atleast from what ive read that works.
 

macs4nw

macrumors 601
A while back I started a thread and asked about moving all my content on my current MBP to a new iMac - the result being that it is easiest to use migration assistant and because i use parallels 8 for my windows usage that it was part of the OS X portion and will transfer over no problems. Now im going to be waiting out for the Haswell iMac's coming later this year, but the person i have lined up to purchase my MBP wants it ASAP. So, the question is, is it safe to do a time machine backup to a external hard drive, completely wipe my MBP and sell it, then when i get my iMac choose migration assistant and choose the hard drive to set the iMac up. Will this work? And successfully transfer over windows 8, parallels 8 and microsoft office 2013 without any drama's? Thanks in advance.

I would be very, very leery about going from two copies (MBP + external hard drive) of all your files to just one copy, and then hope my external wouldn't die. If you're running ML, use multiple Time Machine back-ups to at the very least, make a second copy of all your files, in case something were to go wrong with that external. That or CCC. HDDs are so cheap now, you have no reason to put all your faith in one single external hard drive.

Not sure if Time Machine will transfer your windows 8, parallels 8 and microsoft office 2013, but CCC will do that, afaik.
 

eduardrw

macrumors 6502
May 20, 2013
252
3
As usual: a real backup is always 2 copies of everything. In your case time machine would be one copy then I would uses CCC (carbon copy cloner, Super Duper or Chronosync) to duplicate your hardisk to an external drive. (USB drive different from your time machine drive!)

once you get your new computer use migration assistant - your Parallels VM's should run fine - done it a few times.

If you have problems or missing something you always have the complete clone of your hardisk to get to any file.
 

fig

macrumors 6502a
Jun 13, 2012
916
84
Austin, TX
Do a lot of people use migration assistant? I find getting a new machine is a great opportunity to clean out my old one, get rid of lots of digital junk, and do clean installs of everything.

I have my projects/images/music and copy those over, then just install my software as needed.
 

rkaufmann87

macrumors 68000
Dec 17, 2009
1,760
39
Folsom, CA
Do a lot of people use migration assistant? I find getting a new machine is a great opportunity to clean out my old one, get rid of lots of digital junk, and do clean installs of everything.

I have my projects/images/music and copy those over, then just install my software as needed.

Every migration I've done I sure have, however I use Setup Assistant, IMHO it's cleaner than Migration Assistant in that you don't to look in another user account.
 

NbinHD

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Do a lot of people use migration assistant? I find getting a new machine is a great opportunity to clean out my old one, get rid of lots of digital junk, and do clean installs of everything.

I have my projects/images/music and copy those over, then just install my software as needed.

When you do that do you just get your software codes reactivated over the phone?
 

fig

macrumors 6502a
Jun 13, 2012
916
84
Austin, TX
When you do that do you just get your software codes reactivated over the phone?

I don't have anything I can think of that I need to do that for.

The Adobe suite can be deactivated then reactivated through the software itself, everything else I've got registration codes for that I can just input when I install the software.

Other than having to download a few install files it's always been pretty painless.
 
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