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Time Machine Restore to Smaller Hard Drive

N

njaremka

macrumors 6502
Original poster
May 11, 2010
494
0
I recently had a mishap with my older MacBook Pro, and I had to get a newer model. Old MacBook had about 400+GB of data, mostly pictures, music, and movies. New model will only have 256GB SSD total drive space. As such, I want to migrate my iTunes and iPhoto libraries to network drives. However, I assume I have to perform a restore from my Time Machine backup before I can set up the network storage locations? What is the easiest way to get everything where I want it, and still be able to restore from my Time Machine back up?


Thanks!
 
Weaselboy

Weaselboy

Moderator
Staff member
Jan 23, 2005
34,137
15,602
California
When you start up your new MacBook you will be asked it you want to import data. Say yes, and follow the prompts and point to your TM backup as the source.

You will get to a screen that shows your user account and a bunch of checkboxes where you select what you want to import. When you get to that screen select your user account and below that you can uncheck the big folders like Music and Photos so those don't get moved over.

After the migration and after you have restarted into your new MacBook, manually go back into the TM backup and restore those two folders to an external drive.
 
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Meister

Meister

Suspended
Oct 10, 2013
5,456
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Weaselboy said:
When you start up your new MacBook you will be asked it you want to import data. Say yes, and follow the prompts and point to your TM backup as the source.

You will get to a screen that shows your user account and a bunch of checkboxes where you select what you want to import. When you get to that screen select your user account and below that you can uncheck the big folders like Music and Photos so those don't get moved over.

After the migration and after you have restarted into your new MacBook, manually go back into the TM backup and restore those two folders to an external drive.
Click to expand...
I have never done this, but now I know what I need to do if I ever have to.

Always a pleasure reading your well informed post, Weasel. :)
 
N

njaremka

macrumors 6502
Original poster
May 11, 2010
494
0
Weaselboy said:
When you start up your new MacBook you will be asked it you want to import data. Say yes, and follow the prompts and point to your TM backup as the source.

You will get to a screen that shows your user account and a bunch of checkboxes where you select what you want to import. When you get to that screen select your user account and below that you can uncheck the big folders like Music and Photos so those don't get moved over.

After the migration and after you have restarted into your new MacBook, manually go back into the TM backup and restore those two folders to an external drive.
Click to expand...

excellent! Thanks.
 
M

Mantrasia

macrumors newbie
Nov 15, 2016
2
1
Weaselboy said:
When you start up your new MacBook you will be asked it you want to import data. Say yes, and follow the prompts and point to your TM backup as the source.

You will get to a screen that shows your user account and a bunch of checkboxes where you select what you want to import. When you get to that screen select your user account and below that you can uncheck the big folders like Music and Photos so those don't get moved over.

After the migration and after you have restarted into your new MacBook, manually go back into the TM backup and restore those two folders to an external drive.
Click to expand...

Sorry to dig up an old thread but I have the same issue as OP since I'm trying to restore a TM backup from my old MacBook Pro onto a new MacBook Air where the HD is smaller- I followed the steps listed but after I choose the TM backup and choose the HD on the new MBA, it just gives me a warning message saying "not enough space on drive to restore" but no option to check/uncheck things to reduce the items being restored.

Any ideas on what might be going on different than above?

Thanks!
 
Weaselboy

Weaselboy

Moderator
Staff member
Jan 23, 2005
34,137
15,602
California
Mantrasia said:
Sorry to dig up an old thread but I have the same issue as OP since I'm trying to restore a TM backup from my old MacBook Pro onto a new MacBook Air where the HD is smaller- I followed the steps listed but after I choose the TM backup and choose the HD on the new MBA, it just gives me a warning message saying "not enough space on drive to restore" but no option to check/uncheck things to reduce the items being restored.

Any ideas on what might be going on different than above?

Thanks!
Click to expand...
It sounds like you are trying to restore, which is different than using Migration Assistant. You need to use Migration Assistant to see the options I mentioned.
 
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powers74

powers74

macrumors 68000
Aug 18, 2008
1,861
16
At the bend in the river
diggin up this one again!

So I'm upgrading the HDD in my 2012, nee 2009 (did I do that backwards?) Mac Pro. I Got a 4TB drive. My current setup is a 1TB main drive with a 2TB ™ backup. I was wondering if I should make the 4TB my startup drive and make the 2TB if that's even possible. The other option is that I do have another 2TB HDD that I could make a RAID out of possibly, but I've never done that. Not sure if worth it?
 
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