How to transfer data?

[Jonathanm1222]

I just purchased the 21" iMac. I already have the 15" MacBook Pro. What is the easiest, most direct method for transferring/copying the entire contents from the MacBook to the iMac?

[MCAsan]

migration assistant is part of the OS. It is a good starting point.

[iVoid]

If your MBP has thunderbolt:

Get a thunderbolt cable
Put the MBP into target disk mode
Connect the cable to the imac
run migration assistant on the iMac.
Transfer the users from the MBP.
(I personally prefer to reinstall apps and other bits on new systems, so don't use the other options in Migration assistant to migrate settings, apps, etc... You can if you want, but I like my new systems as clean as possible)


If your MBP only has firewire, you'll need the thunderbolt firewire adapter, the can do the above.

[justperry]

Originally Posted by iVoid

If your MBP has thunderbolt:

Get a thunderbolt cable
Put the MBP into target disk mode
Connect the cable to the imac
run migration assistant on the iMac.
Transfer the users from the MBP.
(I personally prefer to reinstall apps and other bits on new systems, so don't use the other options in Migration assistant to migrate settings, apps, etc... You can if you want, but I like my new systems as clean as possible)


If your MBP only has firewire, you'll need the thunderbolt firewire adapter, the can do the above.

This.
But, then the OP has to buy one of these cables, if the OP has an external disk he could make a backup with Carbon Copy Cloner or TimeMachine and then use migration Assistant,

[Weaselboy]

Originally Posted by Jonathanm1222

I just purchased the 21" iMac. I already have the 15" MacBook Pro. What is the easiest, most direct method for transferring/copying the entire contents from the MacBook to the iMac?

Connect the two machines together with a ethernet cable and run Migration Assistant.

[drewaz]

Is ethernet faster than using a firewire 800 to thunderbolt cable?

[Weaselboy]

Originally Posted by drewaz

Is ethernet faster than using a firewire 800 to thunderbolt cable?

GB ethernet is rated faster, but FW is more efficient at moving a lot of small files like a MA transfer... so I think they would be pretty close.

[oldsos]

Buy a Cat6 ethernet cable not a Cat5. It is faster.

[Jonathanm1222]

Wouldn't a thunderbolt cable connecting the two computers result in the fastest download? If so, approximately how long would it take to transfer about 150 gb of data using a thunderbolt cable with migration assistant?

[mlamb64150]

I'm going to be doing the same as the OP, but getting the 27' iMac and transferring from MBP 17 -2009.

I'm unfamiliar with migration assistant. Basically all I want to transfer is my eMail, iTunes and the docs/music/movies directories.

Does migration assistance allow selective restore, or is it 'all or nothing' ?

[Weaselboy]

Originally Posted by Jonathanm1222

Wouldn't a thunderbolt cable connecting the two computers result in the fastest download? If so, approximately how long would it take to transfer about 150 gb of data using a thunderbolt cable with migration assistant?

It would theoretically, but much of this depends on limitations of disk speed, plus Migration Assistant itself does a bunch of thrashing around figuring out what to move, and that takes time. Honestly, I would not buy a $50 TB cable for a one time use like this.

I moved about 20GB between two MacBooks over GB ethernet and that took a little over an hour, just to give you an idea.

Originally Posted by mlamb64150

I'm going to be doing the same as the OP, but getting the 27' iMac and transferring from MBP 17 -2009.

I'm unfamiliar with migration assistant. Basically all I want to transfer is my eMail, iTunes and the docs/music/movies directories.

Does migration assistance allow selective restore, or is it 'all or nothing' ?

It allows some control. You will get the below screen. So you can either move apps in or not, for example, but there is no way to move only some apps. The things you are talking about would come in under the users checkbox, and again... it is all or nothing.

[bdbolin]

I'm going to be doing fresh installs of all my apps. And manually picking and choosing my files to move via HD. I don't want my iMac to be plugged up with old cached files and garbage from my laptop. haha.

[mlamb64150]

Thanks Weasel, very informative!

[CaptMike]

Originally Posted by Weaselboy

Connect the two machines together with a ethernet cable and run Migration Assistant.

Is this also true when wanting to transfer files from a PC/Windows to the imac?

[blanka]

Originally Posted by CaptMike

Is this also true when wanting to transfer files from a PC/Windows to the imac?

Migration assistent's primary goal is to let all your settings function again on a new mac. On a windows machine everything is organised different, and apple does not offer a service to organise that into mac-locations.

Easiest is to share your drive on the windows machine, connect over IP, and see the windows machine pop up in the finder.

[Weaselboy]

Originally Posted by CaptMike

Is this also true when wanting to transfer files from a PC/Windows to the imac?

Yep... it works pretty much the same. You need to install the Windows Migration Assistant program from Apple from here. There are some limitations what comes over from Windows depending on version.

[CaptMike]

Originally Posted by blanka

Migration assistent's primary goal is to let all your settings function again on a new mac. On a windows machine everything is organised different, and apple does not offer a service to organise that into mac-locations.

Easiest is to share your drive on the windows machine, connect over IP, and see the windows machine pop up in the finder.

Thanks for the effort but a bit of bad information given as show here:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2518

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Originally Posted by Weaselboy

Yep... it works pretty much the same. You need to install the Windows Migration Assistant program from Apple from here. There are some limitations what comes over from Windows depending on version.

Thank so much