best way to transfer files

[Live Steam]

My mom's PC died and I want to give her my 2010 al iMac. I need to transfer my files from the iMac to my new 13" Retina MBP. What is the best way to do this?

[TouchMint.com]

Originally Posted by Live Steam

My mom's PC died and I want to give her my 2010 al iMac. I need to transfer my files from the iMac to my new 13" Retina MBP. What is the best way to do this?

You should be able to use migration assistant if you want to move everything over. If you just have certain files you want to move over I believe you can use this too. It is best to connect with a thunderbolt cable (will be super fast) but you can do it with usb and wifi too if needed.

[Live Steam]

Originally Posted by TouchMint.com

You should be able to use migration assistant if you want to move everything over. If you just have certain files you want to move over I believe you can use this too. It is best to connect with a thunderbolt cable (will be super fast) but you can do it with usb and wifi too if needed.

Yeah wireless says it will take 26 hours so that's not an option. I guess I need to buy a TB cable and an adapter? Is there a FW to TB adapter? Or USB to TB? Maybe I'll just purchase an external HD and then use it for backups.

[jav6454]

Originally Posted by Live Steam

My mom's PC died and I want to give her my 2010 al iMac. I need to transfer my files from the iMac to my new 13" Retina MBP. What is the best way to do this?

Migration Assistant like the previous poster said, or you can back up everything on to a Time Machine disk and then restore from that back up to your new machine.

[Live Steam]

Originally Posted by jav6454

Migration Assistant like the previous poster said, or you can back up everything on to a Time Machine disk and then restore from that back up to your new machine.

Will MA work faster with a wired connection?

[jav6454]

Originally Posted by Live Steam

Will MA work faster with a wired connection?

Yes. Theoretically.

[TouchMint.com]

Originally Posted by Live Steam

Yeah wireless says it will take 26 hours so that's not an option. I guess I need to buy a TB cable and an adapter? Is there a FW to TB adapter? Or USB to TB? Maybe I'll just purchase an external HD and then use it for backups.

Yea it took me about 4-5 hours to transfer from my macbook pro to my new macbook air but its not like I had to be there I just ran it over night so time was not an issue.

If you just have certain files you want to transfer over and not a whole copy of all the contents of the computers and settings there should be an option for that.

Options such as usb3 ethernet firewire and thunderbolt are faster than wifi transfers in most cases.

[mapleleafer]

Originally Posted by Live Steam

I guess I need to buy a TB cable and an adapter? Is there a FW to TB adapter? Or USB to TB?

Don't waste your money on Thunderbolt. Use an ethernet cable.

[Live Steam]

Originally Posted by mapleleafer

Don't waste your money on Thunderbolt. Use an ethernet cable.

The 13" Retina doesn't have an ethernet port. I just purchased an adapter for TB to ethernet. I'll see how that goes.

[Jonathanm1222]

Originally Posted by mapleleafer

Don't waste your money on Thunderbolt. Use an ethernet cable.

Agree. The guy at Apple said don't spend the money for a TB cable if you're only using it for a one time transfer of files to a new iMac. And he said the TB was not any faster. Use Ethernet cable.

[mapleleafer]

Originally Posted by Live Steam

The 13" Retina doesn't have an ethernet port.

Wow. I didn't know Apple was dropping ethernet. I guess we can expect it to go in future desktops.

[FFabian]

AFAIK the 2010 iMac has no TB port, just Firewire and USB 2.0.