Let me preface this by saying that I've used Migration Assistant A LOT. I tinker with PPC Computer and have regularly used it in Leopard to put my "standard" set-up on a fresh install. I've also used it in plenty of other situations.
Just about two weeks ago, I helped a colleague set up her new 15" rMBP. It had been sitting in a box on her desk since last summer, and I finally got asked to be involved in setting it up. She uses a Polycarbonate iMac daily(it's probably running Snow Leopard, but might even still be running Leopard-I didn't check). I borrowed a TB-Firewire dongle from the department chair(I'd helped him a few months ago), connected the iMac and MBP together via the dongle and a Firewire 400 to 800 cable, and then rebooted the iMac in TDM. I then turned on the MBP(the first time it had been on) and ran migration assistant from the set up assistant. It worked perfectly! I did have to clear some stuff off the dock that would no longer work(due to Rosetta), but other than that she reported that she felt "just like she was using her iMac" which of course is exactly what I was going for.
More recently, I acquired a 2008 MBP with a failing hard drive, and wanted to set it up as a back-up to my daily use 13" MBP. I replaced the hard drive with a 500gb Hybrid, did a fresh install of Mavericks, and then proceeded to run Migration Assistant by booting my 13" in TDM(also running Mavericks) and connecting both via FW(my 13" is a "classic" model with built in FW). Migration Assistant "saw" my 13" inch, but only reported about 450kb or so to be copied. I went ahead and let it do its thing, but it only took about 5 minutes to transfer and when complete, I couldn't tell that it had done anything.
I tried several variations of Migration Assistant. I tried restoring the 15" from my most recent Time Machine backup(yesterday) of the 13". Finally, I ran Migration Assistant on both computers(selecting "transfer to another Mac" on my 13") and connected them both through both ethernet and Firewire. I tried restoring the 15" from my most recent Time Machine backup(yesterday) of the 13". Initially, I thought it was going to work as this transfer took a couple of hours, although it froze in the middle and left my 15" as before.
I finally gave up and used the "brute force" method. I have the 15" booted in TDM, and am using Carbon Copy Cloner on the 13" to clone the drive over to it. I'll then go through and manually clear out all the "junk" I don't need(I should probably do that on both).
Does anyone have any ideas, though, about why Migration Assistant was being so difficult? As I said, I've used it dozens of times with perfect success, and I can't imagine that using it between two computers running effectively the same OS would do this.
Just about two weeks ago, I helped a colleague set up her new 15" rMBP. It had been sitting in a box on her desk since last summer, and I finally got asked to be involved in setting it up. She uses a Polycarbonate iMac daily(it's probably running Snow Leopard, but might even still be running Leopard-I didn't check). I borrowed a TB-Firewire dongle from the department chair(I'd helped him a few months ago), connected the iMac and MBP together via the dongle and a Firewire 400 to 800 cable, and then rebooted the iMac in TDM. I then turned on the MBP(the first time it had been on) and ran migration assistant from the set up assistant. It worked perfectly! I did have to clear some stuff off the dock that would no longer work(due to Rosetta), but other than that she reported that she felt "just like she was using her iMac" which of course is exactly what I was going for.
More recently, I acquired a 2008 MBP with a failing hard drive, and wanted to set it up as a back-up to my daily use 13" MBP. I replaced the hard drive with a 500gb Hybrid, did a fresh install of Mavericks, and then proceeded to run Migration Assistant by booting my 13" in TDM(also running Mavericks) and connecting both via FW(my 13" is a "classic" model with built in FW). Migration Assistant "saw" my 13" inch, but only reported about 450kb or so to be copied. I went ahead and let it do its thing, but it only took about 5 minutes to transfer and when complete, I couldn't tell that it had done anything.
I tried several variations of Migration Assistant. I tried restoring the 15" from my most recent Time Machine backup(yesterday) of the 13". Finally, I ran Migration Assistant on both computers(selecting "transfer to another Mac" on my 13") and connected them both through both ethernet and Firewire. I tried restoring the 15" from my most recent Time Machine backup(yesterday) of the 13". Initially, I thought it was going to work as this transfer took a couple of hours, although it froze in the middle and left my 15" as before.
I finally gave up and used the "brute force" method. I have the 15" booted in TDM, and am using Carbon Copy Cloner on the 13" to clone the drive over to it. I'll then go through and manually clear out all the "junk" I don't need(I should probably do that on both).
Does anyone have any ideas, though, about why Migration Assistant was being so difficult? As I said, I've used it dozens of times with perfect success, and I can't imagine that using it between two computers running effectively the same OS would do this.