Question about migrating to my new MBA

[Gemütlichkeit]

My macbook pro (2008) died, bad Ram slots and i can't repair it under warranty.

I ended up purchasing a macbook air and want to migrate/move/transfer my music, photos, calendar, emails.. all that good stuff, to the new machine.

the harddrive in the mbp is working perfectly, however I don't have a machine to boot into to transfer the files.

How would I go about this? I do have a HDD enclosure for the MBP HDD, can I boot to that HDD through USB on the new Air?

If I can boot to it, I can export all my data, then boot into the air and import it all.

What about the apple migration tool? Is that a valid tool in this situationist?

Thanks for the help!

 

[marmiteturkey]

Yes, you should be able to boot to a USB-enclosed HDD if it is formatted as GUID bootable (if you were booting to it from the MBP, you can boot to it from the Air). Hold option down while you boot (press immediately after you turn the Air on) and select it to boot. http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1948

Or, if you have time machine backups, you can do that

 

[Gemütlichkeit]

Yes, you should be able to boot to a USB-enclosed HDD if it is formatted as GUID bootable (if you were booting to it from the MBP, you can boot to it from the Air). Hold option down while you boot (press immediately after you turn the Air on) and select it to boot. http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1948

Or, if you have time machine backups, you can do that

Thanks mate! I do have time machine. I've only ever done a full backup of that which I guess I don't want to do in this case. I'd be better off picking and choosing the apps/data I want restored.

 

[ZBoater]

Why not boot your MBA, and then plug in your old HD in the enclosure, have the MBA recognize it, and copy off what you need?

 

[Gemütlichkeit]

Why not boot your MBA, and then plug in your old HD in the enclosure, have the MBA recognize it, and copy off what you need?

I'd do that only if the migration software would do it. Isn't it better to export/import your contact list, ical, music, etc?

Doing a raw file copy might mess things up. I'd rather play it safe haha.

step1) boot to external via MBA
step2) export data through proper apps
step3) boot to lion via MBA
step4) import data

or if the migration tool works, i'll just boot to the MBA, attach the old HDD and run the migration software. That would be much easier. I'm doing a lot of prep/research for this.. The air won't be in until Thursday.