Connecting two MacBooks via Ethernet?

[Garoolgan]

Hi,

I've ordered a new Mac Book Pro and was thinking I'd use Migration Assistant to push the stuff across from my old MacBook.

Years ago when I was working we used "twisted" Ethernet cables for a direct link between PCs.

To connect 2 Mac Books directly in order to use Migration Assistant does anyone know whether I need a straight or a twisted Ethernet cable?

Thanks

Garoolgan

 

[JTToft]

Does not matter.

 

[Garoolgan]

Thanks for your reply
In my "ancient way of thinking" that seems strange but I'll give it a go before having to knock up a twisted one. I still have my old tools in a box somewhere..........
Garoolgan

 

[JTToft]

Thanks for your reply
In my "ancient way of thinking" that seems strange but I'll give it a go before having to knock up a twisted one. I still have my old tools in a box somewhere..........
Garoolgan

- Ever since the switch to Intel, Macs haven't required crossover cables due to the Auto-MDIX built into their Ethernet ports.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT2274

 

[T5BRICK]

To connect 2 Mac Books directly in order to use Migration Assistant does anyone know whether I need a straight or a twisted Ethernet cable?

If you ordered a retina model, you'll also need an Ethernet adapter since they don't have a built in Ethernet port.

 

[Fishrrman]

Another way to do it:

You'll need an external drive, USB is good enough.

Download CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper.
Note: CCC is FREE to download, and it's FREE to use for the first 30 days.

Connect your external drive to the OLD MacBook, and create a "full clone" cope of the internal drive.

Connect external copy to the NEW MacBook, boot up for first time.
At the appropriate moment, the setup assistant will ask if you wish to migrate data from another drive.

Select the items to be migrated, and let the setup assistant do its thing.

This has worked well for me in the past.

 

[JTToft]

Another way to do it:

- That seems cumbersome. Easier to just connect the two machines directly and do the data migration.
The cloning in between accomplishes nothing.

If you're going to be cloning, you should actually use it as a clone and clone the drive over to the new machine.
But that could also be done via Target Disk Mode instead of using an unnecessary external drive.

 

[Fishrrman]

JTToft wrote:
"That seems cumbersome."

I often find "cumbersome" to work as good or better than "sleek and high-tech".

But that's just me.

 

[hallux]

Another way to do it:

I'm with \/

- That seems cumbersome.

If you're going to do the external disk process, just do a full TM backup to the disk then restore from the TM backup using Migration Assistant.

 

[danckwerts]

JTToft wrote:
"That seems cumbersome."

I often find "cumbersome" to work as good or better than "sleek and high-tech".

But that's just me.

Yes, I nearly used SuperDuper myself the other week. Instead, I used Migration Assistant and I'm not sure I made the right choice. I had to do quite a lot of cleaning up afterwards, which I've never experienced with SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner. I keep a daily backup using SuperDuper in case anything goes wrong. Better than Time Machine because it is bootable.