Going from 2009 iMac to Retina 2015

[aliensporebomb]

Okay, there has to be a simpler way to do this.

Migration assistant or transfer assistant isn't finding either machine despite connecting via ethernet and having sharing enabled.

If I punch in the IP address it keeps asking for the root password of one of the machines despite the fact that that once entered there's nothing for it to copy. Baffling.

At this point the only thing I can think of is to use time machine on the original Mac, back up the original boot drive and physically transfer it to a 5 TB drive I have connected and use time machine to back it up.

Then I'll physically need to connect it to the new machine to restore it. The drive has USB3 so I'll use the USB 3 ports on it but honestly, I've had this new machine for hours and haven't transferred a single byte of data.

I understand moving to new faster technologies but going from a FW800/USB2 iMac to a Thunderbolt 2 / USB3 mac has been a cringing nightmare.

Superduper used to be my rescuer in such situations - no more. With the other machine mapped it can't see the drive to connect to.

Anyone else got any other bright ideas before I was 4 more hours copying my original boot drive? Oh for the days of Target disc mode and firewire.

 

[yjchua95]

Okay, there has to be a simpler way to do this.

Migration assistant or transfer assistant isn't finding either machine despite connecting via ethernet and having sharing enabled.

If I punch in the IP address it keeps asking for the root password of one of the machines despite the fact that that once entered there's nothing for it to copy. Baffling.

At this point the only thing I can think of is to use time machine on the original Mac, back up the original boot drive and physically transfer it to a 5 TB drive I have connected and use time machine to back it up.

Then I'll physically need to connect it to the new machine to restore it. The drive has USB3 so I'll use the USB 3 ports on it but honestly, I've had this new machine for hours and haven't transferred a single byte of data.

I understand moving to new faster technologies but going from a FW800/USB2 iMac to a Thunderbolt 2 / USB3 mac has been a cringing nightmare.

Superduper used to be my rescuer in such situations - no more. With the other machine mapped it can't see the drive to connect to.

Anyone else got any other bright ideas before I was 4 more hours copying my original boot drive? Oh for the days of Target disc mode and firewire.

Well, you could always run a Time Machine backup of your older Mac and then restore the backup into your retina iMac.

 

[aliensporebomb]

That's what I ended up doing - I backed up my entire boot drive to my external FW800 drive (which took between eight to nine hours to back-up via that speed) then used the same drive (which has USB3 jacks) with Migration Assistant to copy the data on the new machine. That took about an hour and 40 minutes once connected. Amazing considering I had about a terabyte of data.

That being said, this wouldn't have been an issue if I had been going to a machine with firewire from a machine with firewire or from a machine with thunderbolt to one with thunderbolt.

The problem happens when you go from a machine with firewire to a machine with thunderbolt. The ethernet copy method should have worked but didn't for whatever reason.

 

[yjchua95]

That's what I ended up doing - I backed up my entire boot drive to my external FW800 drive (which took between eight to nine hours to back-up via that speed) then used the same drive (which has USB3 jacks) with Migration Assistant to copy the data on the new machine. That took about an hour and 40 minutes once connected. Amazing considering I had about a terabyte of data.

That being said, this wouldn't have been an issue if I had been going to a machine with firewire from a machine with firewire or from a machine with thunderbolt to one with thunderbolt.

The problem happens when you go from a machine with firewire to a machine with thunderbolt. The ethernet copy method should have worked but didn't for whatever reason.

I forgot to mention, you also could've purchased a FireWire-Thunderbolt adapter for your retina iMac and hook both Macs up over FW.

 

[aliensporebomb]

I thought of that after the fact and realized that I've already spent quite enough this week I think. I got where I needed to go. Luckily reprovisioning my old i7 mac for my wife's use will be a lot easier especially since her old machine is also firewire.

Thanks for the tips all.