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Having a lot of weird issues trying to transfer data

SPNarwhal

SPNarwhal

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Apr 22, 2009
1,260
156
illinois
my friend's laptop broke and I helped her find a new one, but for some reason I'm having a hard time transferring her things.

She has a 500gb hdd, the new laptop has a 750gb.

Tried migration assistant and it worked once, but then only showed a guest account. Tried it again just now and it froze at "40 minutes remaining" even though it said that all day. No files were transferred.

I tried installing her drive internally, but the laptop shuts down while booting to her account.

I just tried it externally and it got further along but still **** down randomly.

I've booted from her Harddrive externally before. Why would it boot externally but not internally?

what is going on?
 
Migration assistant does that sometimes and just hangs.

What I would do is use Migration Assistant to transfer the computer settings and applications. The personal data, I would transfer manually.
 
T5BRICK said:
Possibly a failing SATA cable?
Click to expand...
That's what I thought, but I replaced the sata cable with a brand new one and also the drive won't even boot externally now at all. I think it's a failing drive. I tried verifying on disk utility and it says it needs repair. I try repairing it and the repair fails. I don't know if the drive itself is bad or just the files on it being corrupted or something strange

Other drives seem to boot fine, it's just the one from her old laptop doesn't boot when inserted into another. I guess I'll just retrieve her files off of it manually? But she wanted her programs and such.
Arg
 
SPNarwhal said:
Other drives seem to boot fine, it's just the one from her old laptop doesn't boot when inserted into another. I guess I'll just retrieve her files off of it manually? But she wanted her programs and such.
Click to expand...

If it's failing you may not be able to get everything off of it. It's a good reminder for her that regular backups are important.
 
OP:

You didn't tell us WHICH laptop your friend had that broke.

If it's one where the internal hard drive is easily removed, I suggest you take the drive out of the OLD laptop, put it into a USB3 enclosure (or USB3/SATA dock, or USB3/SATA dongle adapter), and try connecting to the NEW laptop that way.

If migration assistant won't work, you may still be able to mount the old drive on the desktop, and get at the data "a little bit at a time"...
 
It's probably not your sata cable.

Migration Assistant hanging is a common problem. I ran into it earlier this year when I tried it for the first time. I had about 500GB of data that I was moving and thought it took a long time. I actually left it overnight and progress had not changed.

I started over and used Migration Assistant to copy the computer setting and then copied my data manually. I also found that it didn't copy over my Adobe Suite products either.

Here's a link,

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3199695?start=30&tstart=0

Edit: Sorry, I didn't see you comment about the failing drive. Fix that first! If you get it mounted, and use migration assistant be aware.
 
Last edited:
Sorry about that!
Her laptop was a 2012 13" Macbook Pro

I did take the drive out and connect it via an adapter to the USB port.

Right now I am transferring everything manually. It's weird because it doesn't seem to disconnect or anything when I have it plugged in, but if I try to boot to it, the laptop shuts down while it's loading her account.
Tried it internally as well as externally, and it USED to boot externally completely fine, but now it just won't. ?

I took it to Apple and they said it won't mount, but I'm able to connect it and get the files off of it no problem?
I think that FileVault might have something to do with this, but I'm not completely sure.

Anyway. She might just lose all of her Applications and have to redownload them, but at least her files are transferring without issue. I don't really understand what's happening here, though.
 
OP wrote:
"Her laptop was a 2012 13" Macbook Pro
I did take the drive out and connect it via an adapter to the USB port.
Right now I am transferring everything manually. It's weird because it doesn't seem to disconnect or anything when I have it plugged in, but if I try to boot to it, the laptop shuts down while it's loading her account.
Tried it internally as well as externally, and it USED to boot externally completely fine, but now it just won't. ?"

I'll take a guess that if you get an SSD and a new ribbon cable, put those into the 2012 MacBook Pro, put a clean copy of the OS onto it -- that it will boot and run just fine...
 
Fishrrman said:
OP wrote:
"Her laptop was a 2012 13" Macbook Pro
I did take the drive out and connect it via an adapter to the USB port.
Right now I am transferring everything manually. It's weird because it doesn't seem to disconnect or anything when I have it plugged in, but if I try to boot to it, the laptop shuts down while it's loading her account.
Tried it internally as well as externally, and it USED to boot externally completely fine, but now it just won't. ?"

I'll take a guess that if you get an SSD and a new ribbon cable, put those into the 2012 MacBook Pro, put a clean copy of the OS onto it -- that it will boot and run just fine...
Click to expand...
..?
Her 2012 Macbook Pro is completely dead. No activity whatsoever. That isn't really the issue.
Her old harddrive from that laptop is acting wonky.
 
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