iMac to Macbook transfer with only external HDD

[ruk110]

Hi everyone. i am moving out of the country and so am selling my imac as it is too heavy to take with me. When i gather some money at my destination i wish to get a macbook.

Now here is my question, can i use my external hdd (as it has my time machine backup's stored in there) to plug into a brand new Macbook Pro and restore my iMac onto the macbook - Given that the internal hard drive is of the same size as the iMac?? or will i have to buy an iMac only, and than directly migrate to a macbook??

Thanks people

 

[simsaladimbamba]

You can use an external HDD for that.

Setting-up a new Mac from an old one or its Backups

 

[ruk110]

oh okay so it really is as simple as that yeah? i should not have any problems??

 

[simsaladimbamba]

oh okay so it really is as simple as that yeah? i should not have any problems??

It is that simple, you really should have no problems.

If you really want to go the cautious route, you could backup via Time Machine to that HDD on one partition and cloning the iMac to the external HDD on another partition.
That way, you could use the clone, if Setup or Migration Assistant faqs up.