Migrating from MBP to MBA. What's the best way?

[rjdoc74]

Hello everyone,

Great advice here. I am considering migrating from my 2008 MBP to MBA then selling MBP on ebay. I know there are several ways of doing that. What's the preferred and safest method? MBP is running snow leopard and I do have firewire port on it. Also, will using Migration assistant just transfer files or will it create a mirror image of the HD on the new machine? Another words, will it transfer programs like MS office, etc.

Thanks for you help!

JR

 

[z3r0inc]

If the MBP has Lion, the easiest way is to just use airplay but it might take forever.

The next efficient way is to create a physical ad-hoc network between the two by connecting them together through ethernet. Set up a public folder and transfer data using it.

I've never used migration assitant before but I am willing to bet that you won't be able to transfer applications. No utility lets you do that. Correct me if I'm wrong please.

Personally, I would put everything into a external HDD, then transfer over. The HDD just serves as backup from then on.

Good luck!

 

[Macman45]

I Used A Different Soloutionw

I was going to use the migration assistant, but I thought " hang on, you are not putting gbs of stuff you don't need on the Air"

So I wifi over my iTunes library, and then selectively copied the stuff I really need on the Air to an external hdd, and copied it across.

Result? Less junk on my Air, just the stuff I need.....Not my entire photo library, just videos and stuff I'm working on now.

Learning to live with 256gb takes discipline I think!

 

[johnhurley]

Hello everyone,

Great advice here. I am considering migrating from my 2008 MBP to MBA then selling MBP on ebay. I know there are several ways of doing that. What's the preferred and safest method? MBP is running snow leopard and I do have firewire port on it. Also, will using Migration assistant just transfer files or will it create a mirror image of the HD on the new machine? Another words, will it transfer programs like MS office, etc.

Thanks for you help!

JR

Wouldn't you just do a time machine backup first, get your new MBA, create a dummy account on it and update it, then restore your time machine backup?

Pretty sure that all the applications should come across and all your data etc. Probably would have to reactivate MS office thru microsoft web activation.

Are there any compatibility issues between programs running SL versus Lion ( like microsoft ones/etc ? ). Doing some research first on application compatibility seems like a smart idea.

 

[Macman45]

You Could

Wouldn't you just do a time machine backup first, get your new MBA, create a dummy account on it and update it, then restore your time machine backup?

Pretty sure that all the applications should come across and all your data etc. Probably would have to reactivate MS office thru microsoft web activation.

Are there any compatibility issues between programs running SL versus Lion ( like microsoft ones/etc ? ). Doing some research first on application compatibility seems like a smart idea.

But i was thinking of space saving.....We all have Terabytes on our iMacs etc, but 256gb needs management, especially if you work with video and music.

I'm eventually going to buy a new SSD external for my Air, but I'm waiting for more to become available...For now i have the Air Superdrive to burn DVD's if required.