Migration Assistant - 10.6.8 to 10.10.3

[Dark Void]

Hi MacRumors,

I've read the Apple support article regarding Migration Assistant but I am left with a few questions. The majority of that article is geared towards purchasing a new Mac and migrating the data from an existing Mac onto it. I'm in a different situation where I am trying to migrate data onto an older computer, and one that doesn't support any sort of internet recovery or the like.

What I want to do is migrate my entire Yosemite 10.10.3 installation from my desktop along with all of its data onto my notebook that is running 10.6.8 Snow Leopard. The method for migration that I will be using is an external USB HDD that has an updated Time Machine backup of the desktop's Yosemite installation.

I want this to be clean as possible, so my first question is, is it even possible that I can "apply" that backup to my notebook running Snow Leopard via Migration Assistant? Or would I have to upgrade to Yosemite first?

I also was wondering if it is possible that I can partition the internal drive in my notebook (that currently just has the Snow Leopard installation), and allow this application of data from the desktop to be on its own, separate partition? I want to use this method as a way of a clean installation onto my notebook in other words, and I will delete the existing Snow Leopard partition afterwards just to have my entire drive available again with only the migrated Yosemite data.

Thoughts?

 

[Weaselboy]

What I want to do is migrate my entire Yosemite 10.10.3 installation from my desktop along with all of its data onto my notebook that is running 10.6.8 Snow Leopard.

Nope... won't work. You can't migrate "backwards" like this. You would need to install Yosemite in the old system and then migrate.

I also was wondering if it is possible that I can partition the internal drive in my notebook (that currently just has the Snow Leopard installation), and allow this application of data from the desktop to be on its own, separate partition? I want to use this method as a way of a clean installation onto my notebook in other words, and I will delete the existing Snow Leopard partition afterwards just to have my entire drive available again with only the migrated Yosemite data.

You could do that, but I'm not clear what it would accomplish? Can you maybe explain what the end goal is there?

 

[BrianBaughn]

WB is right....and you should get a clean install onto that notebook...not a system upgrade.

 

[Dark Void]

You could do that, but I'm not clear what it would accomplish? Can you maybe explain what the end goal is there?

Thanks for your reply. The goal of migrating it onto a separate partition would be to have an exact, standalone image of my desktop installation as opposed to basically "merging" it with my existing one. This provides no benefit other than satisfying my obsessive compulsive nature as a human being.

The reason I am contemplating this as an option is because I want to get Yosemite onto my notebook but I have misplaced my USB installer that I had created. I have since deleted the Yosemite dmg and my download speeds are abysmal so I really don't want to sit through a 5-6GB download once again as that will take up every ounce of bandwidth on my poor connection, and take quite a long time.

In other words, I was wondering initially if I could use Migration Assistant to just "apply" my Time Machine image of Yosemite from my desktop onto my older notebook to avoid anything network related, but I guess there is no way around it since they both have to be running Yosemite as you said and I unfortunately suspected.

WB is right....and you should get a clean install onto that notebook...not a system upgrade.

Thanks for your reply.

 

[Weaselboy]

The goal of migrating it onto a separate partition would be to have an exact, standalone image of my desktop installation as opposed to basically "merging" it with my existing one. This provides no benefit other than satisfying my obsessive compulsive nature as a human being.

Ah okay... gotcha. Yeah, you can just shrink the existing partition then add on a second partition. Then use the restore tab in Disk Util to clone partition one to partition two.

Follow this to resize the partition then click the plus at the lower left to add a new partition to the now free space at the bottom.

The in the restore tab out the old volume in the restore field and the new volume in the destination field and click restore. That will do the clone.

 

[Dark Void]

Ah okay... gotcha. Yeah, you can just shrink the existing partition then add on a second partition. Then use the restore tab in Disk Util to clone partition one to partition two.

Follow this to resize the partition then click the plus at the lower left to add a new partition to the now free space at the bottom.

The in the restore tab out the old volume in the restore field and the new volume in the destination field and click restore. That will do the clone.

I don't think I will need to do any sort of resizing, unless you are referring to just dividing it up when you use that term. I have a 256 GB internal in the notebook and it's a pretty minimal install that I will be migrating (less than 100GB). I can just split it in half for now just to make it convenient. I'm set as far as all of that, I just wanted to know if it were possible to do so and to go directly from an older version of OS X to a newer version via Migration Assistant.

Thanks Weaselboy, you are a gentleman and a scholar.