Migration Assistant: Ethernet vs USB 3.0

[Huginnmuninn]

My 2012 quad-core i7 Mac mini has has Thunderbolt, Ethernet, Firewire 800, and USB 3.0. The drive is about 80% full so I'd like to transfer with Migration Assistant as quickly as possible.

I was originally just going to connect a Carbon Copy Cloner clone to the iMac via USB but wondered if using a Macmini-to-iMac connection over Ethernet might be faster. (Not considering Thunderbolt connection because that would require a T3 cable plus a T3-toT2 adapter, for around $70)

Any ideas on Ethernet vs USB 3.0?

 

[niteflyr]

In theory the USB 3.0 would be faster. The bottleneck though, is going to be the HDD in the Mini. Actual transfer rates would probably be similar either way.

 

[Huginnmuninn]

Thanks. Some searching has found a bunch of people who have reported stalls in Migration Assistant when using Ethernet, so it looks like USB is the way to go. But for my HD it will probably take several hours, which I was trying to avoid. Oh well.

 

[Fishrrman]

A USB3 external drive and a cloning app such as CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper will get the job done, smooth and easy (though it may take some time if the drive is nearly full!).

 

[Huginnmuninn]

I have both SuperDuper! and (recently moved over to) CCC and my external drives are all USB 3.0, but it's still going to take several hours transferring through Migration Assistant. If I'm lucky my 820Gb clone will take all night to finish copying.

 

[Fishrrman]

With drive that size, there aren't really any "quick" solutions.
Just set it up and "let it go"...

 

[willmtaylor]

Yeah the HDD will be the bottleneck. I just used Migration Assistant to move around 650GB from a USB 3 HDD to my 2017 iMac on Friday, and it took a couple of hours.

 

[Huginnmuninn]

Thanks everyone. My 27" iMac arrives on Tuesday, so at least I know what I've got to do and how.