Migration Assistant Issues

[pappalsim]

First post so sorry if in the wrong place.

I have a 17" Macbook Pro and my dad has a 15 " MacBook Pro (same model version). And we are swapping. Both are on Mountain Lion and all Apps are up to date.

I purchase a 1TB External USB drive, formatted it for MAC usage and partitioned it into 2 equal partitions (using Disk until).

On each Macbook Pro I used Time Machine to back up my account (to partition 1) from my laptop and then the same on my dads (partition 2). On each laptop I created a new user (admin).

On my 17" Macbook Pro I logged in as the admin account and deleted my account (there wasn't enough free disk space for my dads account). I then used the Migration Assistant to import my dads account (from the Time Machine back up from partition 2). Worked a treat. Everything moved over, his documents, music, photos, apps etc. So he is a happy user!

Now, I repeated the same on his 15" Macbook Pro, logged in as the admin account, deleted his account (again, there wasn't enough free disk space for my account to come over). However, when I open the Migration Assistant, my user account was not listed under the "Users" folder. just the admin account I have created. So I panicked, my Time Machine back up as about 200GB and I really worried about having list all my files etc.

using Finder I browsed to my partition on the USB Drive and I can see all my files where they should be - phew!!!

Any ideas on how to get my actual account imported? I dont want to have to set up my account and have to import each folder/set of files. It will also mean having to install Applications etc.

Please help!
Thanks
Pappaslim

 

[HighEndMac]

First post so sorry if in the wrong place.

I have a 17" Macbook Pro and my dad has a 15 " MacBook Pro (same model version). And we are swapping. Both are on Mountain Lion and all Apps are up to date.

I purchase a 1TB External USB drive, formatted it for MAC usage and partitioned it into 2 equal partitions (using Disk until).

On each Macbook Pro I used Time Machine to back up my account (to partition 1) from my laptop and then the same on my dads (partition 2). On each laptop I created a new user (admin).

On my 17" Macbook Pro I logged in as the admin account and deleted my account (there wasn't enough free disk space for my dads account). I then used the Migration Assistant to import my dads account (from the Time Machine back up from partition 2). Worked a treat. Everything moved over, his documents, music, photos, apps etc. So he is a happy user!

Now, I repeated the same on his 15" Macbook Pro, logged in as the admin account, deleted his account (again, there wasn't enough free disk space for my account to come over). However, when I open the Migration Assistant, my user account was not listed under the "Users" folder. just the admin account I have created. So I panicked, my Time Machine back up as about 200GB and I really worried about having list all my files etc.

using Finder I browsed to my partition on the USB Drive and I can see all my files where they should be - phew!!!

Any ideas on how to get my actual account imported? I dont want to have to set up my account and have to import each folder/set of files. It will also mean having to install Applications etc.

Please help!
Thanks
Pappaslim

Man I'm sorry, I had some major issues with the Migration Assistant as well. So much that I actually returned my new rMBP and reordered. Sorry I don’t have much to say about solving the problem at hand, but my future approach will be to NOT use the data Migration Assistant and use an external drive. I also purchased the 'One-on-One' so I will just make Apple do it all for me.

 

[ivoruest]

1. Back up your files with Time Machine, separate partitions on both MBPs. Make sure you name them correctly so you can recognize them after.
2. Format and install both MBP with Mountain Lion.
3. Restore using Time Machine on the partition you want on each MBP.
You're done.

 

[pappalsim]

Thanks for advice. In the end I:

1. Made the Permissions so that "EVERYONE" had 'Read/Write' access and applied to USB drive
2. Created the correct username on the 15" MBP
3. Then under the admin account I copied the Home folder from the USB drive, overwriting the Home folder of the user above
4. Restarted

Mostly worked. Devices in iTunes needed to be erased and re-synced but that was no biggie.

All up and running now

Thanks
Mark