migration help

[helveta]

I have a 2011 13" MBA and am thinking of moving to a 2013 11" MBA and I have some questions on the migration. I've been reading the forum and haven't seen these specific questions answered.

My MBA is usually used with a TB monitor and I have a LaCie dual TB drive attached for backup. I know I can use either time machine or migration assistant to migrate the files.

1. How well do time machine and migration assistant handle migrating applications? When I upgraded my MBA hard drive I ended up using Carbon Copy Cloner because of some difficulties. CCC migrated everything but I still had to fill in the license numbers for Microsoft Office applications on the new drive. I couldn't find them and it took several days to get them from microsoft. Will I need to go through this again? Will I need to reinstall some applications?

2. I have windows 7 in a Parallels partition (?) for just a couple programs. Will time machine and/or migration assistant handle this seamlessly or do I need to take certain steps to move this?

3. What happens to the applications on the old MBA? Will they still be available if I find I need to look up license numbers after the transfer?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Weaselboy]

1. TM with MA will migrate all applications just fine, but there are some app, notably MS and Adobe apps, that will notice they are on a new machine a require reentry of the reg. info. Nothing much Apple can do about that. Even if you use CCC, you will still have this issue. You should not need to reinstall any apps... just reenter serial numbers.

2. TM and MA will move over the Parallels virtual machine assuming you have it in the default location.

3. Nothing will be disturbed on the old machine. It will be left like it always was.

 

[Ronnoco]

I just migrated from a MBA to a MBP (via Migration Assistant and Ethernet) and Microsoft Office 11 and all Adobe programs migrated successfully without the need to reenter keys. The MBP was wiped clean and a fresh version of Lion was installed. The MBA was using Snow Leopard.

 

[Boyd01]

My experience in 2011 and again a few weeks ago was also good. Everything moved such that the new machine was exactly like the old one. My old version of Photoshop (CS3) required activation, which was no more than a mouse click.

My old version of MS Office (2008?) worked immediately without any activation. Old versions of FileMaker Pro and Vectorworks both worked with no activation. Old version of Final Cut Pro (6) required me to enter my serial number. Logic Pro worked fine (but it's the app store version).

BTW, I upgraded from a 2011 13" i5/4gb/256gb MBA to a 2013 11" i7/8gb/512gb MBA. Really happy with the new machine. Nice performance bumps with a faster SSD and of course USB 3.

 

[helveta]

You all make the move sound too easy to be true. Thanks for you're help.

BTW, I upgraded from a 2011 13" i5/4gb/256gb MBA to a 2013 11" i7/8gb/512gb MBA. Really happy with the new machine. Nice performance bumps with a faster SSD and of course USB 3.

Thats exactly what I'm planning on doing.