New iMac with thunderbolt/USB 3.0 and old MB with USB 2.0 (Transfer iTunes/iPhoto)?

[sallycat17]

I have new iMac 27" 1TB fusion (received Jan 2013) with thunderbolt and USB 3.0 and old MacBook Pro (late 2009) 500 GB Hard drive (which is about 80% utilized) with USB 2.0 connections.

Question: I need to move all my iPhotos (thousands of photos) and iTunes (decent size music collection) from my MacBook Pro to the new iMac. What is best way to do this with the following clarifications?

1. If need to purchase an external hard drive, I want to also keep a copy of all my photos and music on that HD (for back up purposes) so that I can REMOVE them from my MacBook to significantly reduce files on MB hard drive. My MB Pro is sooooooo SLOW now (ugh).

2. Is there an external HD available that has both USB 2.0 and thunderbolt options? Or do you need to purchase some kind of USB 2.0 to thunderbolt adapter ?? I do have an older external HDs that has a USB 2.0

Please advise with any other options I am not thinking of as well, thanks!

iMac 27" 680MX 1TB Fusion, MB Pro late 2009, iPad 2, iPhone 4S

 

[simsaladimbamba]

USB 3.0 is backwards compatible with USB 2.0, thus you can connect USB 2.0 devices to a USB 3.0 port.

Since both your Macs have Gigabit Ethernet, why not use a Gigabit Ethernet cable (Cat 5e or Cat6, can be had from Monoprice for 5 to 10 USD) and either use File Sharing (System Preferences > Sharing) to copy the data from the MBP to your iMac into the appropriate folder or use Migration Assistant to do it for you?

Or use that USB 2.0 HDD to copy the iTunes and iPhoto libraries/folders and also use it as backup, if you have not already backed them up yet.

 

[mushroomtip]

USB 3.0 is backwards compatible with USB 2.0, thus you can connect USB 2.0 devices to a USB 3.0 port.

Since both your Macs have Gigabit Ethernet, why not use a Gigabit Ethernet cable (Cat 5e or Cat6, can be had from Monoprice for 5 to 10 USD) and either use File Sharing (System Preferences > Sharing) to copy the data from the MBP to your iMac into the appropriate folder or use Migration Assistant to do it for you?

Or use that USB 2.0 HDD to copy the iTunes and iPhoto libraries/folders and also use it as backup, if you have not already backed them up yet.

can the same be said for PC to 2012 iMac ?

 

[simsaladimbamba]

can the same be said for PC to 2012 iMac ?

I said a lot, what do you mean specifically?

 

[sallycat17]

USB 3.0 is backwards compatible with USB 2.0, thus you can connect USB 2.0 devices to a USB 3.0 port.

Since both your Macs have Gigabit Ethernet, why not use a Gigabit Ethernet cable (Cat 5e or Cat6, can be had from Monoprice for 5 to 10 USD) and either use File Sharing (System Preferences > Sharing) to copy the data from the MBP to your iMac into the appropriate folder or use Migration Assistant to do it for you?

Or use that USB 2.0 HDD to copy the iTunes and iPhoto libraries/folders and also use it as backup, if you have not already backed them up yet.

Thank you for the great ideas! More questions based on your advice:

1. is the GigE the "fastest" way to transfer a super large photo library ?

2. I do want all our photos and music on an HD with Thunderbolt as a BACKUP so that I can get them off my MB Pro. Would you recommend something like this LaCie ? I'm worried that USB will become extinct in near future and I want to have the ability to get the photos/music off the HD with the thunderbolt connection (in the future, if needed).

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Thank you for the great ideas! More questions based on your advice:

1. is the GigE the "fastest" way to transfer a super large photo library ?

Yes, it is the fastest interface on the 2009 MBP and the third fastest interface on the 2012 iMac and should give you around 80 to 110 MB/s, depending on the slowest HDD in the chain.

2. I do want all our photos and music on an HD with Thunderbolt as a BACKUP so that I can get them off my MB Pro. Would you recommend something like this LaCie ? I'm worried that USB will become extinct in near future and I want to have the ability to get the photos/music off the HD with the thunderbolt connection (in the future, if needed).

Then get a Thunderbolt HDD (LaCie might be okay, others too) and use File Sharing via GigE to copy the files off the MBP to the Thunderbolt HDD connected to the iMac.
As for USB becoming extinct, unlikely in the next five to ten years, unless Thunderbolt becomes much cheaper or USB gets replaced by a much better and cheaper alternative, but USB is already cheap.

 

[sallycat17]

the LaCie option

I meant to link to this LaCie frive:

http://www.amazon.com/LaCie-Rugged-Thunderbolt-External-Drive/dp/B009GXI3QU

 

[simsaladimbamba]

I meant to link to this LaCie frive:

http://www.amazon.com/LaCie-Rugged-Thunderbolt-External-Drive/dp/B009GXI3QU

Thunderbolt for this is quite overkill, as USB 3.0 should suffice for the HDD (since the HDD is the limiting factor here), unless the USB 3.0 controller in there is *****. Unless you want to keep the HDD for 20 years and not replace it in five years or so with another one, a USB 3.0 HDD should more than suffice for your backup needs.

I have one 500 GB HDD for my photographs (digital and analog) libraries and editing documents, one 500 GB HDD with my personal video footage in an editing friendly format.
Both 500 GB HDDs get backed up to one 1 TB HDD via CarbonCopyCloner.
And that 1 TB HDD gets backed up to another 1 TB HDD via CarbonCopyCloner.
Therefore I have three copies of my important data.

 

[sallycat17]

Thunderbolt for this is quite overkill, as USB 3.0 should suffice for the HDD (since the HDD is the limiting factor here), unless the USB 3.0 controller in there is *****. Unless you want to keep the HDD for 20 years and not replace it in five years or so with another one, a USB 3.0 HDD should more than suffice for your backup needs.

I have one 500 GB HDD for my photographs (digital and analog) libraries and editing documents, one 500 GB HDD with my personal video footage in an editing friendly format.
Both 500 GB HDDs get backed up to one 1 TB HDD via CarbonCopyCloner.
And that 1 TB HDD gets backed up to another 1 TB HDD via CarbonCopyCloner.
Therefore I have three copies of my important data.

Thanks for all these options! I really appreciate it and prefer to leverage the devices that I already have versus spending another $200 on yet another HD.

On another note (last question, I hope): thoughts on this Thunderbolt to FireWire Adapter: http://www.amazon.com/Apple-Thunderbolt-to-FireWire-Adapter/dp/B008RXYOKY/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top (best use of this adapter given my situation?)

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Thanks for all these options! I really appreciate it and prefer to leverage the devices that I already have versus spending another $200 on yet another HD.

On another note (last question, I hope): thoughts on this Thunderbolt to FireWire Adapter: http://www.amazon.com/Apple-Thunderbolt-to-FireWire-Adapter/dp/B008RXYOKY/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top (best use of this adapter given my situation?)

Target Disk Mode with the MBP perhaps, or using an external Firewire 800 HDD?

 

[hfg]

Thunderbolt for this is quite overkill, as USB 3.0 should suffice for the HDD (since the HDD is the limiting factor here), unless the USB 3.0 controller in there is *****. Unless you want to keep the HDD for 20 years and not replace it in five years or so with another one, a USB 3.0 HDD should more than suffice for your backup needs.

I have one 500 GB HDD for my photographs (digital and analog) libraries and editing documents, one 500 GB HDD with my personal video footage in an editing friendly format.
Both 500 GB HDDs get backed up to one 1 TB HDD via CarbonCopyCloner.
And that 1 TB HDD gets backed up to another 1 TB HDD via CarbonCopyCloner.
Therefore I have three copies of my important data.

Thunderbolt is a overkill for a single hard disk enclosure. However there are many recent models of Mac computers which have a Thunderbolt port on them whereas only a few of the latest 2012 models have a USB-3.0 port available. This makes a drive with both interfaces very useful to users with multiple Mac computers which can use the same drive.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Thunderbolt is a overkill for a single hard disk enclosure. However there are many recent models of Mac computers which have a Thunderbolt port on them whereas only a few of the latest 2012 models have a USB-3.0 port available. This makes a drive with both interfaces very useful to users with multiple Mac computers which can use the same drive.

While all 2012 Macs have USB 3.0 ports, I agree, that Thunderbolt is a good option, if one uses such HDD with 2011 Macs quite often, but other than that, the markup price for Thunderbolt in this case is not really needed, but then again, one more customer buying a TB device will add to its spreading, and thus hopefully get more done with the port and no ****ing about with those hubs and such.

 

[mushroomtip]

I said a lot, what do you mean specifically?

can I connect my PC to The iMac and do the transfer via USB ?

 

[simsaladimbamba]

can I connect my PC to The iMac and do the transfer via USB ?

No, you cannot even to this on Mac OS X that easily. Your Windows based PC probably has an Ethernet connection, if so, use that interface to transfer data. Look for "Windows / Mac OS X file sharing" guides to see how it is done, as I am still not able to recall all the steps, as it seems to be more luck than anything else.

 

[mushroomtip]

No, you cannot even to this on Mac OS X that easily. Your Windows based PC probably has an Ethernet connection, if so, use that interface to transfer data. Look for "Windows / Mac OS X file sharing" guides to see how it is done, as I am still not able to recall all the steps, as it seems to be more luck than anything else.

Thanks ! I still have a few weeks to do the research .