New Mac - Migration Assistant?

[travel4fun]

Hi,

I'm waiting for my new Mac to arrive in a couple of days. Now I have a question regarding Migration Assistant.

I want to transfer all my files, e-mails and other stuff from the old to the new Mac, but I cant decide if I should do it the old fashion way and put it all on an external harddrive and manual transfer it to the new Mac or I should use the Migration Assistant.

I usual start as a clean install. I love that the Mac isn't filled with old files from the system and browsing. Do anyone know if Migration Assistant transfer all files (doing a mirrow of the old Mac) or only transfer the settings and files as movies, photos and documents?

My goal is to have a as "clean" new mac as possible after transferring my data to the new Mac.

 

[rapicell]

It'll only transfer what you want it to. I do believe it should bring up the option to select what you want before it starts

 

[Macman45]

If you want a completely clean install, then I'd avoid migration assistant, although it does a good job, it brings pretty much everything over.

I used it on my previous iMac via thunderbolt cable and it did the entire job in just under an hour....would have taken me a lot longer copying stuff back from externals etc. But with my new machine, I elected for a clean installation, exporting my Aperture and iTunes libraries to my Pegasus R4.

If you have a smooth running Mac now, then there shouldn't be any problems using MA, but I'm like you, a clean install is always nice.

 

[travel4fun]

Thanks, guys. You are fast.

I think I'll go with the old fashion way and have a clean new Mac after a couple of hours work. luckily its a 128 ssd I have to transfer from.

 

[kapooty]

Thanks, guys. You are fast.

I think I'll go with the old fashion way and have a clean new Mac after a couple of hours work. luckily its a 128 ssd I have to transfer from.

Yes. I'd recommend going the old fashion way. I used migration assistant on my new RMBP and I had some problems with my files being "read-only" and could not get Messages to work. Took it to the genius bar and they deleted my Prefs in my Library. The rep said that this was likely due to transfer problems via Migration Assistant.

 

[travel4fun]

Perfect.

Hopefully I will have my new Pro by the weekend where I have a couple of spare hours to do it all manually. I ordered Friday and the shipment is still under process with delivery between the 6th and 10th of December.

Thanks for all your replies.