Question for those who received replacement machines (Transferring Files)

[MowingDevil]

Don't need any replies from anyone who just swapped drives. For those of you who transferred your files (time machine/migration/fire wire), how did you do it? Any tips or recommendations? I'm leaning towards running Time Machine to do it but would love to hear your feedback/experience.
thanx

 

[coledog]

Here ya go!

Link 1
Link 2

They are both links to Apple's site. If you have any more questions let me know.

You'll need a firewire 800 cable or a ethernet crossover cable or do it wirelessly.
800 will be the easiest and fastest, ethernet 2nd, wireless is slower and subject to disconnects.

OR

Force a time machine backup from your old MBP, connect you Uni MBP to it by way of a regular Ethernet cable and open Migration Utility (in Apps under Utilities) and select restore from TM backup.

Follow the steps from there and wait! It should be exactly like your old MBP unless you have selected to not backup some folders...

Good luck! Post here if you have any more questions...

 

[amoda]

I had to do this recently. The easiest way is to just back up everything via Times Machine. When you start setting up the new machine it'll offer to transfer stuff from a Time Machine back up.

You can either say a) Yes or, like me, b) no.

I wanted a fresh start, which so far has been great. After starting up the new computer, I connected my external and picked and chose what to retrieve.

My pics, music, contacts, important files & programs etc. But left all the junk that tends to accumulate over time. So now, I have everything that I actually need, but am using nearly 40Gb less!

If I forgot something I can always go back, search through, and find just the file or folder I need. So far I've only done that once so the benefits have been worth it.

If you decide to go the route I went and want some help let me know.

 

[tcphoto]

I made sure that Time Machine was current before dropping off the previous machine. When I picked up the replacement, I simply connected the external hard drive and used Migration Assistant to transfer the system. It has been two months since I received the replacement and have experienced no issues. Of course, I have had six freezes but that's much better than most that I've read about. I've been holding off on upgrading the MBP to 4GB of memory until Apple attempts some type of fix...if it's software related.

 

[MowingDevil]

Thanks, my replacement arrived this morning so I'll give it a go tonight. How long does it take to migrate abo 100gb w/ FW?

 

[macrem]

I have a two-pronged solution for this:

1. if you have a recent, clean Time Machine backup: restore everything from that backup

2. if you have been (un)installing a bunch of crap that might have changed system files, if you felt sluggish or there could be any problems with OS X in the old system: do a fresh install of OS X from the install DVD or your MBP DVD (whichever is newer 1st*)**, then do a complete Software Update, (reinstall /Applications manually), & restore User files & settings from Time Machine, repair permissions

*if the MBP DVD is newer, that is the obvious choice. If the OS DVD is newer, I would lean toward installing the fresh new OS, then install only the additional software packages you're interested in, such as iLife, from the MBP DVD

**make note of any software you might need to reinstall manually as it makes system level changes. For example, tun/tap for openvpn, or printer drivers that came with your printer (not available by default OS X install), or any other software that requires a reboot (which is actually the kind of software I try to avoid whenever possible).