Question on cloning a MBA to a MBP

[JUCJ85]

So, I'm going to be upgrading to a new MacBook Pro soon, and I don't know how the best way is to go about copying everything from my MBA to the MBP, I heard about cloning your drive, but idk how to do that, or whats needed.

I do have a 1TB External Hard Drive that I use for extra space, but if I were to use that for the cloning process, would the rest of the items on the 1TB HDD get overwritten, since I have quite a bit of videos and music from iTunes stored on it.

Also if I cloned the MBA to MBP, would my iPhone and iPad still be recognized like they are now on the MacBook Air? Or would I need to re-sync everything onto both devices?

Thanks for any help.

-Jason

 

[Fishrrman]

Either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper will do what you need.
I prefer CCC because it can clone the recovery partition, as well.

BUT --

We don't know what version of the OS will be shipped with the new MacBook Pros.
In all likelihood, it will be a "customized" version for the new machine.
That -may- result in the fact that older (existing) versions of the OS won't be able to run it.

For this reason, a "clone" from the MBA to the new MBP may not work.
You'd probably be better off using the Setup Assistant's "migration" feature.

Not sure about this, just some thoughts.
It's really too early to be worrying about such things.
Enjoy what you're using now, worry about this obstacle when you get to it.

 

[Weaselboy]

So, I'm going to be upgrading to a new MacBook Pro soon, and I don't know how the best way is to go about copying everything from my MBA to the MBP, I heard about cloning your drive, but idk how to do that, or whats needed.

There is no need to clone. The new Mac comes with a migration utility to handle this for you. Just make a Time Machine backup to an external drive then when you start the new machine tell it you want to import data and point to the USB Time Machine disk as the source of the import.

How much free space is on the 1TB drive? If you have say 256GB of free space and 200GB of data on the MBA.... then just use Disk Utility to shrink the existing partition on the 1TB drive then add a second partition of 256GB and use that partition as the destination for the Time Machine backup.

 

[JUCJ85]

There is no need to clone. The new Mac comes with a migration utility to handle this for you. Just make a Time Machine backup to an external drive then when you start the new machine tell it you want to import data and point to the USB Time Machine disk as the source of the import.

How much free space is on the 1TB drive? If you have say 256GB of free space and 200GB of data on the MBA.... then just use Disk Utility to shrink the existing partition on the 1TB drive then add a second partition of 256GB and use that partition as the destination for the Time Machine backup.

Yeah I have enough space, plus I can make needed room if needed by deleting some movies I don't need downloaded, since I just use my new Apple TV 4th Gen to watch Movies from iTunes.

My only concern with switching MacBooks is the new macbook won't recognize my iPhone and iPad, will that not be an issue with the new MacBook Pro's you think?

What I mean by recognize is I would have to re-sync everything onto those two devices.

 

[Gjwilly]

I went from MBP to MBA and I just connected the two with a thunderbolt cable and used Migration Assistant.
No external drives needed.

 

[Weaselboy]

Yeah I have enough space, plus I can make needed room if needed by deleting some movies I don't need downloaded, since I just use my new Apple TV 4th Gen to watch Movies from iTunes.

My only concern with switching MacBooks is the new macbook won't recognize my iPhone and iPad, will that not be an issue with the new MacBook Pro's you think?

What I mean by recognize is I would have to re-sync everything onto those two devices.

If you migrate everything to the new machine, your iOS devices sync and backup info will come along with it and you will not need to repeat that.

 

[JUCJ85]

If you migrate everything to the new machine, your iOS devices sync and backup info will come along with it and you will not need to repeat that.

Awesome, what kind of cable is required for the migration?

 

[robvas]

I switched between MBA and MBP, both 2013. I just switched the SSD's over and it was like nothing changed at all

 

[Gjwilly]

I switched between MBA and MBP, both 2013. I just switched the SSD's over and it was like nothing changed at all

The 2013 MBA and MBP use the same SSD so that could work.
For other years they weren't interchangeable.

 

[Weaselboy]

Awesome, what kind of cable is required for the migration?

Just make a Time Machine backup to the USB external drive we discussed earlier, then when prompted for the import during setup of the new Mac point it to the Time Machine USB disk as the source for the migration.