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Restore new Macbook air from Time Machine... Is there a faster way?
- Thread starter Smileyboy
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Hard to imagine taking 17 hours. How big is your SSD and how are you doing the migration? I went from a 256gb 2011 MBA to a 512gb MBA and had about 150gb of data to move. It only took a few hours using an inexpensive USB external drive that held my time machine backup.
The data transfer rate on these cheap USB2 drives is about 35MB/s, so just do the math. In my case these are the rough numbers...
150gb x 1000 = 150,000mb
150,000mb / 35 MB/s =42,857 seconds
42,857 seconds / 3600 = ~1.2 hours
Now there is some overhead involved, so you might double that number to get into the ballpark. But I don't see how any amount of data the fits on a MBA could take 17 hours!
Also note that Migration Asst is "smart" enough not to transfer old system files that are not need on the new computer, so that limits the amount of data that is actually transferred.
The data transfer rate on these cheap USB2 drives is about 35MB/s, so just do the math. In my case these are the rough numbers...
150gb x 1000 = 150,000mb
150,000mb / 35 MB/s =42,857 seconds
42,857 seconds / 3600 = ~1.2 hours
Now there is some overhead involved, so you might double that number to get into the ballpark. But I don't see how any amount of data the fits on a MBA could take 17 hours!
Also note that Migration Asst is "smart" enough not to transfer old system files that are not need on the new computer, so that limits the amount of data that is actually transferred.
You're not saying whether you are using a TimeCapsule or an external HDD to do the migration from. If you did this from an external Thunderbolt or USB3 HDD, it should be faster than thru Ethernet from the TimeCapsule.
If however you are restoring from the TimeCapsule, do make sure to plug in that Ethernet cable, otherwise you'll be doing a wireless transfer, and that will take significantly longer.
I had hoped Apple would have included a Thunderbolt port on those new form-factor 2013 upgraded TimeCapsules, for exactly that reason: restores (as well as initial back-ups), however a prior 'Multiple TimeMachine Back-up' from the originating computer onto a secondary drive, such as a TB or USB3 drive, to be used for migration, rather than the TimeCapsule, would accomplish the same thing.
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FWIW, I have a new Time Capsule that I use as a "poor man's server" for iTunes, and using AC wifi with my 2013 MBA I get about 30MB/s read / 28MB/s write performance. That's not a whole lot different from the cheap USB2 drives that I have.
Ethernet would be nice, but since we're talking about the MBA, you would need some kind of adapter for that.
Have thought about doing that so I can do a faster backup of my 400gb and growing media library on the Time Capsule.
Ethernet would be nice, but since we're talking about the MBA, you would need some kind of adapter for that.
Have thought about doing that so I can do a faster backup of my 400gb and growing media library on the Time Capsule.
FWIW, I have a new Time Capsule that I use as a "poor man's server" for iTunes, and using AC wifi with my 2013 MBA I get about 30MB/s read / 28MB/s write performance. That's not a whole lot different from the cheap USB2 drives that I have.
Ethernet would be nice, but since we're talking about the MBA, you would need some kind of adapter for that.
Wow how are you using our time capsule as a media server? Is it a big improvement over the 2011 model?
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I'm using time capsule, but I do have a usb to Ethernet. I just may use that so it doesn't take forever. Thanks, I forgot about that
Those initial time estimates will shrink as the files begin begin copied. Wireless, as other's have said, will be the slowest and most prone to copy errors probably but not 17+ hours slow.
"Media Server" would not be an accurate description, it's just a file server. I simply moved the iTunes media folder to the 2TB disk of the Time Capsule. I don't use the Time Capsule for backup, I have multiple directly connected disks for that.
Do you mean 2011 Time Capsule or 2011 MacBook Air? In both cases, they would not have the fast IEEE 802.11ac wifi. As I said, I get about 30MB/s accessing files on the Time Capsule, plenty fast for my iTunes content. My 2008 MBP only gets something like 8MB/s accessing it on wifi though.
How much data are you restoring? I just did this via Time Machine to my wife's MBP after installing a SSD. She only had about 150gb of data but the restore only took 20min. I was impressed!
This looks interesting to me. You get gigabit ethernet plus a USB hub and it leaves your thunderbolt port free for an external monitor. https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1731986/
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1731986/