Setup assistant and Time Capsule

[starswept]

I just purchased a 2013 MacBook Air to replace an existing 2009 MacBook Pro. The MBP was regularly backed up to a Time Capsule, also purchased in 2009. I began setting up the MBA last night, and chose to use Setup Assistant, backing up from the Time Capsule. I chose to use this because I had purchased a USB-Ethernet adapter that would allow me to connect the Time Capsule and the MBA using an ethernet cable, whereas I don't have a Thunderbolt-Firewire adapter to connect the two computers. The Time Capsule does not serve as a router, it simply connects to my existing WiFi network.

However, the time estimated by Setup Assistant is huge - when I first began last night, it was estimating between 40 and 50 hours; this morning (about 8 hours later), it is alternating between around 28 hours and 29 hours, with the time estimated frequently shifting. I'm concerned that perhaps the MBA has connected with the Time Capsule via Wifi rather than the ethernet cable - how would I know if this is the case? When I connected to the Time Capsule, it did ask for my password to connect to something like "NameofmyTimeCapsule.server", and in hindsight I'm wondering if that connected them via WiFi rather than the cable. Or is it possible that I'm using the wrong ethernet cable and that's why it's so slow, in which case should I purchase a different kind (and if so, could I just swap them out, or would I need to restart the backup)? For reference, the size of my backup on the Time Capsule is about exactly 200 GB. Thank you for any help!

 

[Mike MA]

I just purchased a 2013 MacBook Air to replace an existing 2009 MacBook Pro. The MBP was regularly backed up to a Time Capsule, also purchased in 2009. I began setting up the MBA last night, and chose to use Setup Assistant, backing up from the Time Capsule. I chose to use this because I had purchased a USB-Ethernet adapter that would allow me to connect the Time Capsule and the MBA using an ethernet cable, whereas I don't have a Thunderbolt-Firewire adapter to connect the two computers. The Time Capsule does not serve as a router, it simply connects to my existing WiFi network.

However, the time estimated by Setup Assistant is huge - when I first began last night, it was estimating between 40 and 50 hours; this morning (about 8 hours later), it is alternating between around 28 hours and 29 hours, with the time estimated frequently shifting. I'm concerned that perhaps the MBA has connected with the Time Capsule via Wifi rather than the ethernet cable - how would I know if this is the case? When I connected to the Time Capsule, it did ask for my password to connect to something like "NameofmyTimeCapsule.server", and in hindsight I'm wondering if that connected them via WiFi rather than the cable. Or is it possible that I'm using the wrong ethernet cable and that's why it's so slow, in which case should I purchase a different kind (and if so, could I just swap them out, or would I need to restart the backup)? For reference, the size of my backup on the Time Capsule is about exactly 200 GB. Thank you for any help!

I'm sure you fixed it already but deactivating your Pro's wireless would have answered your question. Btw, initial backing up and restoring always takes a lot of time regardless what connection you use, which I sometimes don't quite understand why.

 

[starswept]

I'm sure you fixed it already but deactivating your Pro's wireless would have answered your question. Btw, initial backing up and restoring always takes a lot of time regardless what connection you use, which I sometimes don't quite understand why.

I did turn off Airport on the MBP thinking that was the problem, but it wasn't. So after several attempts at doing it with the wireless connection turned off, I called Apple and spoke with someone there who was completely bemused by the problem, and couldn't understand why the data wasn't transferring over the ethernet connection. Eventually he transferred me to a supervisor, who determined that the reason it wasn't working is that the connection established by the USB-ethernet adaptor on the MBA will only be recognized once the MBA is installed, its drivers are running, etc. In the set-up stage, the adaptor won't work. So in the end I either had to transfer over WiFi (taking 50+ hours), or back up the MBP to a USB external hard drive and then use that to transfer the contents of the MBP to the MBA. So I went with the latter option, even if it did mean spending $90 on an external hard drive, because I was ready to kick my old 2009 Time Capsule to the curb anyway. With the new external hard drive, my data was all transferred over to the MBA in about an hour using Setup Assistant.

 

[Mike MA]

I did turn off Airport on the MBP thinking that was the problem, but it wasn't. So after several attempts at doing it with the wireless connection turned off, I called Apple and spoke with someone there who was completely bemused by the problem, and couldn't understand why the data wasn't transferring over the ethernet connection. Eventually he transferred me to a supervisor, who determined that the reason it wasn't working is that the connection established by the USB-ethernet adaptor on the MBA will only be recognized once the MBA is installed, its drivers are running, etc. In the set-up stage, the adaptor won't work. So in the end I either had to transfer over WiFi (taking 50+ hours), or back up the MBP to a USB external hard drive and then use that to transfer the contents of the MBP to the MBA. So I went with the latter option, even if it did mean spending $90 on an external hard drive, because I was ready to kick my old 2009 Time Capsule to the curb anyway. With the new external hard drive, my data was all transferred over to the MBA in about an hour using Setup Assistant.

At least you got some support even though it didn't provide information to any performance gains. My initial backup took 35 hours using a wireless connection. I decided to choose this option as I pretty much didn't actually care about the runtime as I just didn't shut down my computer for one day.

 

[starswept]

At least you got some support even though it didn't provide information to any performance gains. My initial backup took 35 hours using a wireless connection. I decided to choose this option as I pretty much didn't actually care about the runtime as I just didn't shut down my computer for one day.

Yeah, I wouldn't have minded had I felt confident that mine was smoothly transferring over WiFi, but the constant changes in time estimate made me uncertain that it was actually doing it correctly. Plus I was starting grad school the day after Labour Day so I needed it up and running fairly quickly.