Slightly OT: Migrating - best approach

[twynne]

I'm on the wait list for the 1.3 BTO, so getting everything ready in advance of its arrival. Have a slightly unique situation in that I had it shipped to family in the US and will be traveling over from the UK at end of May. I want to AVOID taking my old laptop (2014 MBA 11"), but I intend migrating it over as a starting point on the new Macbook.

Some background info:

- Both the current machine and new machine have a 512gb SSD
- The current machine is partitioned into two volumes - one for the OS and one for data. Both partitions need to move, and I'm not completely opposed to merging them.

Just wondering what suggestions others have on the best approach to migrating.

I think the options are:

1. Time machine backup to a portable HD, take only the portable HD with me, restore from that. I believe to do that both machines need to be at the same OS release, so I might need to first upgrade the Macbook to 10.10.3.

2. Use Disk Utility and create images of the two existing partitions on a portable HD. On the Macbook, boot into recovery and use Disk Utility to restore each from the portable HD.

3. Use a 3rd party tool such as SuperDuper to achieve #2. Presumably the restore process is the same.

Any recommendations? Drawbacks or issues with either of the above approaches? I'm leaning toward 2 or 3.

Thanks,

Tom

 

[chabig]

#2 or #3 sound perfect.

 

[twynne]

#2 or #3 sound perfect.

Thanks - are there any issues with that approach? Would there be any conflicts restoring the OS from the MBA to the MB?

Also any advantages to using SuperDuper over just Disk Utility? From previous experience I think DuperSuper offers a 'smart' mode where it can just update an image with changes since it was last run. Any other advantage?

 

[chabig]

There shouldn't be any conflicts at all. Your new MacBook will already have the OS on it. All you will do is plug in the portable hard drive, open Migration Assistant on the new machine, and let it transfer your settings and applications over.

As for SuperDuper vs Disk Utility, you are going to clone your current hard drive. SD can make incremental backups but you won't be using that feature. Still, I think the disk copying interface of SD is a bit cleaner and the copy feature is free, so I would recommend SD.

 

[Dubba]

I am doing almost exactly the same thing:

Leaving my 13MBA at home in Kenya when I head to the US next Wednesday.

Personally, I prefer always doing a "Clean install" on a new machine... I have always done this from my 12PB > 13BlackBook > 13MBA and now this. It ensure I don't carry over unnecessary "dead" files.

I have done the following:

• Mail: On Gmail so can just re-populate
• Files: All files (including iTunes and Photos Library) on DropBox
• Apps: List of apps / programmes to download in an e-mail with links to DMGs

This ensures that I have a clean install, but don't have to carry my laptop OR external drive with me.

Hope that helps, a little!

Question: Why the partition in the first place.

 

[twynne]

There shouldn't be any conflicts at all. Your new MacBook will already have the OS on it. All you will do is plug in the portable hard drive, open Migration Assistant on the new machine, and let it transfer your settings and applications over.

Thanks. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think Migration Assistant can be used with a disk image (sparsebundle I'm guessing). Or can it be used with a full disk image? I was actually thinking I'd just image the source disk as a sparse bundle, boot into recovery on the Macbook, then restore the image over to the Macbook.