Swapping Between 2 MacBook Pros

[yungmac]

Does anyone know the easiest way to switch Macs with someone else? There are two MacBook Retinas in my house - I have 512gb and my brother has 256gb. Brother ran out of space so we want to switch... how would we be able to swap computers while preserving all the files/programs/settings/data? I'm pretty sure I'll have to use an external drive but I'm not sure what specifically to do - any help/advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

 

[randy98mtu]

Make a time machine backup of both, then restore each to the opposite backup.

 

[Spink10]

Make a time machine backup of both, then restore each to the opposite backup.

This will work great. If your not exactly sure how to do this please let us know.

 

[bobcan]

TM solution may work, as long as _ Enough Space _

As above, the TM Solution may work the easiest, as long as the smaller drive has enough room for what is ON the larger.. ** alternately, you could 'dump of a few GB' of pure simple data (pics/ music) onto another HD, or USB, if the needs are close, and then simply Drag Back Over once machine is working well..

I have always used CCC, and had perfect results with 7-8 HD/SSD swaps.. always happy and never left wondering _ but you need Equal Drive Space for info being moved (and some amount more I am sure) no matter what.. If you do it right, you will only do it ONCE.. Good Luck!!

 

[yungmac]

Thanks for the help - so I should just make two time machine backups, wipe both HDDs, and then restore the backups to the opposite laptops?

 

[Weaselboy]

Thanks for the help - so I should just make two time machine backups, wipe both HDDs, and then restore the backups to the opposite laptops?

Exactly. After you do the backups, just option key boot to the backup disk on the new destination machine and use Disk Util to erase the disk then click restore.