Swapping Macs

[Yurtal]

Hi guys. I have a question I'm a bit confused about.

I have a situation where two people are swapping computers. One is a Macbook Pro and the other a Mac Pro.

What is the best way to transfer each users information across to each others new machine?

Would a TM backup be ok even though the destination machine is different? Or is there a better method?

Cheers guys.

 

[spinnerlys]

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3322

 

[Yurtal]

Thanks so much for the link.

Will migration assistant be able to transfer information between two macs simultaneously? Or does migration assistant only work if the destination drive is blank?

thanks again!

 

[spinnerlys]

Thanks so much for the link.

Will migration assistant be able to transfer information between two macs simultaneously? Or does migration assistant only work if the destination drive is blank?

thanks again!

It will not work simultaneously, and you might need an intermediary HDD.

Example: Get an external USB or FW HDD (2.5" or 3.5"), blank would be good, and use CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper to clone the MP's HDD to that external HDD. Then connect the MP to the MBP via network (Ethernet would be wise) or the MBP in Target Disk Mode and use Migration Assistant on the MP to transfer all the data you want to the MP.
Then connect the external clone of the MP to the MBP and use Migration Assistant to migrate data from that HDD.

Then delete the data in the old accounts and the accounts via System Preferences.

 

[Yurtal]

Got it!

Cheers mate. That sounds straight forward.

So am I right in saying that you should not use a TM backup to restore to a different type of computer? Say a macbook backup being restored on an iMac?

 

[spinnerlys]

Got it!

Cheers mate. That sounds straight forward.

So am I right in saying that you should not use a TM backup to restore to a different type of computer? Say a macbook backup being restored on an iMac?

You can do that too*, as a TM backup will not restore drivers or MacBook specific components on the iMac.

* restoring to an iMac from a MacBook Time Machine backup.

 

[Yurtal]

Ok cool.

thanks for all your help.