Time machine vs Migration Assistant

[yalag]

I just got my retain MBP and was wondering what is the recommended way to migrate from my old MBP to the new one? Would you guys recommend:

1) Restore an image from a Time machine backup
2) Use the mac Migration Assistant

Any help is much appreciated. Thanks.

 

[TyroneShoes2]

Maybe I just missed something, but when I migrated from a PB to a MBA I intended to use the Migration Assistant. After all, firewire target mode allowed me to clone one PB to another and make a virtually identical copy of it very quickly in 2008 using MA. No muss, no fuss.

That plan seemed OK until--"Let's see. Where is that firewire port again?" Since I had neither that nor an ethernet port on the MBA, it seemed like just restoring from TM was the simplest thing to do.

Since the SSD on my MBA was smaller than the HDD on my old PB, I pared down the PB with some spring cleaning first, then backed it up in TM, and restored that to the MBA (a TM backup is not strictly an "image"). That seemed to work about as well as MA had for me earlier.

So that would be my recommendation. Is there a way to use MA with an MBA? I guess since yours is an MBP, that you have options. I've used both, and both work pretty well.

 

[Batt]

Time Machine is a piece of cake - I did this last week. Just make sure you use ethernet initially, it's much faster.

 

[eric/]

I say time machine.

 

[yalag]

yep just posting back to help the community. Definitely should have went with TM, not MA. You get weird things like losing your "Date added" on your files and so your "Download" folder is messed up. I'm assuming TM does not do this (will try this tonight).

 

[yalag]

yep just posting back to help the community. Definitely should have went with TM, not MA. You get weird things like losing your "Date added" on your files and so your "Download" folder is messed up. I'm assuming TM does not do this (will try this tonight).

ok apparently TM restore cant be done from one mac to another so you end up still having to use setup/migration assistant which yields the same results as before. Oh well, it'll not be exactly the same.

 

[Batt]

ok apparently TM restore cant be done from one mac to another so you end up still having to use setup/migration assistant which yields the same results as before. Oh well, it'll not be exactly the same.

No, I did it - one Mac to another - a week and a half ago. 2006 17" MBP to 2012 13" MBP. Perfect copy, piece of cake.

 

[yalag]

How? When I boot with the system drive and select time machine restore, it won't show the backup from my other Mac? I'm using a USB drive.

 

[Batt]

How? When I boot with the system drive and select time machine restore, it won't show the backup from my other Mac? I'm using a USB drive.

Maybe it only works from a Time Capsule - although I doubt it. When I fired up the new machine, at some point I was given three options, one of which was a TM transfer of my stuff. I said "yes" and went for coffee. Maybe erase and start over?