So I ran the migration assistant for both computers, via firewire, and the migration was complete. But I still don't see any of my old mac's files like itunes on my new mac. Further more I have been googling left and right and on Apple's very own website it says the transfer should be short but mine definitely took at least TEN HOURS! Anyone know what's up?
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Transfer old macbook pro to new imac
- Thread starter macwindu
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Yes I do, the MBP is fine and running the same with all files intact, My new imac has the files of the old MBP in the applications file of the hard drive. For some reason places like itunes and iphoto are basically factory default with no photos or music of my old mac. When I try to access these old files on my new mac it just brings up the new macs itunes or iphotos? Does this make sense because it is confusing to me?
That sounds really odd. The Migration Assistant is usually pretty straightforward, too.
First off, the time it takes is usually not nearly as short as it's said to be. It really comes down to how many files have to be transferred from the old computer to the new.
My only suggestion would be to do the Migration Assistant again. On your new iMac, go to Applications folder > Utilities folder > Migration Assistant.
First off, the time it takes is usually not nearly as short as it's said to be. It really comes down to how many files have to be transferred from the old computer to the new.
My only suggestion would be to do the Migration Assistant again. On your new iMac, go to Applications folder > Utilities folder > Migration Assistant.
I can do you one better.
Download Carbon Copy Cloner. Connect your iMac to your MacBook Pro with a FireWire cable and start the iMac in target disk mode. Your iMac's hard drive should appear as an external FireWire drive on your MacBook Pro's desktop.
With Disk Utility, format the iMac's hard drive to Mac OS Extended (Journaled), choosing to zero out existing data under Security Options. (This will catch and repair any bad sectors on the drive, which may be what is tripping you up.) The format process will take a few hours; just leave both computers running.
Using Carbon Copy Cloner, clone your MacBook Pro's hard drive onto this drive, replacing all existing data. Do a block-level clone if possible. Once this is done with, eject the iMac from the MacBook Pro's desktop and restart the iMac. If all goes as planned everything should work perfectly now.
It's odd that Migration Assistant shouldn't work, but the process I described should get you up and running anyway. If your MacBook Pro is running Tiger, you can then use the disks that came with your iMac to upgrade to Leopard.
Download Carbon Copy Cloner. Connect your iMac to your MacBook Pro with a FireWire cable and start the iMac in target disk mode. Your iMac's hard drive should appear as an external FireWire drive on your MacBook Pro's desktop.
With Disk Utility, format the iMac's hard drive to Mac OS Extended (Journaled), choosing to zero out existing data under Security Options. (This will catch and repair any bad sectors on the drive, which may be what is tripping you up.) The format process will take a few hours; just leave both computers running.
Using Carbon Copy Cloner, clone your MacBook Pro's hard drive onto this drive, replacing all existing data. Do a block-level clone if possible. Once this is done with, eject the iMac from the MacBook Pro's desktop and restart the iMac. If all goes as planned everything should work perfectly now.
It's odd that Migration Assistant shouldn't work, but the process I described should get you up and running anyway. If your MacBook Pro is running Tiger, you can then use the disks that came with your iMac to upgrade to Leopard.
Yes my macbook pro has a lot of music files and is about 15 gb short of max capacity, so that's how I justified the long transfer time, but the problem is I can see the files on the new imac to where all the info is transfered to. Things like camino (I haven't downloaded it to my new mac yet) or bejeweled (which I know wasn't there in the application folder before the migration.) I just can't access them, one thing I'm thinking if any of you have done the migration is that my .mac account on my old MBP is expired, do I need to "re-up" that before I can access the old files on my new mac? It keeps asking me for my old .mac name and password.