Transferring files from old Mac Mini to new iMac . Any tips ? Please critique my strategy

[AVEGA]

So yesterday I picked up 2017 3ghz iMac from the Apple Store and now I'm trying to move my files from my still working 2007 Mac Mini .


I have 1 TB external hard drive that I did a back up yesterday so it's up to date . The problem is I don't want all those junk OS files to clutter up the new Mac .


So basically I plugged in the external hard drive to the new iMac and I'm dragging and dropping files that I want to keep . So this has worked so far but it's tedious to search through so many sub folders .


For iTunes I have the match program so after I logged into my account it found everything and I hit download all files from cloud . Some music files are messed up so I plan on gathering all those messed up files and finding them on old computer and burning it into a cd that I can import into new computer via external drive .


Is my strategy the best way to do this ? Sadly the connection between USB external drive is 2.0 so it's slow but over the night I got the vast majority of my files onto the new computer . Any tips ? Any files that I may forget about transferring that I should remember to grab ? I'm thinking some obscure bin files or something that might be helpful .


Mac Mini is running lion

iMac is running newest Sierra .


I'm hesitant to use the direct transfer method because I don't want all the data on my old Mac . I did see that option when I booted up . I also remember going into time machine and having a virtual machine but I don't know if new Mac OS does that or how to go into that, and I don't know if that is helpful .


On a related note this new iMac will also be used by my wife so I want to set her up too .


So my wife has an old laptop with Windows XP on it so I guess flash drive transfers is the only bet since I wouldn't want to format my external drive to use it ONCE. She has tons of iTunes so I worry that might be slow and difficult process to back up her stuff . I do got a 64 gig flash drive so that might help speed things up .


Last time I did a system transfer was from my old performa Mac to the mini and I used 5 Zip drive disks . So it's been a while ...


Any suggestions or tips would be greatly appreciated .

 

[deeddawg]

Personally I'd probably use Migration Assistant to move everything over, then delete what I didn't feel I needed to keep.

Or clean out the old stuff on the old mac and then use MA to move stuff over.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204350

 

[gian8989]

You can connect the mac mini to the new iMac with an ethernet cable and share the hdd. This way you won't need to copy the files you need twice.

 

[Huginnmuninn]

Personally I'd probably use Migration Assistant to move everything over, then delete what I didn't feel I needed to keep.

This is exactly what I'd do, if my new machine had enough storage to do the transfer. Migration Assistant has gotten better every year, and tends not to bring over old OS cruft like it did even 5 years ago.

 

[cynics]

Migration Assistant would work for you, just don't select the things you don't want. It doesn't bring the OS and its clutter (its not a clone). Keep in mind you'll need to rename the old Macs user if they are the same.

If you want the peace of mind of a "fresh start" then share the drive and manually transfer files. Personally if I did this I would just copy files. Redownload/reinstall all your applications if you aren't using migration assistant.

You lost me with your iTunes idea of burning and importing CDs though. Even if you wanted to manually do this you can drag and drop (from Finder or directly from iTunes) to an external USB connected storage device, move it over to the new Mac and drag and drop them back into iTunes. Although if the HDD is shared you can drag and drop right from the new Mac.

 

[alien3dx]

So yesterday I picked up 2017 3ghz iMac from the Apple Store and now I'm trying to move my files from my still working 2007 Mac Mini .


I have 1 TB external hard drive that I did a back up yesterday so it's up to date . The problem is I don't want all those junk OS files to clutter up the new Mac .


So basically I plugged in the external hard drive to the new iMac and I'm dragging and dropping files that I want to keep . So this has worked so far but it's tedious to search through so many sub folders .


For iTunes I have the match program so after I logged into my account it found everything and I hit download all files from cloud . Some music files are messed up so I plan on gathering all those messed up files and finding them on old computer and burning it into a cd that I can import into new computer via external drive .


Is my strategy the best way to do this ? Sadly the connection between USB external drive is 2.0 so it's slow but over the night I got the vast majority of my files onto the new computer . Any tips ? Any files that I may forget about transferring that I should remember to grab ? I'm thinking some obscure bin files or something that might be helpful .


Mac Mini is running lion

iMac is running newest Sierra .


I'm hesitant to use the direct transfer method because I don't want all the data on my old Mac . I did see that option when I booted up . I also remember going into time machine and having a virtual machine but I don't know if new Mac OS does that or how to go into that, and I don't know if that is helpful .


On a related note this new iMac will also be used by my wife so I want to set her up too .


So my wife has an old laptop with Windows XP on it so I guess flash drive transfers is the only bet since I wouldn't want to format my external drive to use it ONCE. She has tons of iTunes so I worry that might be slow and difficult process to back up her stuff . I do got a 64 gig flash drive so that might help speed things up .


Last time I did a system transfer was from my old performa Mac to the mini and I used 5 Zip drive disks . So it's been a while ...


Any suggestions or tips would be greatly appreciated .

stop using icloud. before i had no issue on mac mini 2014..