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USB to USB transfer?

A

amitabhbansal

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 8, 2011
440
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Delhi, India
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i have a macbook pro 17" Mid 2010 model and a new macbook (force touch) early 2015, i want to transfer all of my data from MCBP to Macbook via USB cable, because there is no thunderbolt port in MCBP. i have purchased a USB to USB cable from local market, but dont know what will be the speed of transfer as in MCBP there is USB 2.0 and in new Macbook its 3.0.
Please help me in it
Thanks
 
You're limited to the USB 2.0 speeds of your 2010 MBP: 480 Mbits/sec. The 3.0 speeds of the new Macbook don't matter; the 2010 MBP simply can't push the data any faster through its USB 2.0 port.

Perhaps you can connect them via Ethernet, if you have the proper Ethernet adapter for the new MacBook; you'd get Gigabit speeds then.
 
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It won't work. You CAN use a Firewire to thunderbolt cable, place your old machine in Target Disk mode (hold down T at startup) and mount the computer as a giant flash drive.

But USB to USB isn't really a thing.
 
You need to do it over your network (wireless or wired) or by backing up the old Mac to an external drive and plugging that in to the new one, or by removing the hard drive of the old one, and plugging that into the new one.

You cannot use USB-USB directly between machines, or Thunderbolt as neither computer supports it.
https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT204754
 
The port situation in the new MacBook (USB-C) makes things trickier. I will admit I have little knowledge about USB-C, but i do know USB to USB will not support Target Disk mode for connecting your 2 Macs. A workaround would be to get a external USB drive (preferably USB3), connect the drive to the old MBP, format it for Mac OS Extended (Journaled), use the free trial of Carbon Copy Cloner to clone, connect the cloned drive to the new MB, and use Migration Assistant to move your files.
 
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Post 6 above is "the right way".

Get an external USB drive, and CarbonCopyCloner (or SuperDuper).

Create a clone of the "old" drive.

Connect the backup to the "new" Macbook.

At this point you can use Migration Assistant, or "move things manually" -- your choice.
 
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i dont want to move all of my data from old macbook to the new one, i have few files of more then 40gb in size and want to move them, but its talking too much time to transfer from the macbook to a flash drive or a hard drive, so i thought i can transfer it directly yo the new one from the older one
 
OP wrote:
"i dont want to move all of my data from old macbook to the new one"

Again, best way is to connect an external USB drive.
Then, copy the files you want to transfer to it.
Of course, this is going to take time, particularly if there are files 40gb in size!
(Just wondering, what kind of file do you have that is that size?)

Finally, connect the drive to the new Mac and "re-copy" the files where you want them to be.

I'd recommend a USB3 drive.
 
amitabhbansal said:
i dont want to move all of my data from old macbook to the new one, i have few files of more then 40gb in size and want to move them, but its talking too much time to transfer from the macbook to a flash drive or a hard drive, so i thought i can transfer it directly yo the new one from the older one
Click to expand...

I know it is frustrating. Here is what you need to consider with your approach - if an external drive is not fast enough, part of the bottleneck is the usb2 port itself. Someone above gave you the theoretical max speed. Why would it copy any faster to a drive that is internal to another computer/laptop? Again there is still that bottle neck.

What you might consider - if your older laptop has firewire 800 and you use an external drive that offers multiple ways to connect such as usb3 and firewire 800. Use FW800 to back up those files and USB3 to import onto the new laptop (assuming it has USB3). Candidly, I would just go ahead and copy the large files via USB2 and let it go over night and if need be, a bit longer. The alternative is via Ethernet which done properly, would be faster. The latter is an entirely different ballgame.
 
Fishrrman said:
Post 6 above is "the right way".

Get an external USB drive, and CarbonCopyCloner (or SuperDuper).

Create a clone of the "old" drive.

Connect the backup to the "new" Macbook.

At this point you can use Migration Assistant, or "move things manually" -- your choice.
Click to expand...


This does not work. You have to use a USB C to thunderbolt cable or adapter.
 
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