Using time machine on new equipment

[davejay00]

Hi all,

I have an older MacBook Air that I am trying to time machine transfer on to a new MacBook Air. When I attempt this it states that the hardware is incompatible? Are there limitations on what can and cannot be used with time machine at all please?

Many thanks for any help / advice in advance.

Kind Regards
Dave

 

[Stewart21]

Hi all,

I have an older MacBook Air that I am trying to time machine transfer on to a new MacBook Air. When I attempt this it states that the hardware is incompatible? Are there limitations on what can and cannot be used with time machine at all please?

Many thanks for any help / advice in advance.

Kind Regards
Dave

Need more information. What versions of OSX are on each laptop. Are you using an external drive? Are you using a cable between the two laptops, is so what cable? What models of macbook air are they?

 

[davejay00]

Thanks Stewart,

It is an external HDD. The time machine backup was taken from 10.8.4 and the new Mac is out the box.

Dave

 

[MagicBoy]

Use Migration assistant to import the Time Machine data, don't do a full time machine restore.

 

[Boyd01]

Like MagicBoy said, connect your backup disk to the new MBA and just run the Migration Assistant. This has worked like a champ for me the last two times I upgraded to new hardware.

The software is smart enough to know which files can just be copied and which files must be replaced with new versions.