Migration Assistant from very old iMac?

Question

Migration Assistant from very old iMac?

I’m a bit confused, so there are two questions here:

#1: I used Migration Assistant when I moved from my (beautiful) 24” white iMac to my mid-2011 21.5” iMac. I remember it was fairly easy and hassle free, and finding the correct cable was not a problem.

That 21.5” iMac is now on its last legs, and I plan to get a new 27” iMac next month. I will need to transfer about 800GB of files and apps to the new computer from the old one.

However, this time I am totally at a loss as to what cable to use to connect the 2 computers. The new iMac does not have FireWire, and the Thunderbolt on my old iMac is ancient.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

And is this the best way to proceed? My iMac is backed up (via Time Machine) to an external USB 3.1 Bus powered HDD. (Of course it does not work at 3.1 speeds on my 2011 iMac.) Would using that be much faster?

#2: My 2011 iMac was BTO, with a 1TB HDD (files), and a separate 240GB SSD (apps).

For cost reasons, I will be buying a 3TB Fusion Drive. (I’ve read all the pros and cons until I’m blue in the face, but for better or worse that’s my decision. I have very large photo and iTunes libraries on external HDDs, and I don’t do any video work. I’m just sick of all the clutter. I will add them to the 3TB HDD after the initial migration is completed.) The question is: when migrating all the apps and files from both the 1TB HDD and the 240GB SSD, will the Migration Assistant know where to put everything? How will it choose what to put on the 128GB SSD?

Many thanks for any help offered.

iMac Line (2012 and Later)

Posted on Sep 3, 2019 4:07 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

den.thed

Level 10

81,862 points

Sep 3, 2019 8:03 AM in response to Andrew Mitchell

Andrew Mitchell wrote:

And is this the best way to proceed? My iMac is backed up (via Time Machine) to an external USB 3.1 Bus powered HDD. (Of course it does not work at 3.1 speeds on my 2011 iMac.) Would using that be much faster?

Yes' don't over think it. The fastest and most reliable way, is to connect your Time Machine backup drive to your new iMac and migrate from it during the initial setup.

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Answer 2

rkaufmann87

Level 10

143,516 points

Sep 3, 2019 7:59 AM in response to Andrew Mitchell

DO NOT connect the two computers together, connect the old Mac's Time Machine External Hard Disk via a USB cable to the new Mac before starting the new Mac for the first time. When you turn on the new Mac for the first time, it launches Setup Assistant and SA will get to a point where it asks if you are migrating from another Mac. Select YES and then follow the on-screen prompts. If you don't use Time Machine then begin immediately on the old Mac as this was a HUGE error and you risk losing all of your data.

Why use this method, simple, it works every time.

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Answer 3

Sep 3, 2019 8:43 AM in response to Andrew Mitchell

I will toss a small (maybe not so small) caveat to what the others have said.

Unless you have kept all your apps current on the old iMac, there may be

compatibility issues with those apps since the new iMac will have Mohave

installed and if you wait long enough it might even have macOS Catalina

which will render any 32 bit apps you have useless.

I would take the time to do a little homework if I were you so you are

prepared should there be app compatibility issues.

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Answer 4

Allan Jones

Level 9

71,912 points

Sep 3, 2019 8:46 AM in response to Andrew Mitchell

Remember that your new iMac will likely come with a new OS, "Catalina," that will not run many of the programs that you are likely running on your current Mac or migrated from the old one. MS Office must be v 2016 , 2019, or 365 to work at all under Catalina. If you have Office 2011 or earlier your can't get a free upgrade--you will have to buy the new version

Also some old file formats from common apps like MS Office may not open under current versions. I have a lot of really old Word and Excel that has me keeping one Mac at High Sierra and Office 2008 until I can convert the old files to an intermediate format that Office 2019 can read.

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