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I purchased a new Mac and need to transfer everything on my old Mac over. I have a 6 TB external hard drive with 4 TB free. My computer has 1 TB hard drive that is about 90% full. I can't reformat the external drive because it would destroy the data that is already on there, and there is no room on my old computer for that data.
iMac, OS X 10.11
You should only need to transfer the data from your old Mac's internal drive to your new Mac. As such, you just need to use Migration Assistant to transfer the data between devices. Your external drive would not be required for this process.
Ref: How to move your content to a new Mac - Apple Support
You should only need to transfer the data from your old Mac's internal drive to your new Mac. As such, you just need to use Migration Assistant to transfer the data between devices. Your external drive would not be required for this process.
Ref: How to move your content to a new Mac - Apple Support
Do you have a backup of the old Mac's internal drive?
If not, then you should set the 6T drive aside and get another external drive to backup up the old iMac's internal drive using Time Machine or CarbonCopyCloner.
Then you can migrate from the old Mac to the new Mac using the Time Machine or Clone backup.
(use a Time Machine or Clone external drive, do not use Wi-Fi to migrate to the new Mac)
Then after you have Migrated to the new Mac, move your external 6T data drive over to the new Mac.
When you buy a new Mac the easiest, quickest and most reliable method is to simply connect the old Mac's Time Machine External Hard Disk to the new Mac using a USB cable before you turn on the new Mac. When you start the new Mac for the first time it will startup Setup Assistant (SA), SA will get to a point where it asks if you are migrating from another computer, select Yes and follow the on-screen prompts and it's done! It is THAT simple.
If you have already done SA on the new computer then simply connect the Time Machine External Hard Disk using a USB cable and launch Migration Assistant (MA) which is located in Applications - Utilities - MA. Then follow the on-screen prompts.
The ONLY difference between MA and SA is MA will create a new user account that you need to log into.
Both SA and MA migrate applications (not 32 bit apps) , data files, settings, it does not migrate Mac OS itself. Some professional apps such as Adobe and Microsoft apps may require re-installing their apps as they will not allow them to be migrated. As long as you kept the security keys for installing their apps, it is not a big deal.
I don’t have a back up of the Mac’s internal drive, and given that I recently purchased the 6TB drive, which covers all my storage needs, am not in a position to purchase another. I’m trying to determine how to do this with my existing external drive
Then you are forcing yourself into partitioning the 6T into 2 partitions and making a clone on the second partition.
Problem is, if you do not known what you are doing or make a mistake, then you can loose everything on the 6T drive.
Backing up is not something you "should do" it is something you MUST do in order to safeguard your data. Operating any computer without a backup is a recipe for disaster and a 100% guarantee you will lose data. There is no reason to not have a high quality EHD to do backups on, below is a link to an EHD which many experienced users on these forums swear by and one I'd recommend that you consider.
So migration assistant will transfer everything, including all applications?
I had a back up drive but it died. I will consider this one. thank you.
Thank you.
Your welcome.
How do I transfer everything on my old Mac to my new Mac?
