Trying to Setup New Mac from a Dead Mac

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Trying to Setup New Mac from a Dead Mac

Prefacing this with: I have googled this to the ends of the earth and have only ever seen “just turn on the dead mac and use migration assistant” which is not a viable answer.

My old MacBook Pro hit the bucket the other day. It drank an entire glass of juice and fried. Took it to Apple and they said it was gone, there was no saving it. It won’t turn on. It’s now a fancy paper weight and nothing more. I have a lot of stuff on there I’d like to get back, and while I haven’t backed up my old Mac in quite awhile, it has been backed up at some point. I’m trying to figure out where I access this backup so I can throw it onto my new MacBook Pro.

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.13

Posted on Mar 17, 2022 5:02 PM

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Answer 1

Mar 17, 2022 5:06 PM in response to Anotherusernameew

The backup is on the external drive you backed up to. Only you know what you did with that drive. Connect this external drive to your new computer and restore the contents to the computer.

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Answer 2

Mar 17, 2022 5:10 PM in response to Anotherusernameew

iCloud does not backup Mac computers and never has.

Using Time Machine is how you back up a Mac computer:

Back up your Mac with Time Machine - Apple Support

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Answer 3

HWTech

Level 9

68,528 points

Mar 17, 2022 6:25 PM in response to Anotherusernameew

You did not mention which exact model laptop you have which is very important information since some older laptops (2015 and earlier laptops plus the 2017 MBAir -- that is models which don't have USB-C ports) have removable drives which you can install into an external enclosure or sometimes using a USB adapter or drive dock.

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Answer 4

GRG23

Level 1

12 points

Mar 17, 2022 6:27 PM in response to Anotherusernameew

Assuming the SSD was not compromised during the accident, you can be able to remove it from the MacBook and use it to retrieve the files.

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Answer 5

Mar 17, 2022 5:08 PM in response to BobTheFisherman

It doesn’t backup to the cloud anymore? I don’t recall having to connect anything to my old Mac to back it up.

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Trying to Setup New Mac from a Dead Mac

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