Apple Intelligence is now available on iPhone, iPad, and Mac!

📢 Newsroom Update

Apple unveils the new iMac with M4, supercharged by Apple Intelligence and available in fresh colors. Learn more >

📢 Newsroom Update

Apple introduces M4 Pro and M4 Max. Learn more >

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

New Imac

Hi there I am buying my new Imac today as my previous Mac of 5 years something went wrong with the drive.

I have a couple of questions. I have purchased an external SSD drive as the new mac storage is only 256gb and my time machine backup is over 700gb.

I have done some reading and still confused about whether to plug the time machine in before starting the new mac or do I wait till it is set up and then transfer everything over from time machine to new SSD drive ? How do I tell the mac to put some on the internal drive and some on the external drive ? As you can tell this is my first time changing Macs and due to the old mac having a bigger drive than the new one I am a bit lost...your help would be appreciated ...Kind Regards Brent


My new Mac is : Apple iMac with Retina 4.5K Display 24-inch 8-core GPU 256GB (Blue) [2021]


iMac Line (2012 and Later)

Posted on Apr 10, 2022 9:31 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Apr 10, 2022 9:36 PM

Welcome to Apple Support Community.


Unfortunately, you cannot use Migration Assistant to put some files on the new internal drive and an external drive. So, I would suggest that you set your Mac up as "new" (don't transfer anything), inherit your Time Machine backup, and Restore items backed up with Time Machine on Mac - Apple Support to the correct new locations, whether on the internal or external drive.


Jack

Similar questions

3 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Apr 10, 2022 9:36 PM in response to brentjgray73

Welcome to Apple Support Community.


Unfortunately, you cannot use Migration Assistant to put some files on the new internal drive and an external drive. So, I would suggest that you set your Mac up as "new" (don't transfer anything), inherit your Time Machine backup, and Restore items backed up with Time Machine on Mac - Apple Support to the correct new locations, whether on the internal or external drive.


Jack

New Imac

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.