Can Migration Assistant use a new external hard drive on a new iMac?

Question

Level 1

4 points

Can Migration Assistant use a new external hard drive on a new iMac?

I did not find an answer in previous posts, so here goes...

I want to use Migration Assistant to move from an older iMac, which has a 1Tb hard drive, to a new iMac, which only has a 256Gb SSD hard drive.

I have an external hard drive with the Time Machine backups from the old iMac; and on the new iMac, Migration Assistant finds it.

But since the new iMac has insufficient space on the hard drive, I assume I am going to have to buy another external hard drive to use...which I have not yet done.

My question is: will Migration Assistant know how to move files using the new external hard drive?

thanks in advance,

--Rick

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

iMac 27″, macOS 12.7

Posted on Jan 29, 2025 10:59 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

D.I. Johnson

Level 7

32,291 points

Feb 2, 2025 2:12 PM in response to rixter07

Buy that external drive for the new iMac.

Install macOS on the external drive and make it your startup drive.

Boot your new iMac from the external startup drive and use Migration Assistant to migrate your files to that.

Use an external SSD as your startup disk … - Apple Community

(Thanks, Jack-19.)

Then buy a second external drive to backup the first, your new startup drive.

Reply

Answer 2

den.thed

Level 10

90,814 points

Jan 29, 2025 11:27 AM in response to rixter07

rixter07 wrote:

My question is: will Migration Assistant know how to move files using the new external hard drive?

No, Migration Assistant can not split up your data like that.

The easiest and best thing to do, is order the new iMac with the same or more storage space as the old iMac.

Reply

Answer 3

rkaufmann87

Level 10

148,440 points

Jan 29, 2025 1:49 PM in response to rixter07

Never buy a replacement Mac with less storage than the original Mac. You cannot use MA then and will be left with a mess. Just belly up to the bar like the rest of us and get the new Mac with a 1TB SSD. Then follow the steps in Setup Assistant and Migration Assistant and your migration experience will be fast, reliable and trouble-free. Don't heed the advice and expect a bumpy and unpleasant experience. Just trying to steer you to do the right thing and not be cheap which almost always ends with one being unhappy!

Reply

Can Migration Assistant use a new external hard drive on a new iMac?

Similar questions