how do I transfer data from old hard drive that is on an external to newly installed hard drive?

Just drag your files from the externl drive to the new drive.

Copy the following items from your old drive to the new drive:

In your /Home/ folder: Documents, Movies, Music, Pictures, and Sites folders.

In your /Home/Library/ folder:

/Home/Library/Application Support/AddressBook (copy the whole folder) /Home/Library/Application Support/iCal (copy the whole folder)

Also in /Home/Library/Application Support (copy whatever else you need including folders for any third-party applications)

/Home/Library/Keychains (copy the whole folder) /Home/Library/Mail (copy the whole folder) /Home/Library/Preferences/ (copy the whole folder) /Home /Library/Calendars (copy the whole folder) /Home /Library/iTunes (copy the whole folder) /Home /Library/Safari (copy the whole folder)

If you want cookies:

/Home/Library/Cookies/Cookies.plist /Home/Library/Application Support/WebFoundation/HTTPCookies.plist

For Entourage users:

Entourage is in /Home/Documents/Microsoft User Data Also in /Home/Library/Preferences/Microsoft.

Credit goes to Macjack for this information.

If you need to transfer data for other applications please ask the vendor or ask in the Discussions where specific applications store their data.

5. Once you have transferred what you need restart the new Mac and test to make sure the contents are there for each of the applications.

Reinstall your third-party software.

What's on the drive, and how did it get there (some folders dragged & dropped, Time Machine or "clone" backups, or what)?

Has the new drive been installed in your Mac?

If so, has it been formatted?

if so, has OS been installed?

If so, have any user accounts been created?

First things first - is the drive blank or did the Blue Shirt assist with reinstalling Lion?

@Kappy Way to complicated for the OP. Lets get some more info first.

Considering how many people have used the information, I doubt it. Maybe to complicated for you. But then I didn't see your suggestion.

@ Kappy - no need for the insults.

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OP can you please provide some more information regarding your particular setup/issues?

Still don't see any suggestion.

Dizzy Star wrote:

Ok, before switching hard drives I did a back up of everything (hopefully) on an external.

How did you do that? If via Time Machine, your best bet is to do a full system restore from that backup, per Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #14. That will restore everything just as it was at the time of the backup (and delete the user account you just created).

If via a "cloning" app, such as CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper, just "clone" it back, using the same app.

@Dizzy Star - Nice! This is what I wanted to hear! Alrighty go to your Applications folder, open the Utilities folder. In ther you will find the Migration Assistant. Select the option for 'From another .... other Disk' It shoudl walk you through the steps to restore your data.

🙂

Just copy the files you need as I suggested eariler.

If you connected the external drive to the computer, then you will have a drive icon for it on your Desktop. Double-click on the drive icon to open a Finder window onto your backup. You can copy by drag and drop unless your backup was made using Time Machine. In that case you can restore your files using the Time Machine application in the Applications folder. If you don't know how to do that then you will find helpful information at Pondini's Time Machine FAQ

If you use Migration Assistant you are going to end up with two user accounts. The one you now have and the one you import. If they have different usernames, then you cannot access the data in one from the other. In order to access your migrated files you will need to log into the migrated account first.