Migration Assistant can't find my hard drive - can you help?

Again, thanks for the detailed responses. I am not connecting via the network. In all three cases I am directly attaching to the new MBP as follows:

1. SuperDuper Backup (bootable) - connected via USB directly to new MBP. Selecting to migrate "From Another Disk". MBP shows "Looking for Other Computers" even though it should probably say "looking for disk". Doesn't find the external USB drive. However I know its mounted because if I disconnect I get the warning about not properly dismounting the drive.

2. Old MB in Target Mode - directly connected via Firewire to new MBP. Selecting to migrate "From Another Disk". MBP shows "Looking for Other Computers" even though it should probably say "looking for disk". Doesn't find the attached target mode disk. Again, I know its mounted because if I disconnect I get the warning about not properly dismounting the drive.

3. Old MB booted regularly from Startup Disk - directly connected via Firewire to new MBP. Selecting to migrate "From Another Mac". Starting Migration Assistant (as directed by 10.8 install process) on old MB. MBP says I need to update the Migration Assistant on the old MB. Again I am pretty sure the new MBP "sees" old MB but won't show the any disks on the Select Source page.

Very frustrating and surprising as in all cases it looks like the source drives are mounting properly AND I am trying to reach them in the correct mode. Also per my other post, I had originally tried to use Migration Assistant after I had originally setup the new computer and it didn't see the source drives either. I did the fresh reinstall of 10.8 hoping to remedy that problem. Now in both cases it won't see my source drives to allow me to move information.

Any other thoughts?

John Brandt wrote:

. . .

3. Old MB booted regularly from Startup Disk - directly connected via Firewire to new MBP. Selecting to migrate "From Another Mac".

Apple no longer makes it clear, but that option requires using your network (Ethernet or WIFI), not FireWire. (Prior to Lion, there were other windows that walked you through connecting, but Apple dropped them.)

And network transfers can only be done if the old Mac is on Leopard 10.5 or later.

Starting Migration Assistant (as directed by 10.8 install process) on old MB. MBP says I need to update the Migration Assistant on the old MB. Again I am pretty sure the new MBP "sees" old MB but won't show the any disks on the Select Source page.

That also requires using your network, not FireWire.

Again, please try either or both:

• Connect the clone to the new Mac (if the drive also supports USB, try that, too).

• Connect the old Mac via FireWire and start it in Target Disk mode.

Start the new Mac normally, and log on to an Admin user account. See if the clone or old Mac shows up as an external HD. If it doesn't, there may be a problem with the F/W cable, or the F/W port or card on the new Mac.

If it does appear, at least you have the option of doing it manually.

One other tidbit: be sure the old Mac has a Computer Name in System Preferences > Sharing.

Thanks for clarifying the network requirement for migrating "From Another Mac" & the limitation for Tiger (e.g. can't do Tiger over a network). To be clear about your suggestions:

Again, please try either or both:

• Connect the clone to the new Mac (if the drive also supports USB, try that, too).

• Connect the old Mac via FireWire and start it in Target Disk mode.

I have connected the cloned USB drive (SuperDuper backup) directly to the new MBP. Setup Assistant doesn't see it when selecting "From Another Disk" option.

I have connected the old MB in target disk mode via Firewire directly to the new MBP. Setup Assistant doesn't see it when selecting "From Antother Disk" option.

Regarding the Sharing suggestion. I checked the old MB and confirmed it was NOT setup to share. I enabled most of the relevant sharing options then ran another SuperDuper backup/clone of the old MB. I then tried the 3 connection approaches as before. Unfortunately I got the same results => Setup Assistant still fails to see the disks under any mode (USB clone direct connect, old MB in Target mode via Firewire, old MB via Firewire).

Based on this failed result I am going to go ahead and complete the installation and see if I can connect and do a manual transfer. I am skeptical as I have already tried this and went back to this clean install. I will post my results shortly.

Thanks again for the on-going advice.

Update. No progress and more issues....

I completed the installation and now on the base version of 10.8. Unfortunately it looks like I lost the iLife applications (e.g. iPhoto). Sure hope I won't have to purchase those now as they came with my new MBP when it had 10.7. Suggestions?

As for migrating, I plugged in the SuperDuper backup / clone. It mounts on the MBP 10.8 and I can see the files. However Migration Assistant on the MBP still refuses to "see" it when selecting "From a Time Machine backup or other disk". Same for plugging the old MB in via Firewire and in Target Disk Mode. I also tried connecting the two machines directly via an ethernet cable (as suggested by Migration Assistant when selecting "From a Mac or PC".

I can't begin to express how frustrating this is. I am a long time Mac user and we currently have more than 6 macs (plus numerous iDevices) so I have been through upgrades and using the systems many times over the years. I have never encountered a problem like this before and am truly stumped. Not to mention PO'd about all the wasted time.

At this point, I can "see" the old MB's cloned backup in Finder. I assume this is where I would start to move files. Do you have a solid guide for doing this process manually from this starting point?

What should I do about the lost iLife apps? Should I take this in to the genius bar for help?

Thanks.

John Brandt wrote:

. . .

As for migrating, I plugged in the SuperDuper backup / clone. It mounts on the MBP 10.8 and I can see the files.

. . .

At this point, I can "see" the old MB's cloned backup in Finder. I assume this is where I would start to move files. Do you have a solid guide for doing this process manually from this starting point?

Sort of. Some of the more common items are listed in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #28. That shows where many files are; but as mentioned before, Address Book/Contacts and Mail must be done via import, not just copying files. That's also true of Calendars, which I neglected to mention earlier.

You'll have to figure out where other files are for each app. As noted, many are in <home folder>/Libraryor<home folder/Library/Application Support.

And of course, if you have multiple user accounts, you'll have to repeat for each one, and may have to deal with permissions issues. Be sure to do each one while logged-on to the appropriate user account on the new Mac; that way, that account will "own" and have full access to the copied files.

What should I do about the lost iLife apps?

I've not done that myself, but see the Restoring iLife applications after Internet Restore of OS X Lion or OS X Mountain Lion section of OS X: About OS X Recovery.

Should I take this in to the genius bar for help?

If you can't get it to work per that article, that would be worth a try.

Sorry not to have better news -- I have no idea why the Assistants won't recognize the backups.

My Window did not list the backup harddrive DEFINITELY - just listed the host machine generic HD icon - when I clicked continue it could find the files on the donor external backup.

Has there been any additonal insight?

I'm dealing with the same kind of problem now: trying to migrate a 10.4.11 MacBook to a new 10.8.2 MacBook Pro.

Connecting the two via FireWire, using Target Disk Mode, the old MacBook appears as a disk to the new MacBook Pro (appears in Finder; give an error message if incorrectly ejected).

But Migration Assistant doesn't see the Target Disk. Spins, looking for the disk, even using "From another disk."

Thanks.

bramjm wrote:

. . .

Connecting the two via FireWire, using Target Disk Mode, the old MacBook appears as a disk to the new MacBook Pro (appears in Finder; give an error message if incorrectly ejected).

But Migration Assistant doesn't see the Target Disk. Spins, looking for the disk, even using "From another disk."

Does it show any disk at all? Assuming it doesn't, try booting the old Mac normally, and running Verify Disk on it. If that shows errors, it might explain why Migration Assistant on the new Mac doesn't recognize it. Start it from the Tiger Install disc and Repair Disk on it. While you're at it, you might also run Repair Disk Permissions, too.

Sounded like a good idea — this isn't my computer, I'm doing this for a friend — and the Verify Disk wouldn't even run, there was such an error. Successfully repaired by starting from a system disk.

Migration assistant's still stuck spinning, though.

You might try restarting the new Mac, too, and be sure you select "From another disk" in Migration Assistant.

This has worked for most folks, but not for several, even after all the repairs, etc.

If you have an external HD, use the Restore tab of Disk Utility on the old Mac to copy its internal HD to the external (or use a 3rd-party utility like CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper); then connect the external to the new one and see if it will work that way.

If all else fails, either take the Macs to an Apple Store, or call AppleCare (the call is free for the first 90 days; if your friend bought AppleCare it's free for 3 years).

I seem to have effective the same apparently insoluble "Assistants do not see" problem described by several other users.

The brief story is that the internal HD in my Mini died, but the Time Machine backups live happily on an external HD. However, with a replacement drive in the Mini running Mountain Lion (same version as on the dead drive), Migration Assistant would not find the backups on the TM drive, nor after wiping the new drive again (not like there was anything I wanted there) and going through Internet Recovery (which took me back to Lion) would Setup Assistant finf the the backups. In both cases, it would reach the "looking for other computers stage" (though, yes, I chose the right options to tell it I wanted to transfer from a external Time Machine disk) without ever finding the TM drive, which is attached directly to the Mini via Firewire and for which I can use the "Browse Other Backup Disks" option to go into TM and browse the backups there. And, yeah, I used Disk Utility to check out the TM disk; it's fine, so there should be no problem there. But, anyway ....

I'm now re-upgrading to Mountain Lion on the new internal drive, but I very much doubt anywhere in the process I will be able to use the Assistant to restore properly from the TM backups. I am using that, in the end, I will have to use a temporary Admin account to restore the old user folders and Applications folder from backup, and whatever I can find in the System and Library folders that looks like it won't mess things up too much. I guess if I get back the data in my old user folders -- iPhoto Libraries and stuff -- then at worst I'll have to reinstall some of the more finicky apps (Adobe stuff, MS stuff).

Still, it's tremendously annoying that although I can browse the old backups in TM, the Assistants won't do their job(s) of bringing things back relatively painlessly.

Considering that I am setting up a relatively virgin machine, how dreadful might it be to do things like do a "manual" restore of the backed-up System folders, etc. from the TM disk to the newly installed disk? Really _shouldn't_ that have the effect of restoring a lot of settings and app data? I mean ... at worst, the backups continue to live on the TM disk, so if anything got really weird on new internal disk, I could just start over by wiping it again and reinstalling Mountain Lion, etc. ... no?

Your best bet is to simply do a full system restore from your backups.

Start up from the Recovery HD, and you'll see the option to do that. See Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #14 for detailed instructions and the gory details.

Under the circumstances, that doesn't sound too bad -- assuming that whatever was preventing the Asisstants from doing their thing doesn't interfere with this, too!

Would you think that it's worth carrying on with first restoring the OS on the internal drive to the same version as in the backups? Or will this not matter because everything will be replaced from the backup, regardless of what is on the internal disk now?

Equally, would (should?) it matter than the new internal drive is bigger than the one that was backed up?

On presumes that whatever user accounts etc. on currently on the new internal drive will be wiped out in the replacement of the full system from the backups? Not that I have any need for whatever is not in the backups! 🙂

carlaz wrote:

Under the circumstances, that doesn't sound too bad -- assuming that whatever was preventing the Asisstants from doing their thing doesn't interfere with this, too!

It shouldn't -- since you can use the Browse... option. (If it doesn't appear, and if you haven't already, try repairing the backups, per #A5 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting).

everything will be replaced from the backup, regardless of what is on the internal disk now?

Correct. It doesn't matter what's on the HD, since it gets erased. Everything, including OSX and apps, is restored from the backups.

Equally, would (should?) it matter than the new internal drive is bigger than the one that was backed up?

Makes no difference; the Installer just erases the disk and copies from the backups.

On presumes that whatever user accounts etc. on currently on the new internal drive will be wiped out in the replacement of the full system from the backups?

Yup. And that's usually a good thing -- when most shops replace a drive, they not only install OSX (you never know what version), and set up a user account, so they can confirm that everything works. If you then use the Migration Assistant app to transfer your stuff, you end up with an extra user account, and the accounts you transfer that way may lose permission to their files on other disks, especially the backups.