I have the new 27inch iMac, and I am migrating via a USB from my 2008 imac running the latest Mac OSX Lion. It seems to be taking forever.
It is still telling me 24hrs 31 hinutes after 1.5hrs to transfer 320G. Does this sound right? It seemsnot to be moving in time to complete.
iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.4)
USB, Wi-Fi and Ethernet are very slow, so it's normal. If you want a faster migration, buy the Thunderbolt to FireWire adapter and migrate using FireWire, but there are other methods
Since you mention USB I assume you are migrating from a Time Machine or clone backup external drive since Mac to Mac can only be done with FireWire. I'd expect a 320GB migration to take 4-9 hours using USB not 24 hrs unless there's something wrong with the cable, destination or source drive.
No its is mac to mac but the 2008 model has USB and Firewire but the new one has USB3 and Thunderbolt. nothing else.
As far as I know, migrating Mac to Mac cannot be done with USB. Aplple's knowledgeBase articles speak only of FireWire, Ethernet and WiFi.
A friend did it USB to USB and it worked, took 4 hrs for 300G whereas mine does not get passed transfer of data phase it tells me Migration failure. I'm wondering if it is a software issue.
The best way to go if possible will be the thunderbolt to firewire cable, Does about 100gigs a half hour. At this point i would try wifi depending on your connectection speedit shouldn't take mor that 6 hours
Thanks Ill try this after I get a cable if not will do via wifi
Don't use WiFi
Here are the maximum transfer speeds for each connection type
WiFi 300Mb/s (actual rate closer to 50Mb/s depending on distance to source, terrain and error correction)
FW 400 400Mb/s
USB2 480Mb/s
FW 800 800Mb/s
Ethernet1000Mb/s (Cat5 cable)
USB3 5000Mb/s
TBolt 10000Mb/s
In all cases real world speeds tend to be lower but a direct Ethernet connection is fast and reliable. 4 hours plus is not unusual, there is more work going on than just transferring files.
PS: in the case of a connection using 2 methods (eg: FW400 to FW800) the transfer is at the lowest of the 2 speeds, not the highest.
should wifi be turned on when using migration assistant during transfer from mac to mac via ethernet cable
Not necessary, but it shouldn't be a problem to leave it on.
I am having trouble migrating from my imac 2008 to the new December 2012imac 27inch i7. It gets bogged down at the transfering data for the user phase. I am transfering via an ethernet cable from machine to machine 275G to a 3T new imac. it stops at about 9hrs 25 minutes and does not budge for 10+ hrs. As far as I know I have followed all instruction. Both machines are connected to the same wifi modem on the same network. Does this mean that despite having an cat 6 ethernet cableconnected, it is trying to transfer via the wifi?
Not sure whether it is trying to use the wifi or not. Sounds like you've got nothing to lose by turning it off and relying on the ethernet connection.
how long does it take to migrate mac to mac via USB
