transferring from external hard drive to new iMac

Hello Mary Anne:

I would probably attach the external HD and copy the information. Of course, the destination would depend on what kind of data you are transferring.

Barry

Did you used your external hard dirve for a Windows computer or a Mac?

As maurits6814 has asked, this answer may not apply if you're transferring data from a hard drive used with a PC.

But...if you're transferring your data from a Time Machine backup from an older Mac, the best means of doing this is via Setup Assistant, which runs once (and only once) when the new iMac is first powered on.

The next best means is via Migration Assistant. Migration Assistant can be run at any time, and can be found in Applications --> Utilities. I would urge you to read the excellent information provided by "The Great Pondini" at the URL linked below, as it will probably answer just about any question you might have regarding transferring everything over:

http://pondini.org/OSX/Home.html

I hope this helps!

If you are transferring from a windows computer (drive), go look which structure the hard drive has. If it is: NTFS, you can buy a program named Paragon that allows you to transfer it anyway.

http://www.paragon-software.com/nl/home/ntfs-mac/

You can....

For your iPhoto library, just find it on your external drive and drag it over to your internal drive. When you open iPhoto, you'll have to tell it where the library is, of course. (Note: Do NOT drag the individual photos over...you'll cause serious issues with your iPhoto library if you do it this way).

For iTunes, here's a link that will help walk you thru things:

http://lifehacker.com/5971326/move-your-itunes-library-to-another-hard-drive-in- three-simple-stepshttp://support.apple.com/kb/HT1449

All in all, not hard to do at all....and you'll have everything on your internal drive.

Of course, you'll want to run a Time Machine backup as soon as you can after moving everything.

I hope this helps....

You're welcome.

Hello again:

I stayed quiet as you were getting good suggestions...

With that message (not a good one), I would run repair disk on the external drive from Disk Utility and see what, if any, messages appear.

Barry

Hello:

I have never done anything like you describe, so I do not want to give you bad advice (I always use migration assistant when I go from one system to a new one but I always have everything on my internal drive).

If what you are trying to move is in an iTunes library, this knowledge base article may help:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1449?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

If the data is just stored on the external HD, that article will not be of much help. I think I would drag it to a folder on the new system desktop - that can always be deleted.

Barry

I wonder if your computer went to sleep during the file transfer? I might try it again if I were you, but before doing so go to System Preferences and change your settings to never sleep (until you're all done...you can change them back afterwards).

Since there's no problem with the external hard drive after following Barry's suggestion to run Disk Repair, that drive is fine.