migration assistant: the selected source cannot be used for migration on new iMac

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Level 1

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migration assistant: the selected source cannot be used for migration on new iMac

Trying to run migration assistant on my iMac to migrate everything from my old Mac Pro. when I open migration assistant on the new iMac I get, 'the selected source cannot be used for migration'. Under that, 'Volume contains an OS X installation which may be damaged'. I've tried reinstalling mavericks from a bootable memory stick to no avail. I've tried erasing the disk with disk utilities and reinstalling and repairing permissions, as well. The iMac seems to be fine to use, I don't get errors opening apps or anything, so I'm not sure what's 'damaged'. It's been a week now and I still haven't been able to figure it out. Any advice or a point in the right direction would be super helpful! Oh one last thing to note. The iMac was a factory referbished machine, but shoudl be all up to snuff now I'd think.

iMac, OS X Mavericks (10.9.2)

Posted on Mar 19, 2014 10:01 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

skipZero Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 25, 2014 8:39 PM in response to skipZero

Well, after a few more days of wrestling with this issue and no help here, I guess I'm making an appointment to take it in to the apple store. I'm at a complete loss as to what's up...

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Answer 2

Mar 25, 2014 8:43 PM in response to skipZero

If you would do a software update on the one you wiped until you get the message that your software is up to date.

Then and only then can you upgrade to Mavericks.

Don

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Answer 3

skipZero Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 25, 2014 8:55 PM in response to Donald Morgan

After wiping the drive, I installed mavericks and all it's updates. This didn't help. still said 'Volume contains an OS X installation which may be damaged'.... I don't think putting an older OS on and upgrading thru that is going to matter, would it? seems silly if it does. But I'm really at a loss as to what to do so I just might give it a shot for ***** n giggles...

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Answer 4

Mar 24, 2015 12:49 PM in response to skipZero

I'm having the same issue I think, and it's driving me crazy. I've done migrations many times and I've never come across such issue. I have a TimeMachine backup from my current computer running Yosemite 10.10.2 and using Migration Assistant to migrate everything to a new Macbook Pro running Yosemite 10.10.2. When I run migration assistant, I get the same message 'Volume contains an OS X installation which may be damaged'. I've wiped the external drive and done the back up again multiple times. Don't know what else to do. Anyone has faced this issue and have a solution?

skipzero, wondering how you solve yours?

Thank you!

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Answer 5

Eric Root

Level 10

684,039 points

Mar 25, 2015 11:40 AM in response to macminiguy

If the 2 computers have the correct cable connections, try the Target Disk Mode.

Target Disk Mode - Mavericks

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