Recovering Items from a Hard Drive?

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Level 1

8 points

Recovering Items from a Hard Drive?

Hello everyone. My MBP recently went through a tragic incident which ended up with it needing extensive repair and therefore I am considering getting a new MacBook Pro. I was wondering if all the apps that were downloaded online as well as all other files and bookmarks can be recovered from the Hard Drive? Or would they be saved in iCloud as well? Is it possible to recover all the data in my previous Mac? Thank you very much.

MacBook Pro with Retina display, iOS 7.1

Posted on Apr 1, 2014 1:11 AM

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Answer 1

kaz-k

Level 8

49,068 points

Apr 1, 2014 2:40 AM in response to Owl Captain

How to use Migration Assistant to transfer files from a Time Machine backup:

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4500

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Answer 2

Owl Captain Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 1, 2014 3:11 AM in response to kaz-k

The thing about my current mac is that it cannot be used anymore, so I am unable to use Time Machine... Is it possible to directly transfer the old hard drive to the new Mac?

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Answer 3

kaz-k

Level 8

49,068 points

Apr 1, 2014 4:49 AM in response to Owl Captain

Yes, you can transfer or migrate data or info from old TimeMachine external HDD to new Mac, I suppose.

Or you can pull out HDD of old Macbook Pro and install into external HDD case, then:

Mac OSX Mountain Lion: Transfer your info from a computer or disk:

http://support.apple.com/kb/PH11275

Or I may be wrong?

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Answer 4

Owl Captain Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 1, 2014 4:51 AM in response to kaz-k

Does Time Machine back up your stuff automatically? I never had the change to use it before my mac broke down :/

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Answer 5

Apr 1, 2014 6:51 AM in response to Owl Captain

Yes, Time Machine backs up all your stuff automatically.

The first Backup is tedious, but after that it works unobtrusively in the background backing up only changed items once an hour (or as often as you attach the External backup drive).

Time Machine is not the best backup solution ever. There are much more sophisticated and flexible solutions available. But Time Machine is the Backup that actually gets done, and that is the most valuable feature of any Backup system.

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Answer 6

Apr 1, 2014 6:53 AM in response to kaz-k

Here is another set of articles on copying your stuff old to new, organized a little differently and nicely illustrated:

Setting-up a new Mac from an old one, its backups, or a PC

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Answer 7

Apr 1, 2014 6:55 AM in response to Owl Captain

If the old Mac runs, even if the screen is dead, you can connect it to a new Mac in Target Disk Mode.

If the old Mac does not run, but its Drive is somewhat working, you can remove the old drive and place it in an External enclosure.

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