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I am having trouble getting the data from my WD passport for mac external hard drive onto my Macbook pro. I don't believe Time Machine was used during the backup and so the Migration Assistant on my Mac isn't recognizing the drive. The only solution I can come up with is manually copying each file. Does anyone have another solution?
MacBook Pro
How did the files get on the Passport?
If not by Time Machine or if the Passport is not a clone of the installed drive/a bootable system disk, then:
- If the files were added by an app then that app may have a way to restore files
- otherwise you will have to copy files manually
However, apps like iPhoto/Photos can scan a disk and import photos.
How did the files get on the Passport?
If not by Time Machine or if the Passport is not a clone of the installed drive/a bootable system disk, then:
- If the files were added by an app then that app may have a way to restore files
- otherwise you will have to copy files manually
However, apps like iPhoto/Photos can scan a disk and import photos.
I had Micro Center complete a full hard drive back up - so my assumption is that it is a clone of the whole drive. It has my documents, photos, but also all my applications, etc. If it is a clone, is there a way to restore the files other than manually?
Even MA or Setup Assistant will recognize and use a properly cloned drive though I doubt that they used CCC or SuperDuper - ASK them what they used.
When you look at the drive in Disk Utility what does it show? Status, partition type etc.
What do you see? If they are folders, fine.
What you may not be able to do is import applications.
Even if they just used Finder to drag and copy folders like user account then is that there? Manually copying FOLDERS is generally fine.
Why did they do this? drive upgrade? or old drive was failing and could not be mounted or repaired?
Swapping a new drive is easy to do yourself. Often folks will remove old drive and put it in a case like WD Passport (though I like self-powered and not bus-powered only) drive cases. And install a new SSD where the old drive was.
You really want the MacBook Pro forum.
With Passport connected go to System Preferences>Startup disk. If the Passport is not listed as a startup disk it is not a bootable clone and thus migrations assistant will not work.
I would ask Micro Center what they did
restoring files from external hard drive to macbook pro
