Migrate directly or from backup?

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Level 2

159 points

Migrate directly or from backup?

When a Mac dies -- if the hard drive is OK -- should you migrate directly or from a backup?

Does the new Mac check the old one's file system journal to make sure everything is OK and put the data back in a known-good state?

I'm thinking that if the Mac suddenly died, I don't know if that hardware issue might affect the data on the hard drive, so maybe that argues for going from a backup. But then there's always the possibility there could be an issue with the backup. (We have a backup that's at most an hour old.)

Thank you in advance!

iMac

Posted on Sep 7, 2016 6:51 AM

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Answer 1

Csound1

Level 9

60,063 points

Sep 7, 2016 6:54 AM in response to DonnaR

If possible I would migrate directly, the backup is a good option when you can't.

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Answer 2

dialabrain

Level 10

136,667 points

Sep 7, 2016 6:55 AM in response to DonnaR

If you mean onto a new Mac, you would have to migrate from the backup if the Mac is dead.

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Answer 3

DonnaR Author

Level 2

159 points

Sep 7, 2016 7:02 AM in response to dialabrain

True, if you were to do it yourself! But you can always bring it in to a computer repair place, and they could do the transfer.

In that case, which would you trust more: the original (but that might be compromised because of the hardware issue that caused it to die) or a backup?

Thanks again!

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Answer 4

Csound1

Level 9

60,063 points

Sep 7, 2016 7:47 AM in response to DonnaR

I would use the original every time it is available.

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Answer 5

dialabrain

Level 10

136,667 points

Sep 7, 2016 7:39 AM in response to DonnaR

FWIW, if the "computer repair place" is an Apple store or an AASP then I would feel more comfortable with a recommendation. If it's not, I wouldn't let them touch my Macs. I would just do it myself. And, since I'm not about to pull out the drive and buy a new enclosure, I would use the backup to recover what data I could and reinstall any apps I needed to.

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