I am transferring content from an HP laptop to my new iMac, using the migration assistant. I have both the iMac and the laptop plugged in via Ethernet directly into my router. The transfer has been running for over 12 hours now, and the progress bar has been at the same spot the whole time. How long does it take to transfer data? How do I know it's even progressing?
iMac, macOS High Sierra (10.13.2)
Migration Assistant can take a long time to transfer data, depending on how much data there is to transfer.
If you can run Applications -> Utilities -> Activity Monitor -> Network
Setting Activity Monitor -> View -> All Processes
Click on the Column header "Rcvd Packets" to set the sort order.
you should be able to see if Migration Assistant is moving data across the Ethernet connection.
There may be something similar on Windows you can use to see if the Windows side is moving data across the Ethernet connection.
A Gigabit Ethernet connection can move data at around 100 megabyte/second, HOWEVER, this can be restricted by the speed at which the Windows disk reads the files and gives them to Migration Assistant. And it can be limited on how fast the Mac can write the files to its storage (rotating hard disk will be slower than SSD storage). Also lots of small files generally slows things down as there is overhead finding the next file to read, creating the small file, allocating the storage for the small file, making a new entry in the Folder for the small file, etc...
Also, while most home routers support Gigabit Ethernet, not all of them do, especially if the router is old. So it is possible the router is limited to 100 megabits/second. A 100 megabit/sec transfer rate would give you about 10 megabytes/second transfer rate. Again depending on how much data you have to transfer, that would seriously affect the transfer time.
Finally, while most Ethernet cables use all 8 wires in the cable, I have personally experienced using an Ethernet cable that ONLY had 4 wires in it. A 4-wire Ethernet cable is ONLY capable of 100 megabits/second. Drove me crazy, caused me to buy a new Ethernet switch, and totally scratch my head for months. By accident, I looked carefully at the RJ45 plug and noticed only 4 wires connected to the pins. Changed my cable, and get gigabit speeds. NOTE: This could also happen if the cable is damaged, and maybe has some broken wires.
Migration Assistant can take a long time to transfer data, depending on how much data there is to transfer.
If you can run Applications -> Utilities -> Activity Monitor -> Network
Setting Activity Monitor -> View -> All Processes
Click on the Column header "Rcvd Packets" to set the sort order.
you should be able to see if Migration Assistant is moving data across the Ethernet connection.
There may be something similar on Windows you can use to see if the Windows side is moving data across the Ethernet connection.
A Gigabit Ethernet connection can move data at around 100 megabyte/second, HOWEVER, this can be restricted by the speed at which the Windows disk reads the files and gives them to Migration Assistant. And it can be limited on how fast the Mac can write the files to its storage (rotating hard disk will be slower than SSD storage). Also lots of small files generally slows things down as there is overhead finding the next file to read, creating the small file, allocating the storage for the small file, making a new entry in the Folder for the small file, etc...
Also, while most home routers support Gigabit Ethernet, not all of them do, especially if the router is old. So it is possible the router is limited to 100 megabits/second. A 100 megabit/sec transfer rate would give you about 10 megabytes/second transfer rate. Again depending on how much data you have to transfer, that would seriously affect the transfer time.
Finally, while most Ethernet cables use all 8 wires in the cable, I have personally experienced using an Ethernet cable that ONLY had 4 wires in it. A 4-wire Ethernet cable is ONLY capable of 100 megabits/second. Drove me crazy, caused me to buy a new Ethernet switch, and totally scratch my head for months. By accident, I looked carefully at the RJ45 plug and noticed only 4 wires connected to the pins. Changed my cable, and get gigabit speeds. NOTE: This could also happen if the cable is damaged, and maybe has some broken wires.
Wow! Thank you!
How long does it take to transfer data to a new iMac
