Pros and cons of transferring old content to a new iMac

Question

Level 1

18 points

Pros and cons of transferring old content to a new iMac

Does anyone have any thoughts about transferring all your content from an old iMac to a new iMac. I notice that the process can be done automatically but surely all the old rubbish, disrupted files, extensions, unused apps etc. that clogged up the old Mac will go to the new one.

I’m thinking of putting my content on an Airport harddisk and picking it from there when required on the new Mac.

Any thoughts or experiences would be appreciated.

iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10.5)

Posted on Nov 25, 2018 6:31 PM

Reply

Answer 1

rkaufmann87

Level 10

148,488 points

Nov 25, 2018 8:27 PM in response to TLN5

The clear advantage of using Setup Assistant or Migration Assistant is you can move all of your apps, settings and data to your new Mac in a short amount of time. The disadvantage is if you have apps, data, and settings that garbage they will come over too. In other words if you have made a mess of your old system with the exception of the OS the system will have the same mess. So what you should do is clean up the old system if you intend to keep it and then use Migration Assistant on the new system.

Reply

Answer 2

Nov 26, 2018 11:31 AM in response to TLN5

Uninstall Intego and Trusteer. They are worthless pieces of junk on your Mac. They offers no protection and only causes problems.

Reply

Answer 3

rkaufmann87

Level 10

148,488 points

Nov 25, 2018 11:49 PM in response to TLN5

If you have apps you no longer want then uninstall them or simply drag them to the Trash and empty the Trash.

Automator is part of Mac OS and is found in the Utilities folder, you cannot uninstall any apps that came pre-installed in Mac OS. By the way...Automator is a tool for automating repetitive tasks.

WD Security is some junk software that should be uninstalled. You may want to start by posting a report of your system so we can look to see what has been installed and if there are any obvious issues. Please follow the directions below:

Please post an EtreCheck report of your system and we can look for any obvious issues. Please click the link, download and run the free version of the app and then post the complete report it produces as your reply to this message.

Reply

Answer 4

TLN5 Author

Level 1

18 points

Nov 25, 2018 8:41 PM in response to rkaufmann87

Hi, thanks for your views.

What you say about cleaning the old system seems obvious but how to do that. I have tried clean up apps before and find they are as good as useless. They ask you whether you want to delete this and that and unless you know what it does you end up keeping it for fear of throwing something vital. There’s stuff in my spplications folder I don’t remember installing, “Automator” - what’s that? “WD security” - who knows? And all that sort of stuff.

I’m grateful for your answer as it sort of confirms what I suspected. It seems the choice is half a dozen of one or six of the other. I shall probably install the applications I know I use all the time then see what I miss as I go on.

Reply

Answer 5

ckuan

Level 10

120,920 points

Nov 25, 2018 6:42 PM in response to TLN5

Yes, other than you important documents, you can start fresh and re-download your purchased App Store apps as needed.

Reply

Answer 6

TLN5 Author

Level 1

18 points

Nov 25, 2018 6:44 PM in response to ckuan

Thanks for your thoughts.

Reply

Answer 7

rkaufmann87

Level 10

148,488 points

Nov 26, 2018 11:45 AM in response to TLN5

I 100% agree with Allan.

Reply

Answer 8

TLN5 Author

Level 1

18 points

Nov 30, 2018 8:06 PM in response to rkaufmann87

Back in front of my Mac. Thanks for your help. Some stuff just refuses to be deleted. I guess its there to stay.

cheers.

Reply

Answer 9

TLN5 Author

Level 1

18 points

Nov 26, 2018 11:19 AM in response to rkaufmann87

hi, report attached.

EtreCheck version: 5.0.2 (5015)

Report generated: 2018-11-27 08:00:11

Download EtreCheck from https://etrecheck.com

Runtime: 7:33

Performance: Below Average

Sandbox: Enabled

Full drive access: Disabled

Problem: No problem - just checking

Description:

System check

Major Issues:

Anything that appears on this list needs immediate attention.

Old operating system - Old operating system versions no longer receive security updates.

Obsolete hardware - This machine may be considered obsolete.

Minor Issues:

These issues do not need immediate attention but they may indicate future problems.

Out of RAM - This machine is running short on RAM and has a mechanical hard drive, reducing the speed of the virtual memory system.

Clean up - There are orphan files that could be removed.

Unsigned files - There are unsigned software files installed. They appear to be legitimate but should be reviewed.

System modifications - There are a large number of system modifications running in the background.

Low performance - EtreCheck report took over 5 minutes to run. This is unusual.

32-bit Apps - This machine has 32-bits apps that may have problems in the future.

Abnormal shutdown - Your machine shut down abnormally.

Hardware Information:

iMac (2009) - Obsolete!

iMac Model: iMac9,1

1 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (Duo) CPU: 2-core

8 GB RAM - At maximum

BANK 0/DIMM0 - 4 GB DDR3 1067 ok

BANK 1/DIMM0 - 4 GB DDR3 1067 ok

Video Information:

NVIDIA GeForce 9400 - VRAM: 256 MB

iMac 1920 x 1200

Drives:

disk0 - WDC WD6400AAKS-40H2B0 640.14 GB (Mechanical)

Internal SATA 3 Gigabit Serial ATA

disk0s1 - EFI [EFI] 210 MB

disk0s2 - Macintosh HD (Journaled HFS+) 639.28 GB (354.20 GB used)

disk0s3 - Recovery HD [Recovery] 650 MB

Mounted Volumes:

disk0s2 - Macintosh HD 639.28 GB (284.81 GB free)

Journaled HFS+

Mount point: /

Network:

Interface Bluetooth-Modem: Bluetooth

Interface modem: Internal Modem

Interface en1: AirPort

802.11 a/b/g/n

Interface en2: Bluetooth PAN

Interface fw0: FireWire

Interface en0: Ethernet

System Software:

OS X Yosemite 10.10.5 (14F2511)

Time since boot: About 6 days

Security:

System	Status
Gatekeeper	Enabled

Unsigned Files:

Launchd: /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/JavaAppletPlugin.plugin/Contents/Resources/com.oracle.java.Helper-Tool .plist

Executable: /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/JavaAppletPlugin.plugin/Contents/Resources/Helper-Tool