Hi Alan, yes that is possibly a good way to go. A further thinking on this just now you jogged my thoughts. Is to establish a new 'clean' backup file (rename the old one to break the link - not sure if TM is clever enough to detect if the renamed file is in fact still the backup file it will want to default backup to) of the MBA SSD only (being sure to exclude the attached external drive using Options from the backup routine). Then use MA to restore that new backup to the Mac Mini with confidence you know it is only the MBA data restored and not a conglomeration of the MBA + external drive data onto the Mac Mini. Then just transfer the external drive to the mac Mini USB and then create another new TM backup with the external drive INCLUDED in the routine. This will of course will leave the history non-existent from the previous backup - may or may not be important to you. Regards Pete.
----- Original Message ----- From: wamug@wamug.org.au To:"WAMUG Mailing List" Cc: Sent:Wed, 8 May 2019 12:25:58 +0800 Subject:Re: System migration to new computer Thanks for your thoughts Peter (C) Current idea is now to remove the data drive via Time Machine preferences and run a few days of plain MBA SSD backups. The HOPE is that Migration Assistant would allow a TM backup from a specified date and therefore copy just the latest 150GB or whatever. May even try adding a third TM backup drive to create a “pure” SSD source for initial migration with a short date range, while the other TM drives are temporarily removed. Then, as Peter (H) said, try it! CheersAlan On 8 May 2019, at 9:34 am, petercr...@westnet.com.au [1] wrote: Hi Peter and Alan. This is a conundrum I have yet to encounter but I had wondered how I would do it if I ever had to. I have a similar environment where I have an MBP (256GB SSD) and a 2TB external drive holding Photos library, iTunes library and an assortment of other foldered items. My external drive is INCLUDED in the back up to Time Capsule. I also periodically do a CCC backup of both the MBP and External drive too for some added protection. What I have observed, during a trial I did a few months back, is when using the recovery process from the TM backup, if I was to try and recover a file that was resident on the external drive, then I must have the external drive attached to the MBP for it to be reinstated back to. Conversely, if I were to not have the external drive attached to my MBP, when I try to do a recovery of a file that was on the external drive, then the ability to see the image of the backed up external drive to select a file to recover is not made available. It follows therefore (I think) that if I was to try and recover the entire external drive using TM, then I would need to have that drive attached in the destination of where I was trying to recover it to. A suggestion to think about before implementing anything. If you were to use Migration Assistant to restore the backup of the on-board SSD content ONLY from the TM backup to the Mac Mini (with the external drive NOT attached to the Mac Mini), then it would follow that only the on-board SSD backed up content from the MBA would be recovered onto the Mac Mini 256GB SSD. If you then were to attach the external drive to the Mac Mini, then you are back in the same place you were previously - the Mac Mini is a clone of the Macbook Air and the external drive is now moved over to the Mac Mini. Another of my observations is that the first time that Time Machine does a backup of this new configuration, it will create a new backup of the ENTIRE SSD + the ENTIRE external drive, even though the content is the very same content. This has the undesirable effect of bloating the backup file and you may run out of space on it. Maybe there is a clever way to make it recognise it's backing up stuff it has already backed up, so only does an incremental backup, ie only a back up of what has changed. I think TM is pretty clever but without knowing exactly how it will behave in these circumstances, it's difficult to know what you'll end up with. But as Peter indicates, the worst that can happen is you have to clear it off the Mac Mini and start again. Another thing with TM is to be extremely patient. Extremely patient. Extremely patient. Regards Pete. ----- Original Message ----- From: wamug@wamug.org.au [2] To: Cc: Sent:Wed, 8 May 2019 08:03:17 +0800 Subject:Re: System migration to new computer > On 8 May 2019, at 6:34 am, Alan Smith wrote: > > What is the best way to migrate complete data and settings from an unreliable 2012 MacBook Air to a still-in-the-box 2018 Mac mini? Both macs have internal 256 GB SSD. There are Time Machine and Super Duper backups. I will be the technical assistant for my brother in law who owns the macs. > > I proposed to use Migration Assistant from Time Machine but this has a complication. The MBA has a 1TB external data drive using symbolic links. Time Machine includes the data drive in its backups to two disks, internal and external on Time Capsule. > > Can Migration Assistant use Time Machine in this case? If expedient the external TM backup disk can be removed and a new backup made of just the MBA SSD on the TC internal disk. > > The MBA has bad days when it fails then restarts several times. This has been happening for some months. A direct migration from MBA to Mini would not seem to be feasible. > > Your help would be appreciated. > > Regards > Alan > > > Logic tells me that all the files archived by Time Machine end up in the same Time Machine folder on the TM drive, regardless of origin, but I agree the restoration process through Migration assistant could well be unpredictable. My first insticnt would be just to try it. The worst that could happen is that the files base on the MBA’s internal drive will be restored to their correct locations, but those originating from the external drive might be ignored (worst case scenario). It’s also possible that MA, not finding a matching location on the new 2018 Mac, might just create one and proceed regardless (best case scnario). I think that if you wind up with the worst case scenario, you’d just have to spend some time manually dragging over the folders and/or files which were ignored. In the best case scenario, there’d be nothing else to do. Dunno. I haven’t been faced with this situation before so I can’t report from experience unfortunately. Hopefully, there might be others on the list who are more enlightened. Kind regards, Peter Hinchliffe Apwin Computer Services FileMaker Pro Solutions Developer Perth, Western Australia Phone (618) 9332 6482 Mob 0403 046 948 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Mac because I prefer it -- Windows because I have to. -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - Guidelines - Settings & Unsubscribe - -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - Guidelines - Settings & Unsubscribe - Links: ------ [1] mailto:petercr...@westnet.com.au [2] mailto:wamug@wamug.org.au [3] mailto:wamug@wamug.org.au [4] mailto:sma...@iinet.net.au [5] http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml [6] http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml [7] http://lists.wamug.org.au/listinfo/wamug.org.au-wamug [8] http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml [9] http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml [10] http://lists.wamug.org.au/listinfo/wamug.org.au-wamug
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