Thanks Alan, you're obviously under some time pressures but I would be
keen to hear the outcome of your process that ultimately works for
your transition - even if it is in a couple of weeks time.
Good luck.
Pete.
----- Original Message -----
From: wamug@wamug.org.au
To:"WAMUG Mailing List"
Cc:
Sent:Thu, 9 May 2019 08:08:34 +0800
Subject:Re: System migration to new computer
Hi Neil
Just to clarify points about system migration. My understanding from
reading, not practical experience, is that direct target mode will not
work. Macbook Air is mid 2012 model with Thunderbolt 1 ports and no
ethernet. Mac Mini is 2018 model with Thunderbolt 3 ports plus
ethernet. Time Capsule has ethernet ports. Apple sell a
Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 adapter. Simple choice - use the Time
Machine backup via ethernet.
The MBA OS is latest Mojave. Assumption is that the Mac Mini will
have version 1 of Mojave OS.
Given the urgency of getting the system migrated, the MBA has not been
fully prepared with getting everything up to date and ancient apps
deleted. It probably has legacy stuff and file structures from a
series of Mac migrations over the years. A complete clean install
would be very nice, but b.i.l. does not have the time for this.
Your input has been very valuable. Not least to clarify the problems
and options. I will be visiting brother in law later this morning when
we can finalise plans and perhaps start the migration process.
CheersAlan
On 8 May 2019, at 9:58 pm, Neil Houghton wrote:
Hi Alan,
Hmmm - not really what I have found. Obviously you cannot just
clone the HD from one machine to a different computer model/vintage as
many configuration files/systems are different. However, migration
assistant allows you to select what you want to migrate anyway.
At different times/scenarios I have sometimes migrated almost
everything and sometimes opted for a clean system install and then
manual installation of apps –among other factors, it tends to depend
on how well the old system was running and/or whether I wanted to
re-organise my filing organisation.
You do not say what OS you are running on the old and on the new
computers – certainly, for me, jumping from OSX 10.6 direct to OSX
10.11 meant that many applications required updating and, for example,
moving from Office 2004 to Office 365 (Office 2016) had me glad that I
still had a bootable SL disc and could download and run Office 2011
which was a big help in the transition.
Generally, I would say, the simplest/easiest migrations for me have
been booting the old machine into target disk mode and then running
migration assistant – but there have certainly been times when I
chose another route.
Others may have their own opinions as to the best methods.
HTH
Cheers
Neil
--
Neil R. Houghton
Albany, Western Australia
Tel: +61 8 9841 6063
Email: n...@possumology.com [2]
FROM: on behalf of Alan Smith
REPLY-TO: WAMUG
DATE: Wednesday, 08 May 2019 at 16:46
TO: WAMUG
SUBJECT: Re: System migration to new computer
Hi Neil
Good to read about your setup and rationale for backups. And advice
about other actions. Most Apple KB and help files only explain the
simple one computer scenario.
You questioned why a direct mac to mac migration was not first
choice. My favourite on-line Mac expert (Howard Oakley) looks at
various parameters of the two macs involved in migration. He points
out the old mac may have a newer macOS version than the new mac and
will probably fail the initial Migration attempt. A move from an old
iMac to a new iMac is relatively simple as there is little
“distance" between them. But there is a big distance between a
MacBook Air and a Mac mini. He comments on five actual migration
methods. Here are the first three: Direct mac to mac is best if
similar models and hardware are on each. Time Machine is first choice
with older systems and more different models. An external disk with
clone of old Mac is a good source for manual migration.
I would not be surprised if the first attempt using Migration
Assistant failed and that the Mac Mini will have to be updated to the
current version of Mojave before proceeding. Reminder: turn OFF
automatic updates of the MBA OS before the migration task begins!
Cheers
Alan
On 8 May 2019, at 2:23 pm, Neil Houghton wrote:
Hi Alan, Hi Peter,
I can sympathise with your predicaments – I recently upgraded two
iMacs and a laptop from Snow Leopard 10.6 to El Capitan 10.11 and,
just to complicate things, the main iMac was running from an external
drive since the internal hard drive had previously died (the external
drive was initially a clone of the dead HD pre-failure). I decided to
rebuild the iMac with an internal SSD and an internal 3TB HD (setup
with 3 partitions) along with bumping the RAM up. The main iMac is
just used by myself. The laptop is used by myself and Georgie. The
second iMac is to be Georgie’s main desktop but also has my account
so I can use it as a backup machine in the event of a failure of the
main iMac.
I realise that my situation does not reflect yours ;o) However, the
fact that each machine had TM backups and Superduper clones and the
new main iMac now has 4 logical internal drives (SSD & 3 HD
partitions) and I need TM and Superduper clones of everything going
forward means I have had to think about migrations, backups and clones
a fair bit! For the main iMac, for example, Time machine backs up all
4 drives in one backup but the SuperDuper clones have to be done on a
disk-by-disk basis (though one partition is still empty – earmarked
for a media libray disk).
For what it is worth, a few of my thoughts are:
Have a clear strategy of what you intend to use each machine and disk
for and what is the main/secondary/tertiary backup methods:
· For example all three of our computers will
continue to be used albeit with different primary uses (mine,
Georgie’s and joint travel computer) – your approach may be
different if you intend to just migrate to the new computer and retire
the old one than if you intend to keep using the laptop as well as the
new mac mini (since you say the laptop is unreliable you are possibly
just going to retire it?)
· We use both DropBox and OneDrive to keep most of
our user data in synch between machines – so the cloud accounts
become the de-facto main off-site backup for this but, since I would
not rely on these alone, the clones and TM backups are there “to be
sure, to be sure”.
· The clones are a “snapshot” of the drives as
at the last clone time. To me the main purpose is to have an immediate
recovery in the event of a drive failure. To recover anything that has
changed since the last clone I have the TM backup, although for the
cloud accounts they will update automatically – so I just use the TM
backups for file by file (or folder by folder) recovery.
· I limit my SSD to the System and application files
and a bare admin user folder – so the clone is really all I need to
re-instate this. I have my main user folder on an internal partition
and rely mainly on the cloud accounts but with clone & TM backups. You
need to have your own strategy for what is on the internal SSD and the
external HD and the methods for backup, recovery and migration of the
two drives would probably be different.
· Time Machine seems to creates separate backups for
different computers and recognises the actual computer rather than the
HD – so for various computers my TM back-ups have continued across
disk re-partitions and HD replacements – so your new computer will
automatically get a new TM backup file. Personally, I would start with
a new clean HD for this (fairly large drives are really very cheap
nowadays).
· Although you could use your old TM file when
migrating to the new computer, post migration TM will just use the new
TM backup corresponding to the new computer – I’m pretty that the
old TM backups back through time, that are stored in the old TM backup
file, will only be shown by TM on the old machine. However, when
plugged into the new machine, the old TM backups can be accessed
through the finder - and individual archived versions of files or
folders can be accessed and copied to retrieve them.
· Different people tend to have different methods &
preferences as to how to use Time machine. Personally, I tend to find
its main value for me is to access older versions of files/documents/
preference settings – particularly when something stuffs up and I
need to revert to the pre stuff-up version! For complete restoration
or migration I would tend to go to my clones – but that’s just
me ;o)
Hmmm, not sure how much of the above is relevant/helpful to your
situation – so, maybe, my take away would be:
1. I presume the reason you are not migrating directly
from the laptop is that the machine is now unreliable and can’t be
trusted as the migration source?
2. Depending on how recent it is, you might consider your
SuperDuper backup as the migration source.
3. Once migrated, I would recommend using a new, clean,
HD as TM backup drive for the new machine.
4. The old TM backup drive could continue to be used for
TM backup for the old laptop if you still use it, if not it can still
be used as an archive source (via Finder, not TM) of old files from
the laptop until you are happy the contents are no longer useful at
which point it can be erased/reformatted as a new disk.
5. For the new computer, make sure you have a clear plan
for what will be on the SSD and what will be on an external drive.
Formulate your comprehensive back-up strategy (TM, clone, cloud/other
off-site) to suit this plan.
HTH
Cheers
Neil
--
Neil R. Houghton
Albany, Western Australia
Tel: +61 8 9841 6063
Email: n...@possumology.com [8]
FROM: on behalf of Alan Smith
REPLY-TO: WAMUG
DATE: Wednesday, 08 May 2019 at 12:25
TO: WAMUG
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!
Cheers
Alan
On 8 May 2019, at 9:34 am, petercr...@westnet.com.au [13] 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 [14]
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
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