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mxsquare · Jun 3, 2012, 06:10 PM

Question for y'all...

So I am waiting for the new macbook pro's at the moment to be released, but I have a relative who needs my macbook pro now. Can I simply remove my hard-drive, put a new hardrive in my current macbook pro and then be able to recover all os x settings like keychain when the new macbook pros come out from my saved hard drive? Whats the process for this?

Spheric Harlot · Jun 3, 2012, 06:26 PM

Simply installing the old hard drive into the new machine probably won't work properly, since new hardware generally receives a custom build of the OS for the first few weeks until the next point-update is made available to all machines.

So you either wait until that point-update.

Or you buy a ten-dollar external USB enclosure for the old hard drive and tell the Migration Assistant on the new computer to auto-transfer everything to the new machine.

mxsquare · Jun 3, 2012, 07:11 PM

Thanks for the answer. I just investigated Migration Assistant and it does seem to allow pulling data from external hard drives.

The worst part will be waiting for a computer, until I get the new computer I am back to using my 6 year old HP computer.

ghporter · Jun 4, 2012, 06:49 AM

The Migration Assistant will do what you want, even allowing you to pick and choose what to move. Be prepared, though, to go through every little thing in detail if you go with that option. It's better to just move everything and then dump what you don't want - and it's a lot faster.

Go with the fastest connection both computers have; if they both have FW800, go with that, because it seems to run a lot faster than any of the other options.

Spheric Harlot · Jun 4, 2012, 08:09 AM

He won't have two Macs.

And the speed thing is relative. Once I know it's working, it's not *so* important whether it takes an hour, or 90 minutes.

Unless somebody's paying for time.

Waragainstsleep · Jun 4, 2012, 09:14 AM

FW800 enclosures will tend to run you a lot more money than USB.

SierraDragon · Jun 4, 2012, 10:08 AM

Reminder: One way or another build your new Mac to boot from SSD rather than HDD.

mxsquare · Jun 4, 2012, 01:20 PM

All good points, I am not too concerned about the transfer times as long as the transfer works. It would be a huge issue if I couldn't get my data. I am sure I could get the files of the disk using some other tools, but migration assistant doing the move would be ideal.

The upside of getting a really fast enclosure is I could use my old hard drive as a back drive for time machine etc. after my transfer and setup of my new macbook pro is done. I am looking into really good thunderbolt based enclosures. if I can get a thunderbolt vs. usb 2.0 enclosure for about the same price that would be amazing. Any recommendations? lol might be asking for too much to get a thunderbolt enclosure same price.

P · Jun 4, 2012, 02:21 PM

USB 2.0 is fast enough for Time Machine. It will take a long time to make the first backup, but all the change backups will be quick.

Thunderbolt drives exist, but are very expensive.

Waragainstsleep · Jun 4, 2012, 07:25 PM

Seagate do a quite reasonable Thunderbolt adaptor I think. Still way more than a $5 USB box.

ghporter · Jun 4, 2012, 09:15 PM

Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot

He won't have two Macs.

And the speed thing is relative. Once I know it's working, it's not *so* important whether it takes an hour, or 90 minutes.

Unless somebody's paying for time.

Oops. Reading is fundamental...

Yeah, connection speed for something like this is not a big deal, unlike my earlier (and very incorrect) assumption of transferring an old machine's install to a new one, where it tends to feel like watching cement harden.