We have a mid 2008 mac, backed up to an external drive. We are upgrading to a band new mac very soon, and I'd like to know if we can use the backup to restore all the files, passwords, and data, or if I'll have to spend a few days doing it all manually.
iMac, OS X 10.11
When you buy a new Mac the easiest, quickest and most reliable method is to simply connect the old Mac's Time Machine External Hard Disk to the new Mac using a USB cable before you turn on the new Mac. When you start the new Mac for the first time it will startup Setup Assistant (SA), SA will get to a point where it asks if you are migrating from another computer, select Yes and follow the on-screen prompts and it's done! It is THAT simple.
If you have already done SA on the new computer then simply connect the Time Machine External Hard Disk using a USB cable and launch Migration Assistant (MA) which is located in Applications - Utilities - MA. Then follow the on-screen prompts.
The ONLY difference between MA and SA is MA will create a new user account that you need to log into.
Both SA and MA migrate applications (not 32 bit apps) , data files, settings, it does not migrate Mac OS itself. Some professional apps such as Adobe and Microsoft apps may require re-installing their apps as they will not allow them to be migrated. As long as you kept the security keys for installing their apps, it is not a big deal.
When you buy a new Mac the easiest, quickest and most reliable method is to simply connect the old Mac's Time Machine External Hard Disk to the new Mac using a USB cable before you turn on the new Mac. When you start the new Mac for the first time it will startup Setup Assistant (SA), SA will get to a point where it asks if you are migrating from another computer, select Yes and follow the on-screen prompts and it's done! It is THAT simple.
If you have already done SA on the new computer then simply connect the Time Machine External Hard Disk using a USB cable and launch Migration Assistant (MA) which is located in Applications - Utilities - MA. Then follow the on-screen prompts.
The ONLY difference between MA and SA is MA will create a new user account that you need to log into.
Both SA and MA migrate applications (not 32 bit apps) , data files, settings, it does not migrate Mac OS itself. Some professional apps such as Adobe and Microsoft apps may require re-installing their apps as they will not allow them to be migrated. As long as you kept the security keys for installing their apps, it is not a big deal.
You should not have to, however remember if you have old legacy 32bit apps they will not run on Big Sur, the current version of Mac OS. To research if you have 32 bit apps still installed please refer to Roaring Apps. Also, the old Mac MUST be running 10.6.8 or later to be able migrate.
So much for that. Our current mac is running 10.11.6. I'm more interested (concerned) about transferring over the data files (Word, Numbers, iTunes, Adobe, downloads, etc) from the back up. Is this possible, or should I start hunting down CD's to burn everything over?
Thank you very much. I wasn't looking forward to redoing everything.
Using a backup on an upgraded computer
