How do I restore my old system from Time Machine to a new iMac M4?

beachbuoys wrote:

my old intel iMac just died. Buying a new M4 model. is it easy to restore my old system from Time machine?

It's easy IF your new Mac has equal or greater storage capacity than your old iMac.

Otherwise using Migration Assistant becomes an exercise in frustration, something that isn't explicitly mentioned in the guidance.

Transfer to a new Mac with Migration Assistant - Apple Support

Yes. You'll be given the option to migrate from it while setting up the new Mac.

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If your old iMac died you'll need a Time Machine or other backup of it to restore your user data to the new iMac. Did you use Time Machine with your old iMac.

If you did then plug it into your new iMac and then boot up the new iMac. When you get to the migration stage you'll be asked from where to merge from:

Select as shown and continue.

beachbuoys wrote:

Extra questions - When I set up my new iMac at what stage should I plug in the backup ssd to be ready for migration?

Upon setting it up, and when asked... exactly as Niel explained.

Which section on the backup ssd should I select for a complete migration (I’m guessing Keith’s iMac - sorry, couldn’t get a screengrab of backup disc)

Yes, assuming that was the name of the "dead" Mac, and that you choose its most recent backup.

what drive configuration is your boot system installed on (FUSION: SATA/ NVMe working as 'one' disk), SATA only, NVMe-PCIe only

can you be any less vague about what do you mean by "died"

if one of the Fusion drives failed -- your data are probably unrecoverable -- it doesn't matter if the Mac is otherwise in good health, in my experience

if the machine is dead, but the Fusion SSD/HDD set is undamaged -- you would most likely need to pull both drives and install them in another iMac to access the old user data

there may be a chance you could mount both NVMe/SATA drives in enclosures (and they mount as one volume) ... but I've never tried that, in fact it sounds a little sketchy -- I do have both types of enclosures as the Apple SSD requires a rare connection

if the machine is dead, and your solo NVMe Flash or SATA SSD (or HDD) -- no Fusion software is linking them together -- you should be able to pull it and mount it in an EXTERNAL enclosure and point Migration Assistant to it

BEST CASE SCENARIO you have a good TimeMachine or clone BACK UP (and a working external enclosure -- my goto SATA enclosure is Newer Technology Voyager S3 (from macsales-com OWC)

then Old Toad has already put you right on track (Migration Assistant is fairly easy once you have worked out the learning bumps)...

See if you can boot up your dead Mac into Target Disk Mode. If you can shut it done, connect it with the appropriate cable and boot up your new Mac and the dead mc into Target Disk mode. Then you should be able to copy the necessary files from the dead Mac to the new one.

In the future if you have a keyboard with rechargeable batteries you can connect it with its charging cable and it will act as a wired keyboard.