Migration Wizard or Manual Transfer - Mini to Mini?

Question

Migration Wizard or Manual Transfer - Mini to Mini?

If all my data files are on a separate drive (Late 2012 Mac Mini Server with 2 1TB drives), is using the migration wizard worth it? I bought a new Mac Mini and added a docking station with a 1TB SSD where I will keep all the data files. There is about 400GB of data to move, so speed is also a consideration. I do have a high speed USB C cable to use with for the migration, but given the original Mini is 13 years old, not sure it can even support high speed data transfer.

Thoughts?

Posted on Jan 1, 2026 10:14 AM

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Answer 1

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den.thed

Level 10

91,342 points

Jan 1, 2026 10:44 AM in response to Hennesseystealth

For reference your other thread is at > https://discussions.apple.com/thread/256218409?sortBy=oldest_first

Again, you can not can not split up the data on either of the 2012 Mac mini's drives using Migration Assistant.

The data on the Time Machine backup drive is to much for you to migrate to the new 256GB Mac mini.

The 400GB of data on the startup drive is also to much to migrate to the new 256GB Mac mini.

Setup the new Mac mini using the same User ID that you have on your old Mac mini.

Then manually copy the 400GB of User data on old Mac mini to the 1T SSD in the docking station.

You can do that by connecting the docking station to the old Mac mini or by using another external drive.

Then access the 400GB of User data now on the 1T docking station from 256GB internal drive in the new Mac mini.

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Answer 2

Jan 1, 2026 11:02 AM in response to den.thed

That was my thought. I’ll worry about the Timemachine data later. I do normal backups to our on prem Cloud drive, so I have multiple backups of the data at different times. Not quite as granular as Timemachine, but not sure that’s really needed.

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Answer 3

den.thed

Level 10

91,342 points

Jan 1, 2026 11:06 AM in response to Hennesseystealth

Another good reason to use the same User ID on the new Mac mini.

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Answer 4

Jan 1, 2026 11:27 AM in response to den.thed

I did that with the first time setup. I used the same Apple ID and same naming conventions.

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