Yes use a USB drive and either clone it or time machine, the migration 
assistant will be able to import from either.

Regards

Sam
MacAmbulance
Providing affordable Apple & PC services

Sam Mullen
07747 778022
http://www.macambulance.co.uk
[email protected]


On 29 Jul 2012, at 21:31, Ranulph Glanville <[email protected]> wrote:

> My time machine is not working well and is terribly slow in backing up a 
> whole machine, even a small one. I could much faster and more easily do an 
> updated clone backup to a usb disc and the re-install from there. Would that 
> be sensible?
> 
> I'm trying to keep this a bit of a secret: it'll be a nice surprise for her 
> to wake up one morning and find that her machine has morphed a little!
> 
> I'm not quite sure how to find the recovery partition.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Ranulph
> 
> 
> 
> On 29 Jul 2012, at 19:05, Sam - MacAmbulance wrote:
> 
>> Hi Ranulph
>> 
>> The easiest way is to do a full time machine backup of your current MB and 
>> then wipe the MBA using the recovery partition. Hold CMD + R when booting, 
>> then use Disk Utility to erase the drive, then reinstall OS X. It's easiest 
>> to import from a time machine backup as the MBA doesn't have an ethernet 
>> socket or firewire for target disk mode.
>> 
>> Regards
>> 
>> Sam
>> MacAmbulance
>> Providing affordable Apple & PC services
>> 
>> Sam Mullen
>> 07747 778022
>> http://www.macambulance.co.uk
>> [email protected]
>> 
>> 
>> On 29 Jul 2012, at 19:00, Ranulph Glanville <[email protected]> wrote:
>> 
>>> I have a MBA running Lion. I'd like to erase it, and convert it to be my 
>>> wife's machine, importing everything from her old MB.
>>> 
>>> I know there's (often) a recovery partition. If I can find it, can I 
>>> re-initialise the machine from that, importing the date from the old MB? I 
>>> guess that has to be done by usb, so it'll be a little protracted!
>>> 
>>> Thanks for any suggestions and/or pointers!
>>> 
>>> Ranulph
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On 26 Jul 2012, at 17:03, Sam - MacAmbulance wrote:
>>> 
>>>> Hi Stephen
>>>> 
>>>> The USB flash drives are nowhere near SSD drives in terms of performance. 
>>>> Also the USB2 bus is 480mbps, your internal SATA connection is anything up 
>>>> to 3gb/sec.
>>>> 
>>>> You'll find the machine much slower than normal booting off a USB stick 
>>>> and should only be done if you need to repair your internal hard drive (or 
>>>> use the Lion recovery partition).
>>>> 
>>>> Regards
>>>> 
>>>> Sam
>>>> MacAmbulance
>>>> Providing affordable Apple & PC services
>>>> 
>>>> Sam Mullen
>>>> 07747 778022
>>>> http://www.macambulance.co.uk
>>>> [email protected]
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> -- 
>>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups 
>>>> "Sussex Mac User Group" group.
>>>> To post to this group, send an email to [email protected].
>>>> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to 
>>>> [email protected].
>>>> For more options, visit this group at 
>>>> http://groups.google.com/group/smug?hl=en-GB.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> -- 
>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups 
>>> "Sussex Mac User Group" group.
>>> To post to this group, send an email to [email protected].
>>> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to 
>>> [email protected].
>>> For more options, visit this group at 
>>> http://groups.google.com/group/smug?hl=en-GB.
>> 
>> 
>> -- 
>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups 
>> "Sussex Mac User Group" group.
>> To post to this group, send an email to [email protected].
>> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to 
>> [email protected].
>> For more options, visit this group at 
>> http://groups.google.com/group/smug?hl=en-GB.
> 
> 
> -- 
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups 
> "Sussex Mac User Group" group.
> To post to this group, send an email to [email protected].
> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to 
> [email protected].
> For more options, visit this group at 
> http://groups.google.com/group/smug?hl=en-GB.

-- 
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups 
"Sussex Mac User Group" group.
To post to this group, send an email to [email protected].
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected].
For more options, visit this group at 
http://groups.google.com/group/smug?hl=en-GB.

Reply via email to