> On 8 May 2019, at 6:34 am, Alan Smith <sma...@iinet.net.au> wrote: > > What is the best way to migrate complete data and settings from an unreliable > 2012 MacBook Air to a still-in-the-box 2018 Mac mini? Both macs have > internal 256 GB SSD. There are Time Machine and Super Duper backups. I will > be the technical assistant for my brother in law who owns the macs. > > I proposed to use Migration Assistant from Time Machine but this has a > complication. The MBA has a 1TB external data drive using symbolic links. > Time Machine includes the data drive in its backups to two disks, internal > and external on Time Capsule. > > Can Migration Assistant use Time Machine in this case? If expedient the > external TM backup disk can be removed and a new backup made of just the MBA > SSD on the TC internal disk. > > The MBA has bad days when it fails then restarts several times. This has been > happening for some months. A direct migration from MBA to Mini would not > seem to be feasible. > > Your help would be appreciated. > > Regards > Alan > > >
Logic tells me that all the files archived by Time Machine end up in the same Time Machine folder on the TM drive, regardless of origin, but I agree the restoration process through Migration assistant could well be unpredictable. My first insticnt would be just to try it. The worst that could happen is that the files base on the MBA’s internal drive will be restored to their correct locations, but those originating from the external drive might be ignored (worst case scenario). It’s also possible that MA, not finding a matching location on the new 2018 Mac, might just create one and proceed regardless (best case scnario). I think that if you wind up with the worst case scenario, you’d just have to spend some time manually dragging over the folders and/or files which were ignored. In the best case scenario, there’d be nothing else to do. Dunno. I haven’t been faced with this situation before so I can’t report from experience unfortunately. Hopefully, there might be others on the list who are more enlightened. Kind regards, Peter Hinchliffe Apwin Computer Services FileMaker Pro Solutions Developer Perth, Western Australia Phone (618) 9332 6482 Mob 0403 046 948 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Mac because I prefer it -- Windows because I have to. -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml> Guidelines - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml> Settings & Unsubscribe - <http://lists.wamug.org.au/listinfo/wamug.org.au-wamug>
