I have a new 27″ iMac coming in 2 weeks with a 3TB Fusion Drive. My current iMac has a 1TB drive that is 85% full and an external G-drive, 2TB, that is 70% full. Together they are ~2.1TB of data. Both drives are backed up to a new WD Passport 4TB via Time Machine. I have heard that it is better to connect the Time Machine drive to a new iMac rather than going computer-to-computer. Is this correct? If so, the initial backup on the new WD Passport drive took about 36 hours (I have to connect it to the USB 2.0 port on my old computer.) Hopefully the USB-C port on the new iMac will be much faster. But I’m wondering, if I keep using the old iMac while the new one is updating from the Time Machine drive, how do I then get the NEW data off of the old iMac to the new one? Thank you, Gary.
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Ron
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How Do I Transfer Data To a New iMac?
Comments: 2 Responses to “How Do I Transfer Data To a New iMac?”
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I don't think it matters whether you go from the Time Machine backup of directly from the other machine for Migration Assistant. It is just that most people would need a cable they don't have to go machine-to-machine.
USB3 speeds much much faster than USB 2, so it shouldn't take 36 hours, no.
Ideally you wouldn't want to use the old iMac at all once you finished the last backup update and started the migration. Shut it down and stop using it. Or, just do something that doesn't create any new data or documents, like browsing sites or watching videos. Of course anything you are doing that is iCloud-related will work fine, as the new Mac will sync with iCloud once it is up and running anyway.
Thank you, Gary; I appreciate your reminder of "iCloud-related" as well.