[Help] Moving Data from One Mac to Another

[Sonicrobby]

Hello iPF! You've all helped me with all my problems, ipad related or not. So I come to you for help. I'm going to trade my mac for another, and Ive gotten most of my files off of there, except 2 things: iTunes Library and iPhoto Library. From iTunes, I guess I just need my music and apps (apps are important because I still have the VLC app on itunes thats no longer in the AppStore). More importantly, (VERY IMPORTANT!) is my iPhoto library. I have over 9000 photos and Ive successfully put a face and location on every photo, and I NEEEED to transfer that over to another mac.

I do have time machine enabled, but can I restore backups from one mac to another mac? Id like to know if there is an alternative to backup my iPhoto data manually.

Thanks!

 

[LannyC]

The easiest solution, if you can connect the old and new Macs with a FireWire cable, is to put the old one in target disk mode, so the new one will see it as an external disk drive. Then, just copy what you need by drag and drop.

If you will literally trade the old Mac for the new one and not be able to connect the two computers, then I recommend backing the old one up to an external drive using SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner before trading it in. As the external drive will be a clone, not a proprietary backup scheme, normal copying is possible, one file at a time if you like.

If you don't already have an external drive, please do yourself a favor and buy one for regular backups. Sooner or later, you will need it. A SuperDuper clone backup is even bootable, so if your internal drive fails catastrophically you can still boot from the external and keep working until it can be fixed. At least, you can on FireWire...dunno about the new Macs that don't have FireWire.

milliHelen: amount of beauty required to launch one ship.