Best way to migrate data?

Question

I have a new Mac OS X Server 10.6 on a Mac mini. I also have another Mac mini with Mac OS X Client.

Whats the best way to transfer all data over Ethernet (I have the two computers connected via Ethernet)

Applications from Mac mini client. Data in home folder (for users) which may include video, audio, pictures, etc — Cocoa Dev, May 09 '11 at 13:29

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered May 09 '11 at 13:37

5

Have a look at the Migration Assistant. You can find it at /Application/Utilities.

answered May 09 '11 at 13:37

Sven

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The Migration Assistant is seriously like crack cocaine. Apple did an amazing job with it. – EEAA May 09 '11 at 14:07
Mac mini has FW800 the other has FW400. I only have a cross over cable – Cocoa Dev May 11 '11 at 04:07
You can buy a FW400<->FW800 cable or adapter. – Sven May 11 '11 at 07:16
But I dont have one. Is tehre anyway to do it via Ethernet? – Cocoa Dev May 12 '11 at 20:17

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered May 09 '11 at 13:30

0

Check out Carbon Copy Cloner by Mike Bombich, it uses RSYNC under the covers to do most of it's magic, and is easy to use.

http://www.bombich.com/

answered May 09 '11 at 13:30

SpacemanSpiff

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hrmm... this doesn't appear to let you pick subfolders, just entire disks, bummer, guess you should look at RSYNC from the command line then. – SpacemanSpiff May 09 '11 at 13:31

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered May 09 '11 at 16:33

If possible, you could connect both devices with a FireWire cable, then boot the device you want to copy from holding the "t" key. That will boot it in target mode.

Basically, that will mount the HDD to the other device over FireWire.

You can also consider using an external HDD and use it as a TimeMachine backup drive. Then restore the data on the other device, still using TimeMachine.

Best way to migrate data?

3 Answers3