I just got my new Intel 24 inch iMac. This iMac will replace my older one. If you spend a lot of time working on your Mac then you understand the necessity when you upgrade to be able to transfer your data from one machine to the other in a seamless fashion. I did not want to spend much time on data transfer and application installation but I wanted to import my data and settings to the new Mac as quickly as possible so the next day I could be operational. I am going to show you how to go about data migration on Mac OS X.

1. Mac OS X comes with a built-in application for data migration called Migration Assistant. This incredible application can painlessly transfer files from one MacIntosh to other. The first thing you need to do is launch “Migration Assistant” located in /Applications/Utilities.

2. Once you double click on the Migration Assistant’s icon, the application will launch and show you an introduction window. Click Continue. A window might pop up asking you to type your administrator password.

3. The next screen will allow you to choose a Migration Method. You can either migrate files from another hard disk connected to your computer or from another Mac which is the option that we are going to chose. Then click Continue

4. Now the assistant will prompt you to connect the two Macs together using a Firewire cable.

5. Then you will be prompted to restart your older Mac computer in Target Mode.

6. After you restart your older Mac in Target Mode, Migration Assistant will look for connected drives. Once it finds the hard drive(s) containing Mac OS X, it will ask you to select the System to migrate from. Select the appropriate drive and click Continue

7. The application is now ready to Migrate your data. In steps 1 through 4, the Migration Assistant will let you configure the Migration process by selecting which user account(s) to migrate, whether you want to migrate the network settings, sharing settings, Applications, Files and Folders etc.

8. Your data migration will now start. The duration of the transfer depends on the total size of the files to migrate. It can varies between just a few minutes to a few hours. In my case I migrated over 450 GB of data and it took about 4 hours. You can now leave, hangout with friends, have fun, drink a beer, until you see the following screen:

You are now all set. You can turn off your old Mac and login to your migrated account in your new computer. You will be amazed how great of a job Migration Assistant will do for you. You won’t even need to re-install all the programs that you had on the old machine as this assistance can migrate them for you. Migration has never been so easy and painless.
Feel free to post some comments should you have any questions.

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