Thursday 26 December 2013

What it Takes to Migrate Mac Applications to another Mac


When it comes to application support, Mac OS X is the leader since its unique features (such as its incomparable data processing speed, highly interactive graphical user interface, application support, and more) take it beyond comparison with every other computer operating system available today. Even though Mac computers are quite sophisticated to use, they actually perform incredibly well and make you proud, thereby proving their worth being termed as excellent.

Just like every other computer, Macs are also electronic-cum-digital machines that accept certain types of data as their input, which is transformed into their equivalent outputs after going through a set of binary operations. While performing these operations, they utilize system resources (i.e. RAM & Processor) greatly. As a result, they come across performance issues and their overall output is degraded. In such a situation, you experience that your Mac boots sluggishly, executes applications poorly, or sometimes, it does not boot even. In fact, whatever the issue your Mac faces, it results in data loss at the end of the day.

Earlier, Macs embed hard drives as the prime source of data storage space. However, they most likely have been replaced with Solid State Drives (SSDs) in recent Macs. Well, in case your Mac has a hard drive installed on it, you cannot be too much reliant on it for data security, as it may crash anytime in adverse situations.

Backup – A process that avoids data loss


Since you cannot be too much reliant upon a hard drive to store your data protectively, you must be backing it up regularly to avoid it loss.

“Data backup is the process that refers to copying and archiving your data in such a way that you can extract this archive to restore your data in its original form.”

Time Machine in Mac OS X is the advanced data backup tool that implements incremental backup approach to back up your data. In order to use Time Machine for data backup on your Mac, you need to configure it first. Time Machine configuration refers to setting backup preferences that includes choosing one or more volumes or the entire Mac drive, backup time, and more. After configuring it, the very first backup it takes includes the complete backup of the selected drive(s). In the next backup (i.e. after an hour), it reiterates its backup loop and this time it backs up only recently created or updated files.

Important: In fact, Time Machine reiterates its backup loop after an hour of the previous successful backup.

The most important thing you need to keep in your mind when configuring Time Machine is that it needs a separate hard drive being the backup drive, which can be either an internal or an external drive. Time Machine is also compatible with a Time Capsule. Apart from facilitating to back up you data automatically, Mac OS X allows you migrate Mac applications to the backup drive using its inbuilt utility called migration assistant.

Migration Assistant is a Mac inbuilt utility that copies user accounts, user files, applications, printer and fax drivers, network settings, and other system as well as user settings from one Mac computer to another, or from a recent full backup drive. Therefore, partition your backup drive, install Mac OS X on it, and then migrate all your apps to this drive. However, before you proceed to migration, you must remember the following things without failure:

1. If you boot your Mac from an external drive, then make sure this drive is plugged in.

2. Make sure both source and destination Macs have updated drivers installed.

3. The applications installed on the source Mac should be the latest versions.

4. On the Source Mac, choose System preferences under Apple menu; click Sharing and look for the name in the Computer Name field.

5.  None of the Macs should sleep during migration process.

6.  For migration through Ethernet, use a single Ethernet cable to connect both Macs.

7.  For wireless migration, use 802.11n network for best experience.

Ways to transfer Mac apps


Migration assistant allows you migrate Mac applications from one Mac computer to another in the following ways:

1) Migration using FireWire and ThunderBolt

Limitations: Migration assistant fails to transfer applications from Mac OS X 10.4 or earlier to Mac OS X 10.8 or later over wired and Wi-Fi networks.

Step1: Connect both Macs with a FireWire or ThunderBolt in Target Disk Mode before running migration assistant.

Step2: Restart the source Mac and hold down the T key

Step3: On the target Mac, launch Migration Assistant (found in Applications > Utilities folder) and click Continue.

Step4: On the next screen, select “From another Mac, PC, … … … …” and click Continue.

Step5: When prompted, type the admin password and click OK.

Step6: Select “From another Mac or PC” on the next screen and click Continue.

Step7: Select the target system and click Continue.

Step8: Now, select the items and sub items that you need to migrate, and then click Continue to start migration.

The amount of time elapsed in migration relies upon the amount of data to being migrated.

2) Migration over Wi-Fi or Ethernet

Important: Both the source and destination computers should be connected to the same network, which can be either Wi-Fi or wired.

Step1: On the target Mac, launch Migration Assistant and click Continue.

Step2: On the next screen, select “From another Mac, PC, … … … …” and click Continue.

Step3: When prompted, type the admin password and click OK.

Step4: Select “From another Mac or PC” on the next screen and click Continue.

(Now, it will search for other computers on the same network.)

Step5: Now, launch Migration Assistant on the Source Mac and click Continue.

Step6: Select “To another Mac” and click Continue.

Step7: When prompted, type the admin password and click OK.

Step8: On target machine, click Continue button to close all running applications and continue migration.

Step9: Now, match the password appeared on the target Mac with the source Mac and click Continue.

Step10: Close all applications on the source Mac and click Continue

Step11: On the target Mac, select the items and sub items that you need to migrate, and then click Continue to start migration.

The amount of time elapsed in migration relies upon the amount of data to being migrated and the network’s speed.

3) Migration from time Machine or external disk

Step1: On the target Mac, launch Migration Assistant (found in Applications > Utilities folder) and click Continue.

Step2: On the next screen, select “From another Mac, PC, … … … …” and click Continue.

(Make sure the external drive is connected to your Mac. If not, then connect it.)

Step3: When prompted, type the admin password and click OK.

Step4: Select “From a Time Machine backup or other disk” on the next screen and click Continue.

Step5: Select the disk and enter the password if prompted.

Step6: Now, click Continue button to close all applications.

Step7: On the target Mac, select the items and sub items that you need to migrate, and then click Continue to start migration.

The amount of time elapsed in migration relies upon the amount of data to being migrated and the speed of the network.

In order to view the applications migrated, go to Apple menu and select Log Out, and then log in as the Migrated user.

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