Migration Assistant issue

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I have just got my first mac and I'm fumbling my way around with everything.... but I'll get there, in the end...

HOWEVER... I used Migration Assistant to transfer files across from my PC and I can't work out what it's done. After approximately 20 hours :-o it said it was complete but I can only find a (relative) handful of files; very random ones at that!

As I watched it, it said it was transferring all the folders I needed but they are no where to be found.

I did do it AFTER I set the rest of it up, but I have checked both profiles (just in case!).

I don't want to sit through another 20 hours if I am just wasting time again.... can anyone shed any light on this for me?

Thank you!
 
M

MacInWin

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Welcome to the forum!

If you had already established an account on your new Mac and then later you ran Migration Assistant, the files are most likely in a different user account. MA does not make the assumption that you want migrated files in YOUR account, or that you have proper access to them, so it puts them into a different account, creating the account if needed.

So, to get your files, make sure that in System Preferences/Security on the General tab that "Disable Automatic login" is checked, then reboot the system. You should have a login screen that is asking for a password to login. IF what i think happened did happen, there should be a new option with a name associated with your PC somehow, either your account there, or the name of the machine. Your files will be in that account.

Assuming they are there, how to get them to YOUR account? Log into the account created by MA, select all of the files you want and copy them to the Shared user. The folder to use should be /Users/Shared. Once they are in the Shared folder, you can delete them from the MA folder, then log out and log back into your account and copy from Shared to your folder. Then log out again and back into shared to delete them from shared. The internal moves should be much faster than your copy from the PC.

One other consideration: Windows applications do not run on OS X, so none of the applications will transfer. Only your documents and files from your My Documents folder will be moved.
 
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Thanks for the welcome Jake :)

Can I trouble you for a bit more info? I found the files that did transfer but there are hardly any of them, although the computer did say it was copying all the folders I needed.... I just can't find them. They would be all in the same place, wouldn't they?
The missing ones are all off an external hard drive - I'm worried about plugging it into the Mac as it will probably need reformatting so I will lose everything on it.
Should I re-run Migration Assistant do you think?

Thanks for the info on transferring everything to the right profile. Once I have done that, can I delete the one set up to store all my PC data??

Thanks for your help! :)
 
M

MacInWin

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Thanks for the welcome Jake :)

Can I trouble you for a bit more info? I found the files that did transfer but there are hardly any of them, although the computer did say it was copying all the folders I needed.... I just can't find them. They would be all in the same place, wouldn't they?
Yes, they should all be in the same account, although they may be in different folders if they started in different folders.
The missing ones are all off an external hard drive - I'm worried about plugging it into the Mac as it will probably need reformatting so I will lose everything on it.
Ah, that was key information. MA does not migrate external drive files. That's why they are missing. If the external drive is used on a PC, it most likely is formatted NTFS. OS X can read, but not write, to NTFS drives. So if you just want to copy the files from the drive to your new Mac, OS X should be able to do that without any requirement to reformat. Just plug it it, let it attach (you may see some message about being read-only), then copy over the files you want/need. Once you KNOW that the files are copied and available to you on the Mac (yes, test, test, test that), then you can re-use the drive as you want.(NOTE: the copied files may show as read-only on the Mac given they come from a read-only drive. You'll need to change the permissions on them to allow you to have read/write access.)
Should I re-run Migration Assistant do you think?
No. There is no need.

Thanks for the info on transferring everything to the right profile. Once I have done that, can I delete the one set up to store all my PC data??

Thanks for your help! :)
Yes, if MA created a new account, you can delete that account through System Preferences/Users and groups. However from what you have said about the missing files being on an external drive, and if MA put the rest of the migrated files in your account, I doubt there is a new account after all.
 
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Thanks Jake - I appreciate your help. I'll try and do all that tomorrow. The migration assistant did see all the external hard drive files so I assumed it would transfer.

It definitely set up a new account tho - I have 2 profiles now - 1 with nothing other than my faffing around on the web and the other with access to all the files of my c: drive from my PC and no faffing!
 
M

MacInWin

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There is another way to get the files from the new account to yours. If your account is an administrator's account, then you can go into Finder, find the new user folder under /Users and then Right-click on the folder, Get Info and then click on the lock on the bottom left corner of the window that opens up. Then under "Sharing & Permissions," click the "+" and add Administrators and then close the window. That should now open up the new user folder to you. If there are subfolders that have a little red dot on them, you repeat the process of giving admins access until you can see the files and folders you want, then select them all and then copy to YOUR home folder (Or wherever you want them). Once that copy is done, you can test, test, test that you can actually see them and then go to System Preferences/Groups and Users and delete that new user. When you do that, all of the new account's files will be deleted. Given you have the original drive still handy, the risk is low and if anything does go wrong you can repeat the Migration Assistant actions again.
 

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