Planning a Mac Mini upgrade/migration

[SteveSawyer]

I’m planning for upgrading to a new M2 Mac Mini. The old box (2014 model running Monterey) has a 1TB primary HDD (less than 20% of available space in use), an external 1TB SSD (primary data store), and an external 1TB HDD used solely for TM backups.

New box will have an 512GB SSD, and a docking station containing a new 1TB M.2 NVMR SSD as the primary data repository and a new 1TB SATA SSD dedicated to TM backups. Basically the same storage configuration as the old machine.

I’ve read through the support article for this process:

Restore your Mac - Apple Support

What I’m wondering is — what can go wrong and what do I need to do to a) prevent the “going wrong” and b) are there resources that give more complete information on this process (by “more complete” I mean a tutorial that doesn’t assume everything goes as planned…)

I plan on initially setting up the new Mini with the same single admin account/credentials as the old model, and I will elect to “Replace” that account on the new machine with the account on the old one.

Thanks for any advice on this!

 

[Raz0rEdge]

Migration Assistant is your answer.

Transfer to a new Mac with Migration Assistant - Apple Support

Use Migration Assistant to copy your files from another computer.

support.apple.com

This is how you prevent things from going wrong. Connect your old machine to the new one and everything comes over with ease.

 

[SteveSawyer]

Migration Assistant is your answer.

Transfer to a new Mac with Migration Assistant - Apple Support

Use Migration Assistant to copy your files from another computer.

support.apple.com

This is how you prevent things from going wrong. Connect your old machine to the new one and everything comes over with ease.

Thanks! That was how I was going to do it. But manufacturers’ tutorials have a nasty habit of assuming every step proceeds as expected. I’ve lived in the Real World too long to make that kind of bold assumption!! ;-)

But Apple does seem to have a better track record than most, so I’ll put my trust in those instructions and keep my fingers crossed!

Oh - one question. What is the preferred method to connect the two? I have an Ethernet cable, but I’m guessing that would need to be a specially-wired “null” cable. The old machine has two thunderbolt ports (20Gb/sec) so I’m guessing that would be the fastest & most reliable connection method. True?

 

[pm-r]

I’ve lived in the Real World too long to make that kind of bold assumption!! ;-)

You are very wise with your wisdom and it's best to never assume nothing...

Using an ethernet cable should be very reliable and one of the fastest methods and you may want to Google your question to the internet so you are quite familiar with the routine and what to do.
EDIT: you don't need to use a null or crossover/ xover ethernet cable, Apple provides an automatic switching device in all Macs using ethernet ports since Mac OS System 8/9 days/

One thing that Apple has never always or properly really mentioned when when using Migration Assistant, and that is do not wait to use it and think you could always do it at a later date. Yes, you can do it later but it adds a lot more hassles and can get quite confusing.

Don't just rely on and go on Apple's help pages, but check on some others like this one you can start with and then do a Google search if you like: for others in case there might be something missing that would affect your similar situation.

How to Transfer Data From Your Old Mac to a New Mac

When you want to move data from an old Mac to a new one, the most reliable method is to use Apple's Migration Assistant. Found in the Utilities...

www.macrumors.com

- Patrick
=======

 

[Raz0rEdge]

Thanks! That was how I was going to do it. But manufacturers’ tutorials have a nasty habit of assuming every step proceeds as expected. I’ve lived in the Real World too long to make that kind of bold assumption!! ;-)

But Apple does seem to have a better track record than most, so I’ll put my trust in those instructions and keep my fingers crossed!

Countless people use MA to do the migration between Macs and it works really well.

Oh - one question. What is the preferred method to connect the two? I have an Ethernet cable, but I’m guessing that would need to be a specially-wired “null” cable. The old machine has two thunderbolt ports (20Gb/sec) so I’m guessing that would be the fastest & most reliable connection method. True?

Just use WiFi to connect the two machines and do the transfer. It might take longer, but it's easy.

 

[SteveSawyer]

You are very wise with your wisdom and it's best to never assume nothing...

Using an ethernet cable should be very reliable and one of the fastest methods and you may want to Google your question to the internet so you are quite familiar with the routine and what to do.
EDIT: you don't need to use a null or crossover/ xover ethernet cable, Apple provides an automatic switching device in all Macs using ethernet ports since Mac OS System 8/9 days/

One thing that Apple has never always or properly really mentioned when when using Migration Assistant, and that is do not wait to use it and think you could always do it at a later date. Yes, you can do it later but it adds a lot more hassles and can get quite confusing.

Don't just rely on and go on Apple's help pages, but check on some others like this one you can start with and then do a Google search if you like: for others in case there might be something missing that would affect your similar situation.

How to Transfer Data From Your Old Mac to a New Mac

When you want to move data from an old Mac to a new one, the most reliable method is to use Apple's Migration Assistant. Found in the Utilities...

www.macrumors.com

- Patrick
=======

Thanks, Patrick. Yes, I found this page which says it doesn't need to be a crossover cable (Not a "null" cable. I was showing my age - we used to have to use null modem cables back in the day! )

And yeah - my plan was to do the migration as part of the initial setup. I can imagine that one can get into all kinds of gnarly dead-ends getting the new machine all set up and then trying to do the migration!!

And thanks for that MacRumors link. I'll look for others too to make sure I have as much info as I can get before I start.

 

[SteveSawyer]

Countless people use MA to do the migration between Macs and it works really well.



Just use WiFi to connect the two machines and do the transfer. It might take longer, but it's easy.

Thanks. I'll fallback to WiFi if I have any trouble doing a direct connection. I'm not impatient. It just looks that way!

 

[Rod]

Just an add on here. On my last use of Migration assistant I did set up the new machine before the Migration process with an identically named account but there is an "easyout":
In Aswin's attached file (Post #2) under, "On Your New Mac" point number 2:

Before clicking Continue, learn what it means to transfer a user account. In the example pictured here, Danny Rico is a user account on the old Mac. If an account on the new Mac has the same name, Migration Assistant asks whether to rename or replace:

• Rename: The account on your old Mac will appear as an additional user on your new Mac, with a separate login and home folder.
• Replace: The account on your old Mac will replace the identically named account on your new Mac.

Simply make sure you choose "Replace". Doing this resulted in one identical account with all of my data from old to new device.
PS. I used WiFi o/night, worked perfectly.

 

[SteveSawyer]

Just an add on here. On my last use of Migration assistant I did set up the new machine before the Migration process with an identically named account but there is an "easyout":
In Aswin's attached file (Post #2) under, "On Your New Mac" point number 2:

Before clicking Continue, learn what it means to transfer a user account. In the example pictured here, Danny Rico is a user account on the old Mac. If an account on the new Mac has the same name, Migration Assistant asks whether to rename or replace:

• Rename: The account on your old Mac will appear as an additional user on your new Mac, with a separate login and home folder.
• Replace: The account on your old Mac will replace the identically named account on your new Mac.

Simply make sure you choose "Replace". Doing this resulted in one identical account with all of my data from old to new device.
PS. I used WiFi o/night, worked perfectly.

Thanks. I saw that but when I also saw that there is an optional migration option in the initial setup I figured that was the easiest and cleanest route.

 

[MacInWin]

Thanks. I saw that but when I also saw that there is an optional migration option in the initial setup I figured that was the easiest and cleanest route.

Yes, it is.

 

[SteveSawyer]

To close the loop on this, I used an ethernet cable and everything went fine. Only took a couple of hours (only about 256GB on the internal SSD). The only adjustments I had to make was replacing a couple of apps I was running that were specific to Intel processors. Downloaded and installed the versions for Apple silicon and they're working fine.

One thing I was unsure about was whether the external data drive that was included in the Time Machine backups would also be restored. It was not. I wonder if the new external SSD I had attached to the new Mini had been initialized, whether it would have restored that as well. My guess is no. But it was NBD as I just plugged that drive in and copied the contents to the new SSD and kept on keepin' on...

PS - I like the yarmulkes on everyone's avatar. Happy Hanukkah y'all.

 

[pm-r]

PS - I like the yarmulkes on everyone's avatar. Happy Hanukkah y'all.

Thanks for the heads-up reminder Steve, I had forgotten I had disabled my browser
Disable holiday styling Preferences > Setting when a previous animated styling started to drive me crazy.



- Patrick
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[Jimmysb]

Thanks for the heads-up reminder Steve, I had forgotten I had disabled my browser
Disable holiday styling Preferences > Setting when a previous animated styling started to drive me crazy.



- Patrick
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Me too.

 

[pm-r]

Me too.

Well, I have enabled my browser's Disable holiday styling Preferences > Setting again but will not get into a discussion regarding the symbolism of the current image being used and the current world's wartime conflicts.



- Patrick
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