Comments on: Moving personal data from one Mac to another

By: Meitar

Meitar — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 18:01:40 +0000

will data (all of it incl applications) remain on my older computer;

A “transfer” is really just a copy. So, yes.

will my email addresses incl the ones that pop up automatically but that may not be in my address book be retained on new computer;

I don’t know what you’re referring to by “ones that pop up automatically but that may not be in my address book.” Sorry.

must all data be on the hard drive or can I transfer items found in folders on the desktop?

Um, folders on the desktop are almost certainly going to be on your local hard drive.

To be blunt, your questions make it sound like the best option for you is going to be the Mac OS X Migration Assistant, which is what appears when you turn on your new Mac for the first time and asks if you want to transfer your data. Seriously, just say yes and follow the on-screen instructions. Don’t bother with rsync if you’re not already very familiar with the Terminal application.

By: poetSantaFe

poetSantaFe — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 17:50:48 +0000

Okay now for the “dumb” questions before I launch into transfer of data on my own:
1) will data (all of it incl applications) remain on my older computer;
2) will my email addresses incl the ones that pop up automatically but that may not be in my address book be retained on new computer;
3) must all data be on the hard drive or can I transfer items found in folders on the desktop?

I thank you and hope you’re still at this site (last posts 2007).

By: Meitar

Meitar — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 04:50:32 +0000

Bill, rsync's -a option stands for "archive mode" which means that it will preserve as many file attributes as it can during the transfer, including its owner, group, and permissions. Though I haven't tested this, I believe that if you don't tell rsync to preserve permissions in this way, then after you sync your files will be owned by the user you're logging into the destination machine with.

By: billgz

billgz — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 01:20:17 +0000

Does anyone know if this changes the permissions/owners of the files/directories copied to the external machine? I frequently use the scp -rp command to send files back, and forth between machines, but would love to utilize the rsync command as well. The scp command works very similarly to this function, and the -rp is to change permissions for the files/directories being copied. I would love to know if the owners/permissions are changed for the external machine once the sync is complete.

By: Meitar

Meitar — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 15:30:37 +0000

No worries. I’m very thankful that I finished the transfer when I did because the next thing I knew my old computer’s hard drive crashed hard and completely stopped working. My most recent backup was three days prior, so it wouldn’t have been a major loss but it would have been an even bigger nuisance than losing a hard drive already is.

By: Meitar

Meitar — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 15:28:19 +0000

Yay, I have a shiny new computer. :)

By: nick

nick — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 22:40:53 +0000

Well, Big thanks here. This is really helpful. But then again, you’re a (mac) genius.

By: S

Thu, 13 Sep 2007 19:23:47 +0000

Yay, you have a shiny new computer!