New Mac Studio, the best way to set up from Time Machine?

[steveatesh]

My 2014 iMac retina is being replaced with a new Mac studio and I would appreciate some advice on setting up please?

My current iMac has a 1tb fusion drive and it is about 3/4 full. There are 2 time machine back ups attached to it.

I know there are various options for setting up a new Mac but my new studio only has the 512gb internal drive and I intend to buy a 1tb external SSD to use for photos (the bulk of my current data) .

So it’s really what’s the best way to do this?

Should I do a fresh install on the studio, then manually copy over all my various data files to the internal and external drives?

If I use time machine to set it up, how will it manage the smaller internal drive, will I get options to direct some of the data to the external drive on the studio?

Some other way?

I’ve only used Time machine once for a restore on the iMac and it was painless, I’m hoping this one can be so easy!

My intention is to have applications and possibly the document folder on the internal drive and the music and photos on external drive then both drives to be backed up by time machine again.

Thanks in advance .

[Phunk]

I’d copy over the files manually, whilst Timemachine is relatively painless I find that it ends up carrying over all sorts of hidden crap you don’t need.

[Bikerjon]

Phunk said:

I’d copy over the files manually, whilst Timemachine is relatively painless I find that it ends up carrying over all sorts of hidden crap you don’t need.

This. I've used time machine to effectively migrate data from all my Mac's as I've upgraded over the years. However as the Studio is M1 based, I'd personally want to keep it as a clean installation.

[devnull]

Definitely do it fresh - in fact, if you have a thunderbolt cable, then you could also do target disk mode and take advantage of high transfer speeds: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/mac-help/mch...

[mmm-five]

devnull said:

Definitely do it fresh - in fact, if you have a thunderbolt cable, then you could also do target disk mode and take advantage of high transfer speeds: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/mac-help/mch...

As the older iMac is Thunderbolt 2 (as was mine), you will also need a Thunderbolt 3/4 to Thunderbolt 2 adapter if you want to do this.

https://www.apple.com/uk/shop/product/MMEL2ZM/A/th...

Much cheaper on Amazon though (which is where I got mine from)...
https://amazon.co.uk/dp/B01M72VEQR

I'd let you have mine, but it's in use as I quickly realised after my Studio arrived that my RAID was Thunderbolt 2 only (hadn't looked at the back of it since I bought it in 2015).

Edited by mmm-five on Saturday 4th June 10:33

[steveatesh]

Thanks everybody. Clean install it is. Just so I get this right do I take it I install MacOS on there studio via the internet, with no periphery attached, once installed I can attach one of the Time machine drives and there new external SSD drive then simply manually copy them over?

I presume Keychain will come down from cloud once I log in with my Apple details?

Then I can install the various applications ( Capture One, Affinity etc) manually too?

Thanks for the offer of the TB cable, I don’t have one but will likely get a USB C drive as the TB external drives are a lot more money!

Any recommendations for a 1Tb external SSD drive appreciated too.

[colin79666]

Can’t comment on time machine for restores as haven’t tried it myself.

Got a Samsung 1TB T7 SSD working with my MacBook Air M1. Brilliant piece of kit although prices have been creeping up of late. Avoid cheap SSDs as they often overheat or play games with caching so slow to a crawl after a few GBs.

[devnull]

Sorry, I completely wasn’t thinking - you can use Apple Migration Assistant which is an option to move all your important stuff from your iMac to the Studio during the initial setup process: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT204350

[mmm-five]

No need to do any additional fresh/clean install at all, as it will come set up as a fresh/clean system anyway.

Just ignore any of the other options you're offered to migrate data during this initial set-up/customisation, and then manually copy your documents over...don't forget to check for newer, native/universal versions of your apps.

You my also want to check if there are any system updates before you copy over or install anything else though.

Edited by mmm-five on Saturday 4th June 16:44

[steveatesh]

Thanks everybody, it’s due in about 6 working days, appreciate all your advice :beer;