Advice before I give away my mac mini...

[xxRONNIExx]

Okay Im giving my parents my mac mini. Im also waiting for the new iMac to come out. Its going to be a few months until I get one. In the mean time I have a MBA so I'll be fine. My question is:

#1) whats the best way for to copy all my files, music, movies, photos, and apps to a external hard drive?

#2) once all my files are transferred to the external HD can I still use my itunes with my MBA by hooking it up to the external drive through USB?

THX

 

[philipma1957]

use super duper and clone a bootable copy to the external hdd.

free mac clone program below

http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html

before you clone the external drive partition it with your disk utility program.






your iTunes question is more difficult to answer. if you make a second external drive and do a fresh install on it with the macbook air hooked up use the macbook air install disk and then migrate all the info from the superduper clone that you first made you end up having:

a clone of the mini external Drive one

and a booting airbook external hdd with all of your mini info on it This should be able to boot the air book and play on the air book. this also should be accessible from the air book for iTunes.. Itunes can be a PITA when you start cloning also if you buy a boatload of your music from apple it can be had to move around..


I don't know what version of itunes is on each machine. I don't know if there is a lot of protected music or movies so the answer is it depends. There are other ways to get around it like telling the air book the itunes library is on the external, but make sure you don't lose any music on the air book. I have not done a lot of itune moving in a few years and it can change with software updates.

 

[xxRONNIExx]

Okay thank you for your help I'll try SD...I also heard about CCC, i wonder which is the best to use. I'll do a little more research. I have a lot of iTunes music and i dont want to lose it.
Maybe the best thing I should do is wait until I get the iMac first, transfer everything then give it away. Or better yet take it to a apple genius and let them do it for me...??

 

[MacForScience]

Okay thank you for your help I'll try SD...I also heard about CCC, i wonder which is the best to use. I'll do a little more research. I have a lot of iTunes music and i dont want to lose it.
Maybe the best thing I should do is wait until I get the iMac first, transfer everything then give it away. Or better yet take it to a apple genius and let them do it for me...??

Make sure you securely wipe the drive before you give it away. If its an SSD, you need to encrypt the volume before wiping it. Otherwise a 7 way random re-write should do the trick. (It will take a while to perform.)

Cheers

 

[mr.steevo]

Make sure you securely wipe the drive before you give it away. If its an SSD, you need to encrypt the volume before wiping it. Otherwise a 7 way random re-write should do the trick. (It will take a while to perform.)

Cheers

I'm guessing his mom isn't going to be running file recovery software on the mini...

 

[ZombieZakk]

still wipe and do a clean install just because it cant hurt.

the best way it to buy an external hdd and just copy and paste your data (thats what i do) or make a time machine back up

your itunes question is very easy actually copy your entire itunes folder and library to the new external drive.-> go into itunes on the MBA-> go into preferences and advanced you will see where it shows your itunes media folder location click change-> and remap it to the external driver you can only access it while plugged in but it will save a lot of space.

 

[xxRONNIExx]

still wipe and do a clean install just because it cant hurt.

the best way it to buy an external hdd and just copy and paste your data (thats what i do) or make a time machine back up

your itunes question is very easy actually copy your entire itunes folder and library to the new external drive.-> go into itunes on the MBA-> go into preferences and advanced you will see where it shows your itunes media folder location click change-> and remap it to the external driver you can only access it while plugged in but it will save a lot of space.

Just got back into town. Worked like a charm thank you

 

[ZombieZakk]

Just got back into town. Worked like a charm thank you

glad to help!