Import Programs and Files into Yosemite

[komatsu]

I have just installed Yosemite on a MBP.

The previous OS got corrupted and is now on an external drive.

How do I import over all my Programs and Files?

 

[\-V-/]

Migration Assistant: https://support.apple.com/kb/PH18870?locale=en_US&viewlocale=en_US

 

[komatsu]

That was one of the first things I tried but MA just came up with the message

"looking for source" and 30 minutes later it still has not found the external hdd?

 

[komatsu]

OR is Migration Assistant just for Time Machine backups?

 

[\-V-/]

You said your previous OS got corrupted. Corrupted how? It won't boot? Have you diagnosed the drive to see if there's anything wrong with it? If there's nothing wrong with your drive and it just became corrupt, what you could do is create a bootable USB Yosemite installer ... put your old drive back into your MBP ... and install Yosemite over your current OS install. You don't wipe anything ... you don't fool around with Disk Utility ... you simply use the installer from the USB and it will install OS X over your old OS without deleting any of your applications or files. I've done this quite a few times to service a corrupted OS. By default ... the installer only re-installs the OS ... it doesn't touch your applications or files. It's only until you wipe the drive first that it will do a clean install.

 

[komatsu]

The drive will not boot.

Drive has passed diagnostics tests leading me to believe that it is just the OS corrupted.

I think I might try your suggestion of installing Yosemite over the current OS.

Thanks for your input and I will keep you posted.

 

[\-V-/]

Again ... just remember to boot from the installer and only select the option to reinstall OS X and nothing else. This will reinstall OS X while leaving your files intact. I would still backup your files as a precaution before you proceed.

 

[komatsu]

ok here is an update!

I tried booting just from the installer and tried selecting the option to reinstall OS X and nothing else. However,
that was also met with an error message...argh.

So what I did was take out the drive, put it in a USB dock and using ANOTHER Mac then ran Disk Warrior on it. This spent around 25 minutes doing it's stuff.

When repaired, the disk was put back in the original Mac and hey presto the the OS X install went all the way without any error messages.

Yosemite has now been installed. Lesson: In-built Disk Utilities are limited in what they can do and Disk Warrior is amazing.

Thank you V for your help here. It was much appreciated.

 

[\-V-/]

DiskWarrior has saved my bacon more times than I can count. I was going to suggest DiskWarrior, but wasn't sure if you had it or not ... and it's a rather expensive app. Glad it worked out for you.