Swapping macs

[scapmac]

I have a MBP and a MB, both with 10.10.1, that I would like to swap information with. I have one backup external hard drive that has a bootable copy of the MBP using carbon copy cloner. So for, I have tried partitioning each and using Migration Assistant to move the MBP to the new partition on the MB, but Migration Assistant somehow manages to either attempt to move the MBP over to the original partition on the MB, or the MB acts like it's transferring data while the MBP is completely disconnected.

Is there any way I can go about this, maybe with carbon copy cloner? Sorry if this sounds a bit noonish.

 

[dyt1983]

edit: To remove personally identifying info not relevant to the conversation.

 

[scapmac]

I'm not sure if there's a way to clone both machines onto the external. Maybe I can put them on there as disk images instead? Is there a way to remove the backup that I have already?

I booted into the external hard drive, and the only thing that I found to not be working was Photoshop Elements - something about the Application Support folder not being correct. Is there a way to copy only that application onto the external?

 

[simonsi]

...that I would like to swap information with....

Do you mean one-off or you want them to be able to swap information on an ongoing basis?

One-offs:
Target disk mode?
CCC via a USB drive

Ongoing?
Cloud service
Share

...just some ideas...

 

[scapmac]

Do you mean one-off or you want them to be able to swap information on an ongoing basis?...

Sorry if I can't find the right words- what I really mean is to make it so that the MB looks like it's booting into the MBP and vice versa.
Or cloning the MBP machine onto the MB and vice versa.

 

[Bruno09]

Or cloning the MBP machine onto the MB and vice versa.

Take a look at this : https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1769522/

 

[simonsi]

...Or cloning the MBP machine onto the MB and vice versa.

OK, two good ways to clone, both of which I have used:

MBP = Source/From
MB = Target/To

Target Disk. If both machines support it and you have a Thunderbolt cable then on the Target machine boot while holding down the "t" key, it will boot and come up as a drive on the source machine, you can then clone the source machine drive to the target machine drive.

Via USB Drive (must be bigger than the used space on the Source machine drive). Use CCC to clone Source to USB, move USB to target, "option-boot" and Boot from the USB drive, CCC clone the USB to the Target machine. Boot Target from its own drive.

 

[scapmac]

I partitioned the external hard drive and cloned the MB and MBP to the corresponding partitions.

I tried to option-boot the MBP with the ext. connected, but it does not show the ext. in the options listed. Yes, the ext. is on. I booted it normally, Finder showed both partitions of the ext. to be there.

I rebooted normally with the ext. connected, made sure it was connected properly and saw that Finder showed it, shut off, then option-booted, and still didn't see it there.

Any thoughts on this? I notice that the opt-boot for the MBP is different than the MB in that it does not show the recovery HD and has an option to connect to the internet.

 

[simonsi]

What format did you use for the external? Has to have a GUID table to be bootable. If necessary re-format, re-partition and re-clone (sorry).

 

[scapmac]

It's GUID format. Odd thing is it worked on the MBP before, and still works on the MB (I'll check this right now).

 

[simonsi]

Hmmm - do you have an 8GB USB stick (or larger), you could make a bootable USB installer using DiskmakerX and boot from that.....but I'm puzzled what is wrong with your ext drive if it has booted before.....?

 

[dsemf]

Recently I was trying to boot from an external drive, but the Option boot did not show the external drive (3 bootable partitions). What worked was doing the Option with the drive disconnected and then connecting it when the drive selection list was displayed. As soon as the drive finished the power up phase, its icons where added to the selectable list of boot drives. Appeared to be some timing problem.

DS

 

[Bruno09]

I partitioned the external hard drive and cloned the MB and MBP to the corresponding partitions.

How did you clone ?