Transfer data from Air to BlackBook?? (Pleeeasee help!)

[Hellishness]

Okay, so I search mroogle and everything but I can't find anything on my situation. I have a macbook with firewire, and air without it, no time machine, and I need to transfer all my data (and extremely preferably settings like itunes playlists, play counts, and ratings because I have some playlists that I cannot easily recreate and I do not want to go through and rate 5500 songs again...). I just got the macbook, but already have stuff that I want to keep on it (like a bunch of movies and things I don't have on my Air). I need to merge the date from my air, onto my new blackbook and I don't know how.

Wireless transfer would take FOREVER (it's 66 gigs and on top of that my network can be a little screwy). I don't really have a backup of my air. Is it possible to like make a time machine back up on my SSD itself and transfer that via like a USB between the computers? I can do that on a hard drive I guess but not easily because it wants me to format the drive and stuff and I can't do that.

Basically, what would you guys do? I need to sell this thing ASAP and I really wanna get the stuff off of it in a manner that I can keep my itunes ratings, play counts, and playlists. That's really all that matters outside of the like raw data on this computer.

 

[bcaslis]

I'm confused which is new, the MacBook or MacBook Air. But here's what I would do:

1.) Get a USB hard drive
2.) Get SuperDuper! software or Carbon Copy Cloner
3.) Plug drive into original machine and run a backup
4.) Do fresh OS install on new machine
5.) Choose transfer information from another volume on this mac after OS install
6.) Wait for copy to finish and you're done.

 

[EspressoLove]

All the settings you need for your iTunes in your music folder.
(back it up completely - as a folder - as it has some hidden setting files which might give you a bit of annoyance)

What you seems to be confused about - is the means you'll have to use to physically transfer data ....
You mention USB - which in reality* means a separate storage device - as there is no easy solutions for Mac which allow to use USB to USB transfers a-la FireWire style.

*(or at least USB enclosure for your MB's HDD which might act as a storage or even recepient in this case)

 

[EspressoLove]

Sure, you can TM your MBA (on a separate partition) on it's SSD.

But what's the point?
You still have no target disk mode access to it from outside ...
MBA has to be on ...

So back to square one : either use USB device to copy data to, or buy Ethernet adapter for MBA ... (which might be even slower than first copying data to USB disk, then copying it to destination - as Ethernet uses only 100Mbit vs 480)

 

[Hellishness]

All the settings you need for your iTunes in your music folder.
(back it up completely - as a folder - as it has some hidden setting files which might give you a bit of annoyance)

What you seems to be confused about - is the means you'll have to use to physically transfer data ....
You mention USB - which in reality* means a separate storage device - as there is no easy solutions for Mac which allow to use USB to USB transfers a-la FireWire style.

*(or at least USB enclosure for your MB's HDD which might act as a storage or even recepient in this case)

Okay, this seems interesting. I can get another HD to use to transfer all my files over, but I need to make sure my iTunes library is identical. Can you elaborate on what exactly I should do? I was going to just take both the computers down to a Genius Bar in a little bit to see if they can help me, but do you think that would be unnecessary if I could copy it all myself?

 

[EspressoLove]

Okay, this seems interesting. I can get another HD to use to transfer all my files over, but I need to make sure my iTunes library is identical. Can you elaborate ...

It'll take lot less time to read this than to go to Geniuses, whom would tell only fraction of what's there, and you'd still have to do it yourself I believe.

Put simply:
1) ensure your music/files consolidated by iTunes in it's folder
2) copy your Music folder to your target's user profile (erase/replace what's there)

bonus:
2a) copying com.apple.iTunes.plist from ~/Library/Preferences is also good idea if you want to preserve iTunes settings itself (how it looks, what it asks, and myriad other ways it's adopted to you already)

There's no absolute need in this step if you only want to preserve your audio/video & playlists.

Though it has to be noted that only your media (music, videos, iOS apps) are kept in iTunes Media folder.
Your iOS backups sitting in ~Library/Application Support/MobileSync

 

[Hellishness]

It'll take lot less time to read this than to go to Geniuses, whom would tell only fraction of what's there, and you'd still have to do it yourself I believe.

Put simply:
1) ensure your music/files consolidated by iTunes in it's folder
2) copy your Music folder to your target's user profile (erase/replace what's there)

bonus:
2a) copying com.apple.iTunes.plist from ~/Library/Preferences is also good idea if you want to preserve iTunes settings itself (how it looks, what it asks, and myriad other ways it's adopted to you already)

There's no absolute need in this step if you only want to preserve your audio/video & playlists.

Though it has to be noted that only your media (music, videos, iOS apps) are kept in iTunes Media folder.
Your iOS backups sitting in ~Library/Application Support/MobileSync

Well, i'll get a HD for sure, but would it be easier (and work the same) to take all the important files from my blackbook, put them on my air (at this time, restore the blackbook), make a time machine backup of the air, and when OS X prompts me to, transfer all the data from the time machine backup. Will this be the best thing to do? Also, can I use my air's reinstall stick in this macbook?

thanks so much.

 

[bcaslis]

The MBA USB install stick will only work in the MBA. You're getting a lot of advice here, seems like you are just not interested in taking any of it. If you had gotten a USB hard drive you would be done by now.

 

[zap2]

Migration Assistant through Ethernet, much faster the wi-fi, very easy

 

[iVeBeenDrinkin']

External, carbon copy cloner.