Will This Manual Transfer Work?

[Alvin777]

Hello Apple & Mac friends.

Because of the Monterey bug with USB external drives as many are experiencing here

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...es.2331283/page-4?post=31365916#post-31365916

I've not backed up for about a year since I've updated to Monterey. I plan to manually transfer my documents and files that are not apps by copy pasting them, but will this work:

Plan A- I remove the drive (it's a 2TB Fusion Drive but it's not configured as a Fusion Drive, the SSD part and the non-SSD are separate. The one I'm using is the non-SSD part), I put that on my external USB hub and manually copy-paste the files to my macOS High Sierra Mac (High Sierra was the most stable that supports AFPS format).

Plan B- If it doesn't mount the external USB drive, I put that on another Mac and put it in 'Target Disk' mode so that it becomes like an external storage and then manually copy paste the documents and files (like images, like .isos and .dmgs).

Plan C- I subscribe to iCloud+ and cancel it as soon I have all the files transferred, backing up about 800GB, paying only about a month's subscription? But my internet connection is only about 75Mbps on average (110Mbps peak. How many days or weeks will that take by the way to get backed-up and then transferred back, again)?

Thank you. Stay safe.

 

[Grumpus]

Another option would be to turn on file-sharing (Apple Menu->System Preferences...->Sharing) on the Monterey machine. On the HS machine in Finder, the Monterey machine should appear in the sidebar under Shared. Double-click that, then click Connect as... and enter your Monterey userid and password. From there you should be able to copy the files over your local network via drag & drop, copy/paste, etc.

 

[Alvin777]

Another option would be to turn on file-sharing (Apple Menu->System Preferences...->Sharing) on the Monterey machine. On the HS machine in Finder, the Monterey machine should appear in the sidebar under Shared. Double-click that, then click Connect as... and enter your Monterey userid and password. From there you should be able to copy the files over your local network via drag & drop, copy/paste, etc.

It's nice, that the 'Sharing' feature can do that, thanks for the Plan C. Which connection would be best for that? I have a CAT 5e just laying around in the closet, a Mini DisplayPort to Mini DisplayPort Cable (the other Mac does not have Thunderbolt but it it has Mini DisplayPort and USBs) or is USB to USB the best (will buy a cable) or is the transfer best done through Wifi?

 

[Grumpus]

It's nice, that the 'Sharing' feature can do that, thanks for the Plan C. Which connection would be best for that? I have a CAT 5e just laying around in the closet, a Mini DisplayPort to Mini DisplayPort Cable (the other Mac does not have Thunderbolt but it it has Mini DisplayPort and USBs) or is USB to USB the best (will buy a cable) or is the transfer best done through Wifi?

If both machines are on wifi I'd just use that. 800 GB will take a while, but it should be much faster than the iCloud plan. If both machines can connect via ethernet to your router, that would be faster still.

 

[HDFan]

I've not backed up for about a year since I've updated to Monterey.

Complicates things by copying to another Mac. The simplest 3-2-1 backup strategy might include:

1. Backup to an external hard disk that can be rotated in/out of off site storage. No reason to copy/paste - use something like Carbon Copy Cloner. Finder copies can sometimes cause trouble when a copy fails for some reason. CCC or an equivalent program can be run as many times as you want and it quickly skips already copied files.

2. Backup to a backup service such as BackBlaze or Crashplan Business. iCloud is not a backup solution.

But my internet connection is only about 75Mbps on average (110Mbps peak.

Is that your download or upload speed? There are bandwidth calculators that will tell you how long it will take to transfer a file on the web. 800 GB @40Mbps (a typical upload speed) would take a couple of days.

Bandwidth Calculator

This calculator can convert between units of bandwidth, estimate download or upload times, as well as estimate the bandwidth required to host a website.

www.calculator.net

 

[Grumpus]

Complicates things by copying to another Mac. The simplest 3-2-1 backup strategy might include:

You missed this part:

Because of the Monterey bug with USB external drives as many are experiencing here

 

[Fishrrman]

You don't have to pry open the iMac and take the drive out, if you don't want to.

If you want to "manually move" files from one mac to another, I'd suggest:

First, get an external drive of some sort. Hard drive, SSD, flash drive -- it doesn't really matter what kind of drive you use.

Next, format it to HFS+ (Mac OS extended with journaling enabled, GUID partition format).

Next, copy some (or all) of the files you wish to move to the external drive.
I'd recommend doing things "a little at a time", keeping handwritten notes, etc.

Connect the external to the NEW Mac.

Now, you have to take steps to over-ride permissions problems:
a. Click ONE TIME on the external drive icon
b. Bring up the get info box (command-i)
c. At the bottom of get info, click the lock and enter your password (the one that you're using with the NEW Mac)
d. Put a check into "ignore ownership on this volume" (sharing and permissions)
e. Close get info.

Now you can copy files from the drive (from the "old mac"), and whatever you copy falls under "the ownership" of your NEW account on the NEW Mac.

When done with one batch of files, go back and do another.

Again, get things moved "piecemeal".
Do something like music first.
Then photos.
Etc.

 

[HDFan]

You missed this part:

Actually I didn't. The fact that people have reported bugs with USB external drives doesn't necessarily mean that you will experience the same problem. Configurations differ. Just did a 21 GB transfer to an external USB drive with no problem on 12.5.1.