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   Migrating to a New Mac in the Real World

   Michael E. Cohen

   It all began earlier this month with a soft, extremely high-pitched
   intermittent whine from the upper-right of my mid-2011 iMac. Then, a
   few evenings ago, I heard about a dozen clicks and my Mac shut down. I
   couldn't get it to reboot normally, from a safe boot (hold down Shift
   at the startup chime), nor even from a recovery boot (hold down
   Command-R). An Internet recovery boot (hold down Command-Option-R) did
   work, but its included Disk Utility app had a grim tale to tell: my
   Mac's internal drive could not be found.

   A trip to my local Apple Store Genius Bar confirmed that the Mac's
   drive had rung down the curtain and was now an ex-drive. Although the
   Apple Genius told me they could install a new drive, it would take a
   week, and since I had been planning to buy a new iMac next year, I
   decided I'd just push that purchase forward a few months (besides, I
   can always connect an external drive to the old iMac and use it as a
   test machine). So I packed up my old iMac, took out a credit card, and
   within minutes walked out of the Apple Store with both my old iMac and
   a new iMac with 5K Retina display. I drove home, anxious to discover
   whether Time Machine really would do what it was supposed to do. Would
   it 'just work'?

   The answer is 'more or less'; I did get all of my backed-up files
   restored, and most of my settings as well, but there were more than a
   few loose ends and hiccups along the way.

   I strongly suspect that my experiences restoring my Mac's contents to a
   new Mac from Time Machine are similar to those of other users who have
   had to do the same thing. I present the following tale for those of you
   who haven't (yet) had that experience: what I encountered may help
   prepare you for what could lie ahead.

   The Time Capsule Migration -- My Time Machine backup resides in a 2 TB
   Time Capsule that sits near my desk. Pack-rat that I am, I keep an
   Ethernet cable in my Cupboard of Arcane Connectors: I strung that
   between my new iMac and the Time Capsule before I started the
   migration. I could have used the Time Capsule's Wi-Fi connection
   instead, but restoring a backup that way would have taken considerably
   more time ' the last time I did a migration over Wi-Fi, it consumed a
   full weekend. Crossing my fingers, I booted my new iMac for the first
   time. It was 7:20 PM on a Saturday evening.

   Upon starting up, my new iMac recognized the Time Capsule and offered
   me the opportunity to set it up from a Time Machine backup. I chose