# How long should Migration Assistant take?



## hhk (May 31, 2006)

I'm migrating from a 120GB MacBook to a new 320GB MacBook Pro. I'm using an Ethernet cable connection and I've had it on overnight. The progress bar seems to have moved about 5%. There's no cancel button. Should I kill the process, restart and do it over?


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## monokitty (Jan 26, 2002)

Pretty much, yes. It can take a long time, but not THAT long. Is the old machine in good working order or is there a proble with it?


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## hhk (May 31, 2006)

The old machine works fine. I wonder if Ethernet is slower than Firewire. I'd love to use Firewire but FW800 to FW800 is just about the only cable I don't own.


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## monokitty (Jan 26, 2002)

hhk said:


> The old machine works fine. I wonder if Ethernet is slower than Firewire. I'd love to use Firewire but FW800 to FW800 is just about the only cable I don't own.


Use FW - it's WAY faster than Ethernet for use with Migration Assistant. It will complete in a few hours via FW800.


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## hhk (May 31, 2006)

I just realized the old MacBook is FW400 and I happen to have a FW400 to FW800 cable so we are in luck. Thanks for the advice.


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## mkolesa (Jul 22, 2008)

to give you a yardstick, last time i upgraded my imac i had about 130GB on the drive and using a FW400 to FW 800 connection it was complete in much less than one hour.


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## hhk (May 31, 2006)

It took about 2 hours with Firewire. Clearly the process was hung the first time.


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## mccandlessk (Nov 15, 2011)

Hi, I'm currently transfering over all of my files from a white MacBook, from 2008 I believe, to a new MacBook Pro 2010 (with Lion and all the new fancy updates and upgrades.)

I strarted with the firewire cable but it says there's 82 hours to go... is this normal? It doesn't seem to be doing anything. Should I kill it and start again? I tried to follow Apple's directions, but clearly something went wrong. Help? :yikes:


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## Paddy (Jul 13, 2004)

Yes - kill it and start again! 82 hours is ridiculous.


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