Does Migration Assistant risk transferring "problems" along with your files ?

argeliusargelius
Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
I've been having a lot of problems (mainly evidenced by frequent beach balls) with my 15" (late 2008) MacBook Pro for which I have done extensive troubleshooting to no avail. My question in this post is if I should buy a new MacBook (which I've been considering doing for other reasons), is there any danger of importing my current problems into the new computer via Migration Assistant?



I realize doing a clean install of all my apps (i.e. from their original installer programs) might be the safe way to do things, I'd rather avoid the labor intensiveness of that and let Migration Assistant do all the work.



So, is there any danger of importing my current problems into the new computer via Migration Assistant?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 3
    karl kuehnkarl kuehn Posts: 756member
    If the problem is based in the Application files, or in preferences, then the answer is clearly: "yes, the migration assistant might well bring the problem along". If it is a problem in the OS or hardware, then it is no likely to bring it along.
  • Reply 2 of 3
    dave k.dave k. Posts: 1,306member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Argelius View Post


    I've been having a lot of problems (mainly evidenced by frequent beach balls) with my 15" (late 2008) MacBook Pro for which I have done extensive troubleshooting to no avail. My question in this post is if I should buy a new MacBook (which I've been considering doing for other reasons), is there any danger of importing my current problems into the new computer via Migration Assistant?



    I realize doing a clean install of all my apps (i.e. from their original installer programs) might be the safe way to do things, I'd rather avoid the labor intensiveness of that and let Migration Assistant do all the work.



    So, is there any danger of importing my current problems into the new computer via Migration Assistant?



    I used the migration assistance with a new iMac a while ago. Nothing but a bad experience. I continue to constantly get the beach ball for no apparent reason (there is no activity in my process monitor). Very disappointed withe the migration assistant...
  • Reply 3 of 3
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,326moderator
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Dave K. View Post


    I used the migration assistance with a new iMac a while ago. Nothing but a bad experience. I continue to constantly get the beach ball for no apparent reason (there is no activity in my process monitor). Very disappointed withe the migration assistant...



    New machines can beachball for other reasons though. All the migration does is bring over your old files and they are unlikely to cause excessive beachballing if your old machine didn't have problems. Try doing a reboot holding shift to clean out your caches - this is often needed on brand new machine. Then reboot back to the normal system. You can check the SMART status of your hard drive in Disk Utility and verify the filesystem as well as repair permissions. Lastly create a new user account and check if the same issue occurs.



    Beachballs happen most often when you run out of RAM and the machine is paging to the hard drive. Although processes may not be using much CPU, they can hog a lot of RAM. I've seen the Flash plugin hold up 2.5GB of RAM and start paging on a machine with 4GB RAM.
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