4 words I just hate having to put together. (At least my CUT is appropo today.)

So, I was just finishing up migrating from my old iMac to a new Mac Mini. Everything looked fine, so I erased the 2 hard drives of the iMac in prep for disposal. Only then did I notice that my personal files had not copied over. Not a single one.

Apparently Migration Assistant only transferred one of the drives, the smaller solid state drive that held the software and applications. It didn't touch the larger mechanical drive where all my files and documents were stored. It didn't even ask. Apparently you just somehow have to know if you're migrating multiple drives, you have to transfer the extra drives manually.

And oh, I had also already wiped my external backup HD, so that was no joy. No other offline backup storage this time.

So, my old iMac is at a data recovery outfit. He seems to think it's a rather routine operation, which gives me comfort. Takes a week or two, maybe $100-300 on average.

Anyone else have fun experience recovering data?

As long as it was a basic format and nothing was actually overwritten, most everything should be recoverable.

The immortal words "trust, but verify" are just as appropriate for computers.

Test disk for macs is free but is a command line interface and not that user-friendly.

Most MAC recovery software companies want around $100 for their products.

Disk Drill and Stella Data Recovery are a couple that has good reputations.

I have not had to recover a MAC for years so this is all recently untested information.

Because they used to make good software doesn't mean the new stuff is as good.

quote:

Anyone else have fun experience recovering data?

Yeah, I have fun but it is because I get paid to fix those problems...

FWIW, $100~300 isn't bad as if it was a mechanical failure it would be a LOT more.

Always BACKUP .... brush your teeth after every meal and get you pet spayed and neutered .....

buy a usb connect hard drive enclosure to recover files/pics/docs.

Still sorting out files from my main drive that went belly up ten years ago.

Have thousands of unidentified files to open, ID, rename, file or delete. Done with pics and music but have tons of pdf, txt and spreadsheets to keep me busy a few years.
The 1TB drive had all my data since 1986 onwards. Failed probably when accessed remotedly from the LAN.

Lots of memories and Endless fun

0-0

Oof that sucks! The last major data loss I had was around 2001. I became very familiar with image backups and restoring them after that.

I have a disc which physically blew up in 2002; keep waiting for the price of data recovery to come down on those things. 300 bucks would be cheap!

quote:

Originally posted by airbubba:
buy a usb connect hard drive enclosure to recover files/pics/docs.

Could you help me understand what you suggest?

^I was wondering what that meant as well.

As I mentioned in the OP, I did have a backup drive in a separate enclosure (not USB though, through an Apple Thunderbolt connection). As bad luck would have it, I had already erased that drive as well in order to set up support for the new Mac Mini using Time Machine.

I know there are numerous recovery applications available, but in this instance I didn't want to chance it. Sometimes it's better to call in a pro, especially if it's only a couple-few hundred bucks.

I'd be wanting to kick myself if that happened to me. It's a good reminder as in about two years (hopefully not sooner), I'll be ready to get another laptop.

But even then, I think I've fool proofed myself. I have archived files kept in two different cloud services. My regular laptop document files is mirrored to OneDrive. My sensitive documents is mirrored encrypted to the two cloud services and three separate USB drives. Then I have encrypted backups to, yet, a fourth cloud service and the three USB drives.

Next time, I would suggest "Back Up Compare." It compares, duplicates, and move folders and documents. It's what I use for mirroring documents. After I compare, I sync, then I compare again. It's caught some that didn't copy to the cloud due to the connection.

^Perhaps a light tap on the shoulder. I don't feel like I wasn't being careful. After migration it certainly appeared like everything had copied over. It was only when I tried to open an actual document and got a "cannot find" alert did I know something was wrong.

I feel like it's a shortcoming of Migration Assistant for not at least asking whether to transfer all multiple drives. All the blurbage says how MA will easily transfer everything over, usually.

Usually.

Trust, but verify.....

No matter the process, this is a good lesson, always validate and confirm the process did what you wanted, and what they say it will do.

Hope they get your data back for you...

^I actually did, just didn't go deep enough.

quote:

Originally posted by kkina:

I feel like it's a shortcoming of Migration Assistant for not at least asking whether to transfer all multiple drives.
All the blurbage says how MA will easily transfer everything over, usually.

Usually.

FWIW, relying on "assistant" programs are risky albeit easy.
I always manually transfer data and never delete, format or erase the original until I confirm everything is complete.

^Good point, but manually performing a complex task, especially by a non-professional in the field, is also risky. Really more so. For a migration we're not talking about a few datafiles, but software, applications, and sub-applications.

I would agree migrating software is complicated. Before I used a backup program and if I had to reinstall, I would start from a clean install and I had my notes on what programs to install.

Now, if I had to reinstall my system, I would rely on my backup program.

But if I had new laptop, I would install programs manually. But that may only be me.

quote:

Originally posted by kkina:
I feel like it's a shortcoming of Migration Assistant for not at least asking whether to transfer all multiple drives. All the blurbage says how MA will easily transfer everything over, usually.

Usually.

How would MA do this? Transfer the second HD to what, exactly? Does the new mini have a second mount point as a target? In fact, from the point of migration, there’s really nothing to do beyond the startup volume.

I know from your point of view you’re thinking of migrating one machine to the next. However, what you are really migrating is one Unix partition to another. Let’s say Apple did try to have Migration asst do what you’d like. How would it even know that all of your potential devices were mounted at any given time? It couldn’t.

In the future, it’s best practice to never delete your backups. Get some online backup solution to complement your local one, or at least invest in a NAS and let it keep your backups for a decade or more. My Synologys work great as Time Machine targets. Or set the old iMac in a closet as-is as a last resort.

I actually had those thoughts too. I would have liked at least an alert that multiple drives have been detected, and must possibly be transferred manually.

I don't severely fault Migration Assistant for not having this extra level of cognizance, just saying it would have been nice. I'm sure I'm not the only person who has run into this.

quote:

Originally posted by Ripley:

quote:

Originally posted by airbubba:
buy a usb connect hard drive enclosure to recover files/pics/docs.

Could you help me understand what you suggest?

i'll try:

on the left is a smaller 2.5" drive enclosure, with usb connector visible, with the hard drive from a laptop that was dropped on a corner.

at the top of the pic are 2 more laptop hard drives.

the larger box is an enclosure for a 3 1/2" sata hard drive, which also has a usb connector, not shown.

the hard drive is attached to the connector of the enclosure, lid closed, plug in usb (sata enclosure also has power cord).

wait for the data to be shown as an additional drive in win10 file explorer, drag/drop to usb memory stick....if the drive can be read.

when/if the power supply or motherboard fails, data on the hard drive may be recoverable.....

if the hard drive is damaged or just old, data recovery with these enclosures is not always going to possible

still better than paying $2-300 for data recovery, that may use this same type of recovering data.