How to Transfer Data Between Old & New Mac Computers
You can move data back and forth between an old Mac and a new Mac rapidly with a flash drive. These small memory devices are about the size of your finger, and can hold a massive amount of data. Sometimes referred to as USB flash drives, they fit into the USB port on your computer, and act like an external hard drive. They work with both the older USB 1.1 protocol found on older Macs, as well as the new, faster USB 2.0 protocol. You can also avoid expensive or tricky cable transfers this way. Most flash drives are formatted for both Mac and Windows systems, but check to be sure.
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Instructions
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Insert the flash drive into a USB port on the computer you wish to transfer data from. You can start on the older or the newer Mac.
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Double-click on the external drive icon when it appears on your desktop to open it. A finder window showing the flash drive's contents will appear. If you have named the flash drive (after yourself or your company, for example) the name will appear under the icon. If you have not, the name of the company that makes the flash drive should appear.
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Drag the files into the window for the flash drive that you want to transfer while holding down the "Option" key. This will make copies of the files and place them on the flash drive.
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Drag the icon of the flash drive to the Trash when you are through. This will eject the drive, meaning the drive is no longer being read. If you do not do this before removing the drive you could damage it.
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Remove the flash drive from the USB port when the icon disappears from the desktop.
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Insert the flash drive into the USB port of the other Mac.
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Double-click on the icon of the flash drive when it appears on the screen to show its contents.
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Drag the files you want transferred to the desktop while holding down the "Option" key.
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Repeat the ejection and removal process for the flash drive when you have finished.
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References
- Photo Credit usb flash drive image by Bosko Martinovic from Fotolia.com
