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Downsizing my Mac

Avatar Rick Churchill
I think the time may be imminent for me to buy a new Mac as my present one continues to exhibit strange screen patterns occasionally while freezing. It may be necessary to use a Time Machine backup to transfer data to the new Mac if it breaks.

My present MacBook I was able to upgrade to 1 TB but the cost of buying the new one with this amount of storage may be more than I am willing to pay. Should I reduce the storage on my present MacBook (650 GB at present) by off loading less frequently used data onto a separate hard disc or can this be done with the backup after my present Mac fails?

What happens if I try to restore a backup onto a new Mac with less capacity than the backup?

Re: Downsizing my Mac

Avatar Mick Burrell
I faced a similar issue a couple of years ago so I opted for two (so I don't just have one copy) inexpensive spinning drive external discs (rather than at that time expensive SSDs) and cloned my machine onto them. I then deleted from my machine stuff I hadn't used for years and carried on working for a month or so. I didn't need to copy anything back so purchased a new machine with a 512GB drive and used Time Machine as the source for transferring data to the new.

I've yet to need to boot into the old system but have occasionally referred to very old data.

Re: Downsizing my Mac

Avatar Rick Churchill
Thanks Mick. I think that is the route to take. I already have moved off my Lightroom editor/catalogue and image files on to a HDD and my music onto a Flash drive so I will now move some of the rest to get down to 512 GB. I use a different (temporary) flash drive when video editing and then only save the final video to a library HDD and lose the ability to re-edit by deleting source files and FCPro library.
The phrase "and cloned my machine on to them" has my interest. Do you mean you copied some of the file structure or is there an automatic way of moving the files?

I assume that a restore of the present 650 GB to a smaller storage Mac would fail.

Re: Downsizing my Mac

Avatar Mick Burrell
Clone - an exact, bootable copy of the entire old machine i.e. operating system and data. If you plug it into your new machine, assuming it would run the older operating system from the old machine (which it may not), you would to all intents and purposes be running your old machine on the new one! I used Super Duper to do this but there's also Carbon Copy Cloner.

The transfer would probably fail. The 650GB of the current machine is operating system and data. if the new operating system was significantly smaller than the old (how likely is that!) it may work but not worth the risk.

Re: Downsizing my Mac

Avatar Lionel Ogden
It does not seem to be as easy as it used to be to make a clone using either Super Duper or Carbon Copy Cloner. I tried to do this recently when I was preparing to change my HD to SSD and I could not get either to create a clone. However it was not necessary as IFIX Tech in Broadstone transferred all my data for me as part of the service.

Re: Downsizing my Mac

Avatar Mick Burrell
Lionel - both will make clones. I use SuperDuper and for that you use "Erase & Copy" for the first time or if you've updated the OS and want your clone to use that but from then on, Smart Update is fine. No experience with Carbon Copy Cloner.

Re: Downsizing my Mac

Avatar Eleanor Spenceley
You can selectively choose what to install in migration assistant (though I don't remember if you can deselect subfolders in a user account). Also you can select for what to copy in Carbon Copy Cloner.

Another method I have used to be super sure I have the right contents is to clone your account to an external disk. Boot from that disk and then remove as much as you can to get below your new computers storage limit, then copy over from that trimmed down external disk.

Re: Downsizing my Mac

Avatar Rick Churchill
Thanks for all your suggestions. I have successfully reduced my storage to 469GB which should fit on a new 512GB system (although the new OS may take more than the old). At the moment the MacBook is behaving itself and is no longer giving me strange display patterns.

Re: Downsizing my Mac

Avatar Tony Still
Don't let that 469GB creep up though. The system needs space on the internal disk for temporary files and swapping; Apple recommends 10% though that's only an estimate.
 
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