Transfer Software From One Mac To Another

Migration Assistant copies all of your files to your new Mac so that you don't have to copy your files manually.

  • If your files are currently on a Windows PC, follow the PC migration steps instead.
  • If your new Mac is using OS X Mountain Lion v10.8 or earlier, follow the Mountain Lion migration steps instead.

May 08, 2020  If you are new to Mac, you can also migrate your old PC data. How to transfer your data from your old PC to your new Mac; Before you start. Update your software - If your old Mac is running OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) or earlier, you will need to update your software first. Name your old Mac - If you haven't done so already, make sure your old Mac. Feb 24, 2009  If you ask, I would think they could give you a CD to install with. Also, if he still has that install file, he should be able to transfer it to the other Mac. Obviously, all of this is once you verify that it can be installed on more than one device used by only one user, and be done legally. Transfer Files From One Computer to Another. There’s one speedier way. Check if the PC you need to move information to has an eSATA port or accessible SATA space. On the off chance that it does, separate the hard drive from the first PC and simply interface it to the new PC. Blast, it’ll appear as another drive on the objective PC.

Check software, settings, and power

Best free PC transfer/migration software - EaseUS Todo PCTrans Free to transfer data and applications from one PC to another, from Windows XP to Windows Vista/7/8/10, from Windows 7 to Windows 7/8/10, from Windows 8 to Windows 8/10, from 32-bit Windows PC to 64-bit Windows PC, from 64-bit Windows PC to 64-bit Windows PC. Windows 7 support is done, EaseUS Todo PCTrans solves your problems. Oct 20, 2011  Transfer Mac Apps from One Mac to Another Oct 20, 2011 - 6 Comments With the addition of the Mac App Store, transferring applications from one Mac to another is made extraordinarily simple and can be done entirely through the App Store itself.

  • Install all available Apple software updates on both Mac computers. Install any updates for your third-party apps as well.
  • Make sure that your old Mac is using OS X Lion or later.
  • Make sure that your old Mac has a computer name: Choose Apple menu  > System Preferences, then click Sharing and check the Computer Name field.
  • Connect both computers to AC power.

Connect the computers to each other

  • If both computers are using macOS Sierra or later, just make sure that they're near each other and have Wi-Fi turned on. If either is using OS X El Capitan or earlier, connect them to the same network using Wi-Fi or Ethernet.
  • Or connect them using target disk mode and the appropriate cable or adapter. Then start up your old computer in target disk mode.
  • Or connect your new Mac to a Time Machine backup of your old Mac.

Use Migration Assistant

On your new Mac:

  1. Open Migration Assistant, which is in the Utilities folder of your Applications folder.
  2. Click Continue.
  3. When asked how you want to transfer your information, select the option to transfer from a Mac, Time Machine backup, or startup disk.
  4. Click Continue.

On your old Mac:
If you started your old Mac in target disk mode or are migrating from a Time Machine backup, skip these four steps.

  1. Open Migration Assistant.
  2. Click Continue.
  3. When asked how you want to transfer your information, select the option to transfer to another Mac.
  4. Click Continue.

On your new Mac:

  1. When asked to select a Mac, Time Machine backup, or other startup disk, click the appropriate icon.
  2. Click Continue. You might see a security code.

On your old Mac:
If you started your old Mac in target disk mode or are migrating from a Time Machine backup, skip these two steps.

  1. If you see a security code, make sure that it's the same code as on your new Mac.
  2. Click Continue.

On your new Mac:

  1. Choose the backup to transfer information from.
  2. Click Continue.

Continuing on your new Mac:

  1. Select the information to transfer from the backup.
  2. Click Continue to start the transfer. If you have a lot of content, the transfer might take several hours to finish.


In the example above, John Appleseed is a macOS user account. If you transfer an account that has the same name as an account on your new Mac, you're asked to rename the old account or replace the one on your new Mac. If you rename, the old account appears as a separate user on your new Mac, with a separate home folder and login. If you replace, the old account overwrites the account on your new Mac, including everything in its home folder.

After Migration Assistant is done, log in to the migrated account on your new Mac to see its files. If you're not keeping your old Mac, learn what to do before you sell, give away, or trade in your old Mac.

Summary :

When you just buy a new PC, you may want to transfer operating system from one computer to another in order to keep the system settings, programs, and data exactly the same as the old PC. Have you ever wondered how to transfer OS to a new computer? If yes, then you’ve come to the right place and this post will show you 2 simple methods for Windows 10/8/7 system transfer.

Quick Navigation :

It's Necessary to Transfer Operating System from One Computer to Another

You know, the computer may get slower and slower after running it for a few years. Then, you may choose to purchase a new PC to replace the old one. If you are used to using the system settings, programs and everything on the old computer, what will you do to?

Many of you may choose to transfer operating system to a new computer instead of spending time installing Windows & applications then copying file. By choosing this way, you can keep everything exactly the same as the old computer.

You may think it is easy to transfer hard drive to new computer without re-installing Windows 10/8/7. However, this is not true. You must take hardware compatibility problem and Windows activation issue into consideration.

Can you transfer Windows from one computer to another? The answer is yes of course. In the following article, we will show you how to transfer a full operating system from one computer to another ending up with the same Windows system and files on both computers.

How to Transfer Operating System from One Computer to Another

How to copy Windows 7 from one computer to another? How to transfer Windows 10 to another computer? These two questions are frequently asked. To put things simple, there are two methods that can help you complete the work: disk cloning or backup & restore.

To move the full system from the old PC to a new one, you can use a professional Windows backup software, MiniTool ShadowMaker. With its powerful features such as Clone Disk and Backup, you can efficiently and effectively to achieve your goal.

In addition, if Windows fails to boot due to dissimilar hardware after moving hard drive to new computer on Windows 10/8/7 via these two ways, MiniTool ShadowMaker can also help you to fix the incompatibility issue with its Universal Restore feature.

Therefore, don't hesitate to get MiniTool ShadowMaker Trial Edition from below to enjoy its all-included features for Windows & data migration from one computer to another.

Let’s see how to transfer operating system to a new computer in these two ways.

① Clone Computer to Another Computer

Disk cloning is a way to transfer all contents from one hard drive to another one. In another word, the target disk will contain the exact same data as the original disk.

How Do I Transfer Software From One Mac To Another

To transfer operating system from one computer to another, you can also use this method. It can transfer all the information on the system disk of your old computer to the disk of the new one which includes important personal files like documents & pictures, system settings, and programs, etc.

How to clone one computer to another? You may follow the following guide.

Move 1: Clone Disk for Moving Hard Drive to New Computer Windows 10/8/7

Step 1: Connect the destination PC hard drive to your old PC and launch MiniTool ShadowMaker Trial Edition. Then, click Keep Trial button, and choose the Connect button in This Computer section to continue.

Step 2: Go to the Tools window where you will see a list of features. Click on the Clone Disk feature to clone computer to another computer so that you can transfer operating system from one computer to another.

Step 3: In the pop-up window, MiniTool ShadowMaker asks you to choose the source disk and destination disk for cloning. Just choose the specific hard drive for the corresponding section.

After completing the selection, this software will inform you that all target disk data will be destroyed. Click Yes to continue.

Tip: Make sure the disk space of destination PC hard drive is equal to or larger than the used disk space of your source computer hard drive.

Step 4: You can see some information about cloning in the progress page which includes the source disk, destination disk, elapsed time and remaining time. Please wait patiently until the operation is finished. You can also choose to tick the option Shut down the computer when the operation is completed.

Tip: After disk cloning is complete, MiniTool ShadowMaker will pop up a window asking you to disconnect one disk, as shown below. Here, your purpose is to transfer operating system from one computer to another, thus, you can disconnect your target disk and connect it to your new computer.

In addition, you can try another piece of hard drive cloning software, MiniTool Partition Wizard to clone computer to computer to keep things the same as your old PC. This post - How to Clone a Hard Drive to SSD in Windows 10/8/7 gives you more information.

Of course, if you only want to clone Windows to new hard drive, try its Migrate OS to SSD/HD.

Move 2: Fix Incompatibility Issue between Old Computer and New Computer

In most cases, after moving hard drive to a new Windows 10 computer, your PC should run properly. However, if you copy Windows 7 from your old computer to another computer, it is possible that you will experience this issue: move hard drive to new computer Windows 7 won't boot.

The main reason for cloned hard drive not booting is that the incompatibility of hardware between your old computer and a new computer. How can you put your hard drive in another computer and ensure it can boot?

To solve this boot issue, you can also ask MiniTool ShadowMaker for help. Its Universal Restore feature is quite useful when you’re trying to fix the hardware incompatibility issue. You can successfully transfer operating system from one computer to another via cloning at the same time ensuring PC's start-up has no problem.

Step 1: Create a bootable disc or USB flash drive with its Media Builder that is located on the Tools page. Then, boot your new computer from the boot drive to enter MiniTool ShadowMaker recovery environment.

Step 2: Go to Tools to click the Universal Restore feature.

Step 3: MiniTool ShadowMaker will then automatically detect the installed operating system on the hard drive, for example, Windows 7. Just click Restore button to perform a repair.

Later, turn off your PC and enter BIOS to change the boot order to boot your PC from the cloned hard drive. You may enjoy everything on the new PC that is the same as your old PC.

② Back up and Restore

In addition to cloning one computer to another, you can try the second method to transfer OS to new computer. MiniTool ShadowMaker can back up your system, files and disks/partitions within a few clicks and restore your PC to its previous state on Windows 10/8/7.

The following steps are to show you how to transfer operating system from one computer to another via backup & restore.

Move 1: Back up Your Old Computer

Step 1: Run MiniTool ShadowMaker Trial Edition on your old computer. Then, click Keep Trial and start a local backup by hitting the Connect on the left side.

Step 2: Go to the Backup window and you will see the backup source (system-related partitions) and backup destination are selected by default.

  1. To only transfer OS from one drive to another, you can directly go to the next step.
  2. To transfer hard drive to new computer without re-installing Windows 10/8/7, we suggest backing up the entire system disk to keep the system and data same as the old PC on your new PC. You can enter the Source section, click Disk and Partitions, choose system disk and tick all partitions on the system disk.
  3. In addition, you can also re-specify a destination path which can be an external hard drive, USB flash drive, and NAS.
Tip: You may ask this question: how to copy operating system to flash drive? Actually, MiniTool ShadowMaker can help you. You may relate to this post - Back up Windows 10 to USB Drive: Two Simple Ways Are Here.

Step 3: Click Back up Now to run the backup operation in the Manage page. This may take several minutes, so wait patiently.

Tip: Remember to create a bootable drive with Media Builder after backup since you are required to enter the MiniTool WinPE recovery environment to perform the restoration operations related to Windows system.

Move 2: Restore Disk Image of Your Old PC to New Computer

After backing up your old computer, now you can transfer operating system from one computer to another during the restoration.

Step 1: Connect the external hard drive that contains the disk image file to your new PC. Boot your new PC from the created boot drive, and run MiniTool ShadowMaker.

Step 2: Go to Restore window, click Add Backup to find your image file to display it in the list if you can't see it here. Then, click the Restore button to transfer OS from one drive to another.

Step 3: Select a backup version to go on.

Step 4: You need to select partitions to restore from the selected backup image file. You will then see all partitions on your system disk are listed. We suggest checking all of them.

Warning: To ensure your new computer can boot after restoration, please tick the MBR and Track 0 option.
Transfer Software From One Mac To Another

Step 5: Decide which disk you want to restore the image file to. In this case, you are trying to transfer operating system from one computer to another, you should choose the hard drive of your new computer as the target disk. Then, click Next to go on.

Step 6: When the restoration process is performing, please wait patiently.

Now, you successfully transfer operating system from one computer to another via backup & restore.

Move 3: Universal Restore

How To Transfer Files To New Computer

Similarly, if your new computer has different hardware, Windows on your new PC won't boot.

To restore Windows image backup to the computer with dissimilar hardware and ensure the PC runs properly, you also need to use MiniTool ShadowMaker to fix the incompatibility issue via its Universal Restore feature. The operation was mentioned in method 1, so we won't be repeating it.

If you are looking for ways to copy Windows 7/8/10 from one computer to another, MiniTool ShadowMaker is a really good choice for you. You can not only use it to clone computer to computer easily but also back up the system and restore it to a new PC.

Even if the new PC has different hardware, its Universal Restore can solve the incompatibility issue. It is worth a try for use.

More Tip:

Transfer From Old Mac To New Mac

Sometimes you may want to give up the old PC and want to move the hard drive to a new PC and use it directly. Then, you may ask: can I put my hard drive in another computer? The answer is yes.

However, you must ensure the new PC has the same hardware as the old PC. If not, remember to use MiniTool ShadowMaker to perform a fix via its Universal Restore feature.

Furthermore, make sure your PC uses the correct boot mode (UEFI boot or legacy boot) and the boot order in BIOS is correct.

Bottom Line

Is your old PC slow and want to replace it with a new one but want to keep everything same as the old PC? Copying Windows 7/8/10 from one computer to another is a great option.

And this post shows you how to transfer operating system from one computer to another: clone system disk and backup & restore PC. Just choose the proper way based on your situation.

If you have any question regarding MiniTool ShadowMaker or have any suggestion related to the PC transfer, it is a good idea to leave your idea in the Comment section or send an email to [email protected].