My Data Migration Experience

The Wednesday before last I took both my MacBook Pro and my brand-new iMac to the Apple Store to have them do a Data Migration from one to the other. Despite having made a backup with Time Machine (actually several, as it makes backups every hour unless you turn it off), I was nervous because I had been told that the Data Migration did not involve copying files to my new Mac, but literally moving files to my new Mac. I thought my laptop would be wiped back to factory settings or something. Not knowing exactly what to expect did not give me an excuse to procrastinate of course, so with directions in tow Nana and I set out to find the Apple Store!

When I’m being relied on for directions, I’m very tense, especially when there is a time crunch involved, because I don’t want to misinterpret and lead us the wrong way. However, I managed to remain fairly calm and used both the printed directions and iOS 5’s Maps app like a boss (at the hefty price of 20% of my iPhone’s battery) and we arrived at the store pretty much without any trouble.

We hauled in both computers only to be quickly greeted by a staff member–I think it was actually the manager!–who informed us that we could call beforehand to have someone come out to carry the stuff in for us, which was a nice tip I obviously hadn’t known before. As I was early for my appointment, we got checked in and waited at the Genius Bar until someone could get back to us. The wait wasn’t very long, and soon everything was taken care of! I just had to confirm my account password and stuff like that, and they took both computers… It was out of my hands.

While our trip to the store was fairly smooth, the trip back home was not. We ended up talking about my brother and missed the exit we needed to take. Furthermore, the next exit wasn’t for a little while, so we had to just keep going! When we finally were able to pull off of the interstate and into another town’s Walgreen’s parking lot, we were able to reorient–but then we headed back out too quickly for me to recalculate our location via the Maps app, so we repeated that a second time. ^^; (It doesn’t help when you’re already lost and afraid you’ll get more lost that your phone is in Japanese using kanji you don’t know yet for the Maps buttons!)

Everything after getting back on the interstate went fine until–yep–we almost missed our exit again. We actually stopped in between the exit and the other lane to make sure we didn’t! And then we were able, finally, to get home without any more hitches. Phew. My phone was mostly out of battery, but I was happy to not be lost anymore!

The Data Migration itself didn’t take very long, but we had already planned to go back on Saturday, so that’s what we did. From the store, we set up a One to One appointment for October 2nd and then we came back home.

That night, my brother opened up the box I had my MacBook Pro in (its original box) and said that it was on. Fearful of what I would find, I opened it up to happily see all of my items still there, and a message from Firefox needing permission to do something. Once I allowed it, the computer shut down; I turned it back on and found all of my stuff still there! I was overjoyed and I thanked my brother for noticing that little indicator light and making me take action!

The next day Mama began taking the iMac out of the box to set it up and see what it looked like in my room, only to discover…

…the mouse was missing.

Yep, whoever migrated my data forgot to return the mouse.

My dad stopped by the Apple Store since he was already going to be in the area (I was very grateful) and put me on the phone with the manager–which was nice because we had been trying to call the whole time and their phone systems were down–and the end result was a new mouse, even though my dad said that apparently they weren’t going to give me a replacement or mail it to me. (That was surprising, since everyone had been so super-nice and helpful through everything else! Why get cranky over a mouse? I didn’t lose it; it was in the box when the iMac was bought, and not in the box after the migration.) I’m really glad I got one anyway—thank you Dad. T.T

So…in any case, Nana and I go back tomorrow for my One to One appointment. I’ll have to bring both computers again since that’s what was recommended for the first time going. That will be good though; they can help me set up stuff as well as answer questions I have. ^^

Bear in mind that this whole time I still have not turned on my new iMac at all. Last week I worked almost exclusively on my contest entry for AIS, which I mailed this past Saturday. So… I guess it will work out for the best! I’ll probably play with it more tomorrow after the One to One…lol.

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