On Friday , youmight have readmy and executive editor Susie Ochs ’s experience with our out - of - the - box , retail purchased MacBooks . We had a peck of glitches in setup and configuration , many confirmed by other MacBook owners and some by people who had experience the same problems in set up new Macs .
But the one genuinely unexpected part had to do with migration . Because of an OS X mismatch — the MacBook ship with 10.10.2 and my MacBook Air had 10.10.3 installed — I was ineffective to use the initial apparatus assistant to migrate . ( If I ’d been dogged , I could have booted into the Recovery Disk on the MacBook , used connection recovery to download and install 10.10.3 on the inauguration partition , and then proceed . )
After a few downloads and restarts to get 10.10.3 installed , the MacBook failed multiple time to utilise Migration Assistant to move files over Wi - Fi . The MacBook lacks Thunderbolt and FireWire interface , which are required for Target Disk Mode ( TDM ) , in which a Mac is climb on another Mac as a campaign . ( At inauguration , you hold down the triiodothyronine key until a USB logotype seem on blind . )
A few days before the MacBook embark , Apple had a noteabout USB - based TDM , something that had n’t antecedently existed . ( Some colleague ’ memory board severalize them that the original MacBook Air and perhaps another mannikin offered it , but perusing archive and checker support pages argue that was never the case . )
Then the note disappeared ! Perhaps the only way to manage a migration , if a networked one via Wi - Fi would n’t work , was going to be through the method I put down on : Time Machine backup from the original machine , and then a restore on the new MacBook . ( Some folks also usedSuperDuper ! or Carbon Copy Cloner , both reasonable choices that command slightly more cognition . )
And then , like magic , the USB - century page at Apple was update with fully revise TDM selective information on Saturday . It ’s possible , but it requires a circumstances of qualification .
The inside skinny
Apple ’s revise information lists two scenario , depending on the cable :
With a USB 3.0 or 3.1 USB Type A to USB - C cable system
With a USB - coulomb to USB - atomic number 6 cable ( with 3.0 or 3.1 support )
Apple mention helpfully , “ These cable are not presently useable from Apple . ” Alas , the USB - blow cable that comes with the MacBook only affirm USB 2.0 data point charge per unit for syncing , and USB 3 is on the face of it required .
The two overseas telegram types Apple mentions are both so - called SuperSpeed or SuperSpeed+ cables . USB 3.0 volunteer a top 5Gbps throughput rate , and is market as SuperSpeed with an SS on the overseas telegram drumhead . The same rate is incorporated into USB 3.1 as Gen 1 . Gen 2 USB 3.1 offers 10Gbps rate ( as SuperSpeed+ or SS+ ) , but only on equipment that ’s configured for it . The MacBook is a Gen 1 - only equipment , but can expend any late genesis USB 2.0 or 3.0 overseas telegram as well as SuperSpeed+ cable .
With a3.0 or 3.1 cable ( SS or SS+ ) that has Type A on one ending , Apple now say you’re able to punch a MacBook into any other Mac notebook and mount the MacBook in TDM . It ’s unclear why this is confine to notebooks , and we ’ll be testing it with fast line as soon as we have them .
However , you still can not use Setup Assistant or Migration Assistant over a Type A to Type C cable !
TheUSB - C to USB - C optionallows MacBook - to - MacBook migration , which is something very few masses could possibly require now , but it will be utilitarian in the future as USB - C appear on more computers .
I ’ll be testing a variety of USB - C adapters and cable in the near future .
