I am upgrading from an old iMac to a newer Mac Mini. The problem is that the new Mini has a drive that is too small. I want to have the OS on the Mini's internal drive and then have the personal files on an external drive. What is the best way to do that?
Mac mini, macOS 13.0
There is no easy way to do that.
Option 1, return the Mac mini and buy one with a larger drive.
Option 2, move your Photos and/or Music Libraries from the old iMac to an external drive and remove the Libraries from the old iMac. Then Migrate what’s left on the old iMac to the new Mac mini.
Warning: option 2 really requires 2 external hard drives to be safe. One external drive to hold your Libraries and one external drive to backup the Libraries.
There is no easy way to do that.
Option 1, return the Mac mini and buy one with a larger drive.
Option 2, move your Photos and/or Music Libraries from the old iMac to an external drive and remove the Libraries from the old iMac. Then Migrate what’s left on the old iMac to the new Mac mini.
Warning: option 2 really requires 2 external hard drives to be safe. One external drive to hold your Libraries and one external drive to backup the Libraries.
All of my photos, music, and videos are already on an external hard drive.
How much data is showing on the old iMac's drive and what size is the Mac mini's drive?
If it is greater, then you will need to move something else off to the external drive.
In that case, skip the migration tool & setup manually including/in particular your apps. Sounds like a lot of work, but really isn’t.
Migrating from a large drive to two smaller drives
