How to recycle/reuse/continue Time Machine for a new Mac?

How to recycle/reuse/continue Time Machine for a new Mac? I have been backing up a MacBook Pro to an external hard disk with Time Machine. I got a new laptop, used the firewire connector to pull the universe across to it, and started it up. It does not want to just pick up where I left off with the backups; it wants to start a new backup sequence and thus I need a ton of additional disk space.
Asked by: Guest \| Views: 463

Total answers/comments: 2

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bert [Entry]

"It turns out that under Snow Leopard, Apple has allowed for this. When you turn on TM for the first time, it will ask you:

Would you like to reuse the backup [..] with this computer?
The backup was created on a different computer. If you reuse this backup it can no longer be used by the original computer.

I was mislead by the wording, but it turns out to mean just what's called for here: continuing the backup sequence on the new machine as if it were the old machine.

Image from blog.gerrior.com, in an article about logic board replacement (probably using the very same hard drive!)"

bert [Entry]

"Would comment, but I lack the rep...

bmargulies is correct about this function in Snow Leopard. It actually works quite well- when the logic board is changed, as described the MAC address of the network interface also changes, ""breaking"" the association w/ TM. In the case where the TM backup prefs are managed by Snow Leopard Server, you'll have to update the MAC address of the relevant computer record in Workgroup Manager before the machine with the new logic board will ""remember"" that its associated with Time Machine and popup the dialog mentioned by bmargulies."