New Mac Pro: Setup/Migration Assistant never finishes I am trying to transfer my existing (Early 2008) Mac Pro to a new (refurb) 2013 Mac Pro.  I'm still in "setup assistant" mode.

The amount of information being transferred is about 120Gb.  I've tried transferring over a direct-connected Ethernet from Mac-to-Mac, as well as a brand new Time Machine backup to an external SSD connected via a Thunderbolt 1 breakout box.

Every time I try to transfer, the transfer makes it to the applications stage in a reasonable amount of time.  The progress bar is almost full. Then it starts doing the applications.  At first, the screen shows "Transferring Applications"/"Transferring files to support applications" pretty fast.  Then it starts getting slower.  And slower.  All the while, the completion time (which was "about a minute" starts creeping up.)  The first time I let it run all night.  By morning it was saying there would be over 250 hours to completion.

I've tried it 4 times since then (including a complete system reinstall), and the same thing happens every time.

I feel like I'm down to 2 scenarios:


The Mac Pro has a hardware issue.  I've already run the hardware diagnostics, but nothing shows up.  That being said, this is a refurb, it's possible something is wrong that only affects the new machine during long transfers.
There's something in the backup or my applications setup that's causing the migration to get stuck in a loop.  I've looked on the system drive for a log, but I haven't found one.


Here's where it gets really, really bizarre: I can't find any sign of the files transferred on the new Mac after I've stopped it.  Not a single file appears on "Macintosh HD" on the new Mac.

Any ideas? Apple can't help me in the store until Monday, so I thought I'd ask here.
Also not really an answer but more a practical approach.

Another idea that requires manual work. I did this with a Macbook Pro and a MacPro 2006:


Boot your old MacPro into Firewire Target Mode (yes this works with "T" on power on).
Connect it to you new MacPro with a FireWire cable.
Mount all harddiscs
Copy over all data you need, but leave out the Library folder in your old homedirectory.
Do a fresh install of your favourite software, that is quicker and safer that copying them from the old MacPro or a TimeMachine Backup. You will definitely miss important files. (just my experience with MS Office)


Positive effect of this: you trashed all old things you really do not need. :-)

I even go a step further - On my old MacPro I set all files and directories I want to copy on a red label in the finder. When mounting the harddiscs, I immediately see what is important and needs to be copied. :-) And as a reminder of which software I will need on the new machine, I set the finder label "green" to all applications I will need on my new machine.