How to keep data from an old Mac to restore later I have a new Mac, and I want to selectively move files over from an old Mac.
I've sold the old Mac and need to ship it today, so what I really want to do is simply take a complete copy of the HD in the old Mac before I erase and reinstall for the new owner.

I have a 500gb usb 3 disk I was going to use for this, I don't want to create a bootable clone, instead just want a complete copy of the old disk maybe as a dmg etc, any ideas?

Not thinking CCC, or restore using dskutil as it's overkill.
There is a app on your drive already.

The Migration Assistant.app

in /Applications/Utilities

Try it.