From Mac to Windows

October 4, 2005 8:40 AM

Help me transition to Mac. I have a home computer (Windows) that just crapped out. There was a power surge or something and the Power supply and motherboard are now toast. The hard drive is OK. I have an iBook, and now I want to get a Mac Mini for home. My question is.... How do I get the files off my old (standard ATAPI) hard drive and into my iBook? Is there some sort of adapter that I can buy to plug into my USB port? What options are available?
posted by TheFeatheredMullet to computers & internet (10 comments total)

Get yourself a cheap firewire enclosure.
posted by freq at 8:45 AM on October 4, 2005

Second freq's suggestion.
posted by Rothko at 8:46 AM on October 4, 2005

This previous post may help.
posted by Robot Johnny at 8:46 AM on October 4, 2005

Yeah, it's called a 3.5" hard-drive enclosure. Get a firewire one instead of USB if your iBook supports that.
posted by Zed_Lopez at 8:47 AM on October 4, 2005

If you go with the mini, you might want to think about the ministack enclosure and kill two birds with one stone, (hard drive performance and low number of ports.)
posted by KirkJobSluder at 9:15 AM on October 4, 2005

If your iBook is recent, it may support USB 2.0 High Speed. USB enclosures are considerably cheaper than firewire.
posted by scruss at 9:29 AM on October 4, 2005

USB is cheaper than firewire. Firewire is faster than USB (even though USB 2.0 has a faster nominal rating, firewire has higher effective throughput).

If you want to continue using the drive after you get the data off it, go firewire. If it something you'll use rarely/never again, be cheap and get USB. Or go crazy and get one enclosure that handles both!
posted by adamrice at 9:34 AM on October 4, 2005

I agree, get an external drive. They're useful for backup after the transition is done. I've had one of these for ages, and it's been gold. Also, you can get a firewire/USB hybrid and have the best of both.
posted by BorgLove at 9:57 AM on October 4, 2005

Add on to the original question: Will I need special software in the mac, or will I be able to see and transfer the files directly after plugging it in even though the hard drive is set up as a dos/fat 32 drive?
Thanks for all the help so far......
posted by TheFeatheredMullet at 10:18 AM on October 4, 2005

Add on to the original question: Will I need special software in the mac, or will I be able to see and transfer the files directly after plugging it in even though the hard drive is set up as a dos/fat 32 drive?

OS X understands FAT32. 10.3 + can read NTFS, but has limited write abilities. If you have something older than 10.3, and an NTFS hard drive, you might need to upgrade or find some other way to transfer it.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 10:25 AM on October 4, 2005