How to switch to a mac.
October 21, 2005 11:34 AM Subscribe
Questions about making the switch to Mac: We have 200GB of files, mostly music and photos, on the harddrive of my PC (running windows XP SP2). I want to give my SO an iMac G5. (Shh! It's a secret.) Tell me what the easiest way is to move the pictures and music from one platform to the other.
Is there some simple way to network them together? We have a wireless network, if that helps.
Is there some simple way to network them together? We have a wireless network, if that helps.
Get an external USB2-interface hard drive, format it FAT32, and copy the pictures and music to that drive. Once you get the iMac, plug it in (OSX can read FAT32) and copy the files over.
You could also transfer them over the network, but that's a little more complicated.
posted by mrbill at 11:44 AM on October 21, 2005
You could also transfer them over the network, but that's a little more complicated.
posted by mrbill at 11:44 AM on October 21, 2005
Also, the wireless network would be a *lot* slower than the HD route.
posted by mrbill at 11:44 AM on October 21, 2005
posted by mrbill at 11:44 AM on October 21, 2005
You can get also some tips from the horse's mouth, so to speak.
posted by mds35 at 11:46 AM on October 21, 2005
posted by mds35 at 11:46 AM on October 21, 2005
I use both Macs and PCs on a daily basis. My preferred platform is Mac, and that's what I use at home. I've never had any trouble using a data file from one platform on another platform except some odd video files here and there. There are just some video files that I can't get to play on my Macs. (Despite what everyone will tell you, VLC is not a magic cureall. While it's a great program, it does not play everything.)
So, transferring data files from one platform to another is just as easy as moving data files from one computer to another. Since you have a wireless network, you'll be able to shuttle the files that way (if the g5 is Airport-equipped). It took me a little fussing to figure out how to connect my Mac to a a PC network (I think I found out how via AskMe, actually), but once I connected once, it's been seamless ever since.
To summarize: you don't have to do anything special to get the files from the PC to the Mac. It's just the same as moving from PC to PC.
posted by jdroth at 11:48 AM on October 21, 2005
So, transferring data files from one platform to another is just as easy as moving data files from one computer to another. Since you have a wireless network, you'll be able to shuttle the files that way (if the g5 is Airport-equipped). It took me a little fussing to figure out how to connect my Mac to a a PC network (I think I found out how via AskMe, actually), but once I connected once, it's been seamless ever since.
To summarize: you don't have to do anything special to get the files from the PC to the Mac. It's just the same as moving from PC to PC.
posted by jdroth at 11:48 AM on October 21, 2005
On my iMac, connecting to the lonely Windows machine in our house is very simple. Enable sharing on the folders you need in Windows. Plug the iMac and Windows machine into a mutual network. Open the Finder on the Mac, and browse the 'Network" folder. You'll probably have to provide a username and password for the Windows machine to let the Finder authenticate, and then it will be seamless. You can then just drag to copy.
It will take awhile to copy 200 GB over a 100Mbs ethernet. It will take a REALLY long while to do it over 11Mbs wireless, or even 54Mbs wireless. But it will happen.
posted by teece at 11:54 AM on October 21, 2005
It will take awhile to copy 200 GB over a 100Mbs ethernet. It will take a REALLY long while to do it over 11Mbs wireless, or even 54Mbs wireless. But it will happen.
posted by teece at 11:54 AM on October 21, 2005
The fastest way to do this is to just pull the HD out of the PC, put it in the G5, and copy the files in OS X.
Do you have a FireWire port on your PC? If so, the second fastest way is to boot your new G5 into target disk mode, connect the two machines via Firewire, and copy the files over (your Mac will appear as an external disk drive to the PC).
The third best way is to connect the machines via a 100/1000baseT network. Most new Apple hardware has auto-sensing ports, so you can connect two machines directly together with a normal Cat5 cable (assuming you know how to manually setup the network).
The fourth, and certainly slowest, way is to do it over the wireless. Unless you're desperate, I wouldn't recomend this route because it will take forever.
posted by sbutler at 12:43 PM on October 21, 2005
Do you have a FireWire port on your PC? If so, the second fastest way is to boot your new G5 into target disk mode, connect the two machines via Firewire, and copy the files over (your Mac will appear as an external disk drive to the PC).
The third best way is to connect the machines via a 100/1000baseT network. Most new Apple hardware has auto-sensing ports, so you can connect two machines directly together with a normal Cat5 cable (assuming you know how to manually setup the network).
The fourth, and certainly slowest, way is to do it over the wireless. Unless you're desperate, I wouldn't recomend this route because it will take forever.
posted by sbutler at 12:43 PM on October 21, 2005
Addendum: sorry, strike that second suggestion. I forgot that your PC won't be able to read the format on the Mac HD.
posted by sbutler at 12:45 PM on October 21, 2005
posted by sbutler at 12:45 PM on October 21, 2005
I wrote a how-to on firewire transfers, which is wicked fast between my mac and PC.
posted by mathowie at 1:16 PM on October 21, 2005
posted by mathowie at 1:16 PM on October 21, 2005
Unless you have some sort of need to transfer files quickly, it's safe to disregard the "it'll take forever" comments. Yes, it's slow to move files over wireless. So what? It's also convenient. When I need to move large chunks, I start the copying when I'm ready for bed. It's usually finished by morning. Unless you are routinely moving large quantities of data, wireless is a perfectly acceptable solution.
posted by jdroth at 1:22 PM on October 21, 2005
posted by jdroth at 1:22 PM on October 21, 2005
You can turn on the ftp server on the Mac and ftp the files across with an ftp client on the PC. I just did this last week with about 30GB of info - it worked great.
posted by dhacker at 1:52 PM on October 21, 2005
posted by dhacker at 1:52 PM on October 21, 2005
The fastest way to do this is to just pull the HD out of the PC, put it in the G5, and copy the files in OS X.
sbutler has a good idea here, but the iMac won't support multiple internal drives. Consider something like this. You can connect a bare IDE drive via USB and transfer files that way.
200 Gb is 200,000 Mb; with parity, etc., that's 2 million bits. At 100 Mbits/sec (assuming you will get the full bandwidth, which you won't), it would take 5.5 hours to transfer everythiing via a network. As jdroth said, you could do it overnight. (But if your network is slower, plan to sleep late the next day.)
posted by forrest at 4:17 PM on October 21, 2005
sbutler has a good idea here, but the iMac won't support multiple internal drives. Consider something like this. You can connect a bare IDE drive via USB and transfer files that way.
200 Gb is 200,000 Mb; with parity, etc., that's 2 million bits. At 100 Mbits/sec (assuming you will get the full bandwidth, which you won't), it would take 5.5 hours to transfer everythiing via a network. As jdroth said, you could do it overnight. (But if your network is slower, plan to sleep late the next day.)
posted by forrest at 4:17 PM on October 21, 2005
To jdroth, who comments on playing certain video files on a Mac - what you're after is probably the correct codec. VLC is pretty robust, but it never hurts to do a quick Google for divx mac codec or xvid mac codec, if you're having problems playing some random .avi you got from Bittorrent.
posted by armoured-ant at 4:21 PM on October 21, 2005
posted by armoured-ant at 4:21 PM on October 21, 2005
You can connect a bare IDE drive via USB and transfer files that way.
Here is a cheap USB/IDE bridge that will help you transfer the files painlessly and save you $20-ish in the process. Take the hard disk out of the PC, stick it in this, and connect it to the Mac. You can probably find even cheaper ones but NewEgg is reliable.
I am pretty sure Mac OS X supports read-only access to NTFS as well as FAT32, so it shouldn't matter what format the PC disk is.
posted by kindall at 5:05 PM on October 21, 2005
Here is a cheap USB/IDE bridge that will help you transfer the files painlessly and save you $20-ish in the process. Take the hard disk out of the PC, stick it in this, and connect it to the Mac. You can probably find even cheaper ones but NewEgg is reliable.
I am pretty sure Mac OS X supports read-only access to NTFS as well as FAT32, so it shouldn't matter what format the PC disk is.
posted by kindall at 5:05 PM on October 21, 2005
I would just use a network crossover cable (or use TCP/IP over firewire as mathowie's article suggests) and copy via the network.
My second choice would be an external HD. They're not a bad purchase because you can use it for backups after you get the stuff transferred.
My last choice would be anything that involves shuffling actual HDs around. Life is much easier if you can keep both computers up and running until you are certain that you no longer want/need the second one.
posted by I Love Tacos at 5:32 PM on October 21, 2005
My second choice would be an external HD. They're not a bad purchase because you can use it for backups after you get the stuff transferred.
My last choice would be anything that involves shuffling actual HDs around. Life is much easier if you can keep both computers up and running until you are certain that you no longer want/need the second one.
posted by I Love Tacos at 5:32 PM on October 21, 2005
My iBook doesn't even require a crossover ethernet cable: it's got some sort of smarts that allows me to plug an ordinary ol' cable into its ethernet port, the other end into my old Toshiba Satellite's ethernet port, and whammo-bammo, we got dataflow.
It's almost sick. Since when have computers operated so easily? Why am I no longer endlessly frustrated by the stupidity of the whole thing?
Macintosh: sucking the fun out of hacking about blindly.
posted by five fresh fish at 6:02 PM on October 21, 2005
It's almost sick. Since when have computers operated so easily? Why am I no longer endlessly frustrated by the stupidity of the whole thing?
Macintosh: sucking the fun out of hacking about blindly.
posted by five fresh fish at 6:02 PM on October 21, 2005
odinsdream, it's not new mac hardware. It goes back to the blue and white g3s (about 5 yrs ago) as I recall.
fff, feel free to play with unix for all your hacking fun.
posted by filmgeek at 8:23 PM on October 21, 2005
fff, feel free to play with unix for all your hacking fun.
posted by filmgeek at 8:23 PM on October 21, 2005
it's not new mac hardware.
Most recent PC hardware and even Ethernet switches and routers do this.
posted by kindall at 10:38 PM on October 21, 2005
Most recent PC hardware and even Ethernet switches and routers do this.
posted by kindall at 10:38 PM on October 21, 2005
Truly, filmgeek, I wasn't complaining about not having to fart around with my OS any more. I'm quit happy to not have to hack.
I'm finding the Mac world to be a far, far better thing than I'd ever thought it could be. Mac fanboys always seemed loony to me. Now... gosh, they're not loony after all!
posted by five fresh fish at 12:13 PM on October 22, 2005
I'm finding the Mac world to be a far, far better thing than I'd ever thought it could be. Mac fanboys always seemed loony to me. Now... gosh, they're not loony after all!
posted by five fresh fish at 12:13 PM on October 22, 2005
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posted by indigo4963 at 11:43 AM on October 21, 2005