Mac desktops forum: Dumping PC data to new imac

Get yourself a large, external, Firewire/USB drive and connect it to your PC. Format it as NTFS.
Move all the stuff you need to move on to that external, connect it to your Mac and drag the stuff over.
Your iTunes library can be moved in the same way, there is a step by step procedure up at the Support section of the Apple site.

Yes, you can plug any external drive into your Mac and drag stuff from it, but there are limitations.

A Mac can read from, but cannot write to, a drive that is formatted as NTFS. (The normal Windows drive format)
A Windows machine cannot read from, or write to, a drive that is formatted as HFS+(Journaled). (The normal Mac format)

Once you have finished using the external to move data across, reformat it as HFS+(Journaled) and you will then be able to use it as your Time Machine backup device.

P

This is an easy thing to do, that you're all making into a hard thing: After you connect the PC to the iMac w/a USB cable, use the "Migration Assistant.app" in the Applications/Utilities Folder. It will do it all for you! Just follow the simple instructions.

If you had connected the PC to the Mac when you first fired up the Mac, it would've walked you thru this easily, after it asked you if you had files to transfer from a PC.

This is the 'Mac' way to do this. I have been helping people w/computers & Macs since March 6, 1984, when I bought my 1st Mac Classic. I have been maintaining copmuters of all platforms since 1964. The hardest part of moving to a Mac for a PC User is to FORGET everything they know about using a PC. A Mac is NOT a PC (nor is it a Linux box), so you cannot use it as if it were 1. Learn the Mac Way for a Mac, or the Lnux Way for a Linux platform. Don't try to turn either one into a PC.

VR,

Ron.

I stand corrected. What I was trying to show is what Apple has here (as pointed out, above) @ (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2518?viewlocale=en_US):

"...Use a Network Connection

If youre a little more savvy, connect your old PC to your Maceither directly or over a network! Before you start moving files over, you should install any Mac software that you need to open your files first. Once you're done, use one of the following migration methods.
Direct connect

To move files by connecting your Mac directly to your PC:

1. Connect your Mac to your PC using a standard Ethernet cable.
2. Make sure that both computers are turned on.
3. In the Finder on your Mac, choose Connect to Server from the Go menu to open the window.
4. Type your PC's network address in the Server Address text box using one of these formats:
* smb://DNSname/ShareName
* smb://IPaddress/ShareName
5. Click Connect.
6. Follow the onscreen instructions to enter your PC's workgroup name, user name, password, and the volume or folder you wish to access.
7. Your PC volume should appear on your Mac Desktop.
8. Open the volume and drag and drop files directly from it to anywhere on your Mac.
9. When finished, drag your PC volume to the Trash to unmount it..."

This allows "Drag-N-Drop" to be used from the PC to the Mac, except for mail messages, which Apple shows you how to do, if you have a lot of them, here: (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1534)

You may want to get experienced help to do this if you feel uncomfortable with this process, after reading thru it. Any Apple Store will do it for you, probably for free, if you want to take both computers there. Call ahead to get an appointment then. It may be necessary to leave both & come back for them later, when it is done.

And remember that you do NOT have to buy Microsoft Office to use files created by that product after transferring them. You can use either NeoOffice (which is a free download) or the Mac iWork 09 package ($89 for the permanent passcode) to access & modify them. The iWork demo comes already on all Macs. The passcode just licenses each program (Pages, Numbers, and Keynote) to you.


I apologize for my mistake in what I wrote. It has been a while since I had to do this myself.

Will I be able to use migration assistant in transferring all data from a iMac G5, OX 10.4.11 to a new iMac 2.66 ghz arriving tomorrow? I have used target disc mode going from my current iMac to my PB G4.

I am most worried about the transfer of all my email files. Can you suggest the best tutorial for transfer?

Thank you. It has been a while since I've used this forum and I am so happy to see both you and Mr. Profit still at it, dispensing great advice.

Are you on Twitter?

This is not a question but rather an observation. To use Migration assistant to move all my old files to my new iMac, every shred of information I find just says, "merely plug in your firewire cable and follow the instructions". No one, including the sales associate who was very happy to sell me my new iMac, informed me that I would need an 800-400 firewire adapter. My old firewire cable would not work, since the new 800 firewire ports have a different shape to plug into

You can imagine how happy I was to learn this, after having paid for overnight shipping so I would have the entire weekend to fuss around with data transfer, etc. Now I am waiting for the firewire adapter to be sent, paying extra shippping twice. (I live in a rural area no local tech shops.)

It seems like a very simple thing to add to the list of "you might want these too". The Barefoot Contessa's boxed mixes have a wonderful, bold, printed on the packaging box: "Buy these before you leave the store." That's my suggestion to Apple.

Thanks for listening.

First just format the external drive with FAT 32. Mac and Windows can both read it. You have a limit on file size (4gb? or is it 2gb?) but that's about it. Your larger files you can burn to DVD.

I've screwed up a NTFS drive by using the Mac to read it. It took some fancy fixing to get it working (since it was the boot disk for the Vista Partition on the Mac). However if you are just moving data and Mac Can read it. It doesn't matter if you mess up the drive as long as you successfully transfer the files before you have to reformat it.

Use portable devices like Media cards and USB sticks. They appear to be both windows and macintosh compatible.
You will never need to format them (I never needed to). I have been transferring files between windows and macs with these things. Or Zip Disks.
This is a boring and more time consuming way to transfer files, but you don't have to worry about formatting anything if you don't want to.