Trans fer files from Windows to a Mac

[RWebb]

thought I'd try the Apple Macintosh system, so after calling Apple 2x I bought a new Macbook Air. It has no Ethernet port, but I did buy their Superdirve (which apparently is not super enuff to work with BlueRay, but is claimed to support DVDs and CDs). I have now talked to the 5th tech support person at Apple who is telling me I cannot put files onto a DVD in Win 7 (my desktop) and then copy them onto the Airbook.

guy #5 says I have to use either WiFi (too slow) or go buy an Ethernet adapter (long drive). Each person tells me something different BTW.

guy #5 caNNOT EXPLAIN how the file format is changed when using a DVD as vs. using ethernet.


- Does anyone know for sure if this is correct?? It is NOT what Apple told me before purchase. I have 14 days to try this before I mail it back to them and buy a Sony Vaio or something.

[jeffgrant]

Of course you can. Just make it a data disk format when you burn it, and it'll read the files just fine. You might have to be sure to "close" the DVD so that you can't add more stuff to it, but I'm not sure about that.

I do it all the time.

Have you actually tried to burn a DVD?

[motion]

DVD data will be just fine. Or, try a thumb drive. They're fast and cheap. Wifi is very fast... how could that be too slow?

[imcarthur]

The file format won't change. It's just a file. Do you have Office or whatever on both? If you can, just establish a local wifi network.

Does speed really matter for a dump or will this be a common task?

Ian

[stomachmonkey]

Just share one of the machines and drag n drop.

Let it run over night if you have a crapload of data..

Or thumbdrive.

DVD will work just fine but would be my last choice, involves the most steps and not any faster than over the air when all things are considered.

Or just turn the PC into a file server and leave everything on it.

Pull it over as needed.

[gtc]

Why not just install windows 7 on the macbook?

[island911]

Originally Posted by gtc

Why not just install windows 7 on the macbook?

ah geez . . . . there goes Webbster.

[RWebb]

thanks to the first 5 posters

Ian that is what I asked the first few Apple people - It's transferred now - guy #6 EXPLAINED IT.

a simple copy will work on most files, but cannot enable all files to work (iTunes, Email pst, etc.)

apparently, some of the Apple staff did not realize that the machines are configured to not show a disc on the desktop when loaded into the drive

some others are not familar with the new Air book and thought it had an ethernet cable

I suspect that some are trained to just give the easiest answer, not the one that solves the problem.

Anyway, I got about 15 Gigs over so far. The critical files are Documents in Word, Excel, etc.

I may move semi-entirely to the Mac if it is all that great. I'll never be able to use it for GIS and datalogger stuff, but can retain a windows machine for those tasks.

[Moses]

Switch 101: Migrate your Windows files or system to your Mac

[RWebb]

yes I studied that beforehand -- migrate requires a WiFi (too slow) or ethernet connection (no ethernet port)

I got the important stuff over with DVDs - USB keys are too small to make it praticable

[jeffgrant]

Costco sells 32GB thumb drives that hold 4 times the data as a DVD and transfer data way faster than it takes to burn to DVD.

$0.02

[Neilk]

Wife got a MacBook Air last week and asked the "Genuises" to transfer everything over her from her old Macbook... They kept on having issues and it would crash with a minute left to go.

Two issues, first they were trying to fit 300GB of data into a 256mb hard drive and second, they didn't apply the data migration patch to her original Mac. I was not impressed.... and all this because she wanted a "pro" do it for her. ARRGGHH women.

That said, copying files or installing Office 11 on a SSD drive is blazing fast. Neat little machine.

[legion]

Do Macs use EBCDIC?

[jeffgrant]

CCSID 500, I believe.

[RWebb]

Originally Posted by jeffgrant

Costco sells 32GB thumb drives that hold 4 times the data as a DVD and transfer data way faster than it takes to burn to DVD.

$0.02

thx - that would solve part of my future problems (iTunes is 380 Gb)


I Xferred the files via DVD; then did it again via Migration Asst. - turns out the latter files cannot be accessed - they have little red marks on the folders.

not too easy to switch from PC to Mac - so I have 13 days left to figure out whether I want to send it back or not. I cannot find any Windows portable that really matches it tho. Sony Vaio seems closest.

[RWebb]

Neil - Office 11 is on order

re the transfer - I won't let a 3rd party have a chance to look at my secret squirrel stuff on the machine. Hence it is DIY time.

[imcarthur]

I have a 32GB SD card with a USB adapter that has proven to be very useful.

Ian

[jeffgrant]

If you have that much stuff to transfer, I'd pick up an external USB drive. I bought a 2TB one from Costco for about $140 or so.

Personally, I'd use it to transfer all your stuff off of your Windows machine, then onto your Mac.

Then you can wipe the external drive and use it as your backup drive with Time Machine.

To fix your permission problems, try going into the Disk Utility, select your drive from the list on the left, and then click on the "repair disk permissions" link. It should go through and fix those issues for you.

[jeffgrant]

And I'd recommend doing this for transferring your iTunes files:

-- copy the iTunes song files from your Windows machine to the external drive

-- if you have any playlists you like, you can export them as XML files. These playlists aren't the songs themselves, just the list of the song names, etc.

-- connect the drive to your Mac

-- don't copy the files to your Mac like you normally would think to, but open iTunes and import them into your Mac's iTunes. iTunes has an "add to library" menu item (under file) that you can point to the top level folder on the external drive that has all of your songs in it. iTunes will then copy the songs from the external drive into your iTunes, and process them and add them to the appropriate databases, etc. Normally copying the files won't actually import them into iTunes, but this will.

360GB will take a fair bit of time just to transfer to the drive, never mind importing them back into iTunes, but you'll only have 1 action to do compared to using a thumb drive or DVD's, and it'll be way, way faster.

[RWebb]

thx - figured out that the red icon was a permissions issue

I do have a USB ext. drive but Win 7 uses it for a system image or some such. I'll save your post re iTunes for later. My main task is to determine if I can do useful work on this thing or should can it and get a better Windows laptop instead. My ancient Thinkpad works, but is slow & heavy nowdays, not to mention the difficulty of seeing the keyboard under conditions I often need to use it.

I won't be able to move all the 360 Gb over - the Air is too small, but I can move half or so. The iTunes files are in Apple Lossless which makes them larger. Although I am less crazy than Ian, I am sufficiently crazy to make it create big files to get better fidelity. The actual work (non music, non jpg) docs type files to move are mostly just MS Word & Excel, and pdf's. I won't be able to use the big ArcInfo files on the Apple nor the datalogger files.

I just burned a couple more DVDs and will just copy those docs type files over to the Airhead -- I mean Air book.

re EBCDIC - I do remember the trials & tribulations of that conversion; also dropping punch cards (esp. in a rain puddle), and the gawdawful file conversion involved with early GIS...