Transferring XP files/programs to Mac

[Marzzz]

An old Dell I used for office work recently died, and I was able to pull the hard drive and mount it in a portable enclosure. Connecting this drive to my MacBook Pro shows all the Windows, etc. files, so I know the drive is functional.

I plan to get a Mac Mini and with Boot Camp load a fresh copy of XP SP2. I will then need to transfer files and applications from the hard drive to the Mini. Is there some Windows equivalent of Migration Assistant that will allow me to do this, or any reasonable way to get this to work? Some of the applications I have original discs, some not. Apologies if this is a FAQ.

[theITGuy]

In Windows:

Start\Programs\Accesories\System Tools\Files and Settings Transfer Wizard

Cheers.

-J.-

[steveza]

You can easily copy the files off - you can't really transfer applications from one Windows machine to another they will need to be reinstalled.

[Marzzz]

Thanks for the replies!

Will Transfer Wizard work from a Hard Drive to a computer, or is it computer-computer only?

I am trying to avoid reinstalling software, because some of it is proprietary business software which would require an IT guy from the company to reinstall it (costing me $$$; And don't worry, I do have the license to use this software, it is not pirated!). If I can copy all settings directly than I could avoid this expense.

[futureswitcher]

You can use cloning software to clone your hard drive to a partition of your macbook. Acronis comes to mind, although there may be some free windows app that I don't know about. It should be able to do a bit-by-bit clone so nothing needs to be reinstalled and everything is exactly the way you left it. I'm not sure if it works from whole drive to partition, but I've used it from whole drive to whole drive and it works beautifully! Everything was there!


EDIT:

I just realized that this might not work because you're using bootcamp from a mac, and Acronis doesn't work on mac. Plus your old drive is probably formatted in NTFS and bootcamp/mac doesn't play nice with ntfs.

(What i was originally suggesting should enable you to clone directly to a formatted hard drive without having to install windows on your bootcamp partition.)

unless, you partition your drive with bootcamp, format it with FAT, stick it into a windows box as a secondary drive, reformat it with NTFS, and then clone to it.

...but then you probably won't be able to run it on your mac.

ahh, hell. I dunno. Just verify with someone else before you do anything. I'm just thinking out loud.

[steveza]

Thanks for the replies!

Will Transfer Wizard work from a Hard Drive to a computer, or is it computer-computer only?You will need to boot up the OS stored on that harddrive to run transfer wizard i.e. it's computer to computer.

Plus your old drive is probably formatted in NTFS and bootcamp/mac doesn't play nice with ntfs. I'm not sure what you are referring to here but NTFS works fine under boot camp. Vista and Windows 7 are NTFS only anyway.

[Marzzz]

Thanks again!

I will try to get the hard drive into another computer and have Transfer Wizard take it from there...fortunately the original computer was a fairly basic Dell configuration.

[futureswitcher]

I'm not sure what you are referring to here but NTFS works fine under boot camp. Vista and Windows 7 are NTFS only anyway.

oh. For some reason I though Mac couldn't recognize NTFS and that's why disk utility doesn't let you format in it (or am I wrong about that, too? I'm not at my mac now so I can't check.)


in that case would my initial suggestion work? I've confused myself.

[steveza]

oh. For some reason I though Mac couldn't recognize NTFS and that's why disk utility doesn't let you format in it (or am I wrong about that, too? I'm not at my mac now so I can't check.)Disk Utilltiy cannot format an NTFS partition but it can delete it and format it to FAT32. You can access NTFS from OS X using MacFUSE and NTFS-3G.