Newbie questions

[wizzywig27]

Ok, I am moving from windows to an iMac, Santa is delivering it on the 25th December. Anyway I have a few questions..I have ordered the top end 21.5".

1) will Diable III run ok on this?
2) will I need some anti-virus software?
3) will it work out of the box?

There are more questions but I can't think at the moment.

Thanks

[simsaladimbamba]

Yes.
No.
Yes.

For further information on question two, await an answer by Mister GGJstudios.

[GGJstudios]

Originally Posted by wizzywig27

2) will I need some anti-virus software?

You don't need any 3rd party antivirus app to keep a Mac malware-free, as long as you practice safe computing, as described in the following link. Read the What security steps should I take? section of the Mac Virus/Malware FAQ for tips on practicing safe computing.

Originally Posted by wizzywig27

3) will it work out of the box?

Yes, just plug it in and turn it on.

This may be useful:

Helpful Information for Any Mac User
iMac Fast Start: The new user's guide to iMac

[wizzywig27]

Cheers for the tips guys.

Do I need to do silly stuff like defrag the drive?

[GGJstudios]

Originally Posted by wizzywig27

Cheers for the tips guys.

Do I need to do silly stuff like defrag the drive?

No. With very few exceptions, you don't need to defrag on Mac OS X, except possibly when partitioning a drive.

About disk optimization with Mac OS X

You probably won't need to optimize at all if you use Mac OS X.

You don't need to "maintain" your Mac and you don't need "cleaner" or "maintenance" apps to keep your Mac running well. Some of these apps can do more harm than good. Some can even degrade, rather than improve system performance.

Some remove files/folders or unused languages or architectures, which does nothing more than free up some drive space, with the risk of deleting something important in the process. These apps will not make your Mac run faster or more efficiently, since having stuff stored on a drive does not impact performance, unless you're running out of drive space.

Some of these apps delete caches, which can hurt performance, rather than help it, since more system resources are used and performance suffers while each cache is being rebuilt. Caches exist to improve performance, so deleting them isn't advisable in most cases.

Many of the tasks performed by these apps should only be done selectively to troubleshoot specific problems, not en masse as routine maintenance.

Mac OS X does a good job of taking care of itself, without the need for 3rd party software. Among other things, it has its own maintenance scripts that run silently in the background on a daily, weekly and monthly basis, without user intervention. You can use Maintidget to see the last time these scripts were run.

Five Mac maintenance myths

I encourage you to spend some time with the Helpful Information for Any Mac User link I posted. It will go a long way in answering your questions about using your new Mac.

[wizzywig27]

Excellent, thank you.

I'm so excited but also cautious that I may not set it up right of do something that may result in something going wrong.

Can you make a back us USB? Or is there a partition saved?

[GGJstudios]

Originally Posted by wizzywig27

Excellent, thank you.

I'm so excited but also cautious that I may not set it up right of do something that may result in something going wrong.

Can you make a back us USB? Or is there a partition saved?

It's always a good idea to keep a backup of your entire drive, so you don't lose any data in the event of a problem. You can use the Time Machine app that comes with your Mac, or use Carbon Copy Cloner, version 3.5.1 ($40) or 3.4.7 (free) to make bootable backups of your internal drive. You can use any external drive for backups, as long as it's formatted properly.

As far as recovering the OS, your Mac comes with a recovery partition.

OS X: About OS X Recovery
Apple - OS X Recovery restores your Mac with a few clicks.
Hands on with Mountain Lion's OS X Recovery and Internet Recovery

[wizzywig27]

So much to read....one other thing, I have numerous USB drives, do they need formatting to work on the mac?

[GGJstudios]

Originally Posted by wizzywig27

So much to read....one other thing, I have numerous USB drives, do they need formatting to work on the mac?

It depends on how they're formatted. They're most likely either FAT32, which your Mac can read/write natively, or NTFS, which Mac OS X can read natively, but not write to.

Format A Hard Drive Using Disk Utility (which is in your /Applications/Utilities folder)

Choose the appropriate format:

HFS+ (Hierarchical File System, a.k.a. Mac OS Extended (Journaled) Don't use case-sensitive)

• Read/Write HFS+ from native Mac OS X
• Required for Time Machine or Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper! backups of Mac OS X system files.
  
• To Read/Write HFS+ from Windows, Install MacDrive
  
• To Read HFS+ (but not Write) from Windows, Install HFSExplorer
• Maximum file size: 8EiB
• Maximum volume size: 8EiB
• Mac OS X: Mac OS Extended format (HFS Plus) volume and file limits
• You can use this format if you only use the drive with Mac OS X, or use it for backups of your Mac OS X internal drive, or if you only share it with one Windows PC (with MacDrive installed on the PC)

NTFS (Windows NT File System)

• Read/Write NTFS from native Windows.
• Read only NTFS from native Mac OS X
  
• To Read/Write/Format NTFS from Mac OS X, here are some alternatives:
  • For Mac OS X 10.4 or later (32 or 64-bit), install Paragon ($19.95) (Best Choice for Lion and Mountain Lion)
  • For Mac OS X 10.5 and later, including Lion, FUSE for OS X
  • For 32-bit Mac OS X, install NTFS-3G for Mac OS X (free) (does not work in 64-bit mode)
  • Some have reported problems using Tuxera (approx $36), which is an enhanced version of NTFS-3G with faster performance.
  • Native NTFS support can be enabled in Snow Leopard and later versions, but is not advisable, due to instability.
• AirPort Extreme (802.11n) and Time Capsule do not support NTFS
• Maximum file size: 16 TB
• Maximum volume size: 256TB
• You can use this format if you routinely share a drive with multiple Windows systems.

exFAT (FAT64)

• Supported in Mac OS X only in 10.6.5 or later.
• Not all Windows versions support exFAT. See disadvantages.
• exFAT (Extended File Allocation Table)
• AirPort Extreme (802.11n) and Time Capsule do not support exFAT
• Maximum file size: 16 EiB
• Maximum volume size: 64 ZiB
• You can use this format if it is supported by all computers with which you intend to share the drive. See "disadvantages" for details.

FAT32 (File Allocation Table)

• Read/Write FAT32 from both native Windows and native Mac OS X.
  
• Maximum file size: 4GB.
• Maximum volume size: 2TB
• You can use this format if you share the drive between Mac OS X and Windows computers and have no files larger than 4GB.

[THOPMedia]

Setting up the apple ID for a mac is the only thing that can cause a bit of an annoyance but they have made it much easier now. Just follow the steps and you will be all good.

[zemzabob]

A lot of good info in this thread!

[wizzywig27]

Very good explanation of file systems above, even though you have explained in great detail, I am still struggling a little. Am I right in saying that I cannot simply copy across all my songs and movies from my old Windows 7 machine and play on the new iMac?

[simsaladimbamba]

Originally Posted by wizzywig27

Very good explanation of file systems above, even though you have explained in great detail, I am still struggling a little. Am I right in saying that I cannot simply copy across all my songs and movies from my old Windows 7 machine and play on the new iMac?

You can simply copy your songs, as Mac OS X is able to read NTFS formatted drives natively, thus connecting an external NTFS HDD to your Mac will allow you to copy songs or other files off that NTFS HDD to your internal or any other external HDD (properly formatted though).