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iDominic

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 25, 2013
67
0
Garden City, MI
Hello, I plan on buying a mac mini pretty soon but I have a few basic questions (I'm not too good with computers :mad:)

1. If I bought a non-apple monitor, could i buy a webcam for facetime and photobooth to work?

2. Is the mac mini scaled to fit any size screen?

3. Can I still use USB's on my desktop and mac mini at the same time?

~ sorry if i sound stupid, I'm just not too good with this stuff.
Thanks.
 

Thraun

macrumors regular
Dec 18, 2008
159
41
Abbotsford, BC
1. Yes

2. Yes

3. I'm sorry, I don't understand, could you clarify? What kind of USB device? And are you saying you also have a desktop computer? If what you're asking is can you plug a USB device into 2 computers at once the answer is no, though you can certainly use them on one computer at a time. Please respond with a little more info.
 

opinio

macrumors 65816
Mar 23, 2013
1,171
7
Same answers as Thraun above.

On question 3, by 'USBs' I take it you mean USB hard drive? And by 'desktop' I take you mean another Windows PC? Yes?

If that is the case, I take it you mean can you access a USB drive from your Mac mini and Windows PC at the same time? Or can you plug the drive into two computers at the same time?

The answer is no. You can only plug a USB hard drive into one computer at a time.

But... there are a few options for sharing between PCs and Macs...

You could buy a NAS (network drive) so you can access the NAS drive from both computers. That plugs into your router instead of a computer.

Also you could buy an Apply Time Capsule (basically an NAS). That would give you access to a drive from both. This is probably the easiest if you want to move to Macs. You can also plug your old USB drive into it and it is accessible from the Windows PC and a Mac.

Also you can share the USB drive on one of the computers so you can access it on the other. That requires some network configuration.

Also you can load Windows on a Mac in an App called Parallels. Then you can access a USB drive on the Mac and on Windows at the same time. That option does not use your Windows Desktop though.
 

KrisLord

macrumors 68000
Sep 12, 2008
1,740
1,868
Northumberland, UK
For question 3 - do you mean can a USB stick be used with both OS X and Windows?

The answer would be yes. Both can read and write to drives formatted with the FAT32 file system, which is standard for most USB sticks.
 

Hookemfins

macrumors 6502
Jan 13, 2013
325
27
Florida
Same answers as Thraun above.

On question 3, by 'USBs' I take it you mean USB hard drive? And by 'desktop' I take you mean another Windows PC? Yes?

If that is the case, I take it you mean can you access a USB drive from your Mac mini and Windows PC at the same time? Or can you plug the drive into two computers at the same time?

The answer is no. You can only plug a USB hard drive into one computer at a time.

But... there are a few options for sharing between PCs and Macs

As long as you have both computers on the same network, can't you share the computer that the USB HD is attached to with the other one?

You can share files and directories between Macs and PCs, why not an external or USB HD?
 

opinio

macrumors 65816
Mar 23, 2013
1,171
7
As long as you have both computers on the same network, can't you share the computer that the USB HD is attached to with the other one?

You can share files and directories between Macs and PCs, why not an external or USB HD?

Yes, of course. I put that down as 'option 3' in my post?

"Also you can share the USB drive on one of the computers so you can access it on the other. That requires some network configuration."
 
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