Copying files from Windows to Mac

[Phil Force]

I am in the process of buying a new MacBook Pro. It will be my first Mac, though I use one everyday at work (typing from a new iMac now).

My question is, when I get the MacBook, how can I copy all my files from my current Windows-based external HDD, onto the MacBook?

I am mostly concerned in saving my pictures and songs if it makes a difference.

Thanks.

 

[u49aa2]

i would not worry. When i moved from PC to mac i moved all my music, pictures, and documents with no problems. Some of my old powerpoint documents were not 100% compatible with mac (i had problem with the slide show function) but that's it. From the pictures and the songs point of view i think you are safe.

 

[kastenbrust]

Exactly the same way you would copy them from one PC to another PC. Mac's are the same in that respect, so you have nothing to worry about.

 

[Phil Force]

Thanks. I always thought that an external drive that was used with a PC had to be formatted before it could be used on a Mac (because of different file structures I assumed). So I can just unplug it from my PC and plug it into the Mac and it should work fine?

 

[u49aa2]

Thanks. I always thought that an external drive that was used with a PC had to be formatted before it could be used on a Mac (because of different file structures I assumed). So I can just unplug it from my PC and plug it into the Mac and it should work fine?

Yes

 

[angelwatt]

Thanks. I always thought that an external drive that was used with a PC had to be formatted before it could be used on a Mac (because of different file structures I assumed). So I can just unplug it from my PC and plug it into the Mac and it should work fine?

Mostly. If the file system is in FAT format then Mac can read it and write to it fine. If the file system is in NTFS then Mac can only read it, but there are free 3rd party apps can give you the ability to write to it. You can find those apps in these forums with a little searching.

As another note, the Mac system uses a file system of HFS (Mac OSX Extended (Journaled)) that Windows cannot read or write to (without 3rd party apps), so just keep that in mind when formatting drives in the future that Windows needs to access. The Mac can format drives in a couple file system formats including FAT.

 

[Phil Force]

Thanks everyone. This forum seems to be incredibly helpful and fast with responses.

 

[Silver80]

Thats because you've left the dark side and come into the light

 

[madog]

i would not worry. When i moved from PC to mac i moved all my music, pictures, and documents with no problems. Some of my old powerpoint documents were not 100% compatible with mac (i had problem with the slide show function) but that's it. From the pictures and the songs point of view i think you are safe.

If you were using MS Office on the Mac, make sure you updated it completely (as in, running it a bunch of times as it only updates sequentially, and not all at once). With Office for Mac 2004, it was common for me to see customers old Windows Office docs not reading at all in the Mac version until it was updated 11 times (they didn't release SP's for Office '04 for Mac).