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Data from PC to new MBP

S

sslee

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 16, 2013
6
0
Newbie Disclaimer--no experience other than ipad

rMBP 2.6/16/512 on its way :D. I want to get it all setup for my wife as a Mother's Day gift.

What would allow the fastest transfer of data from a Windows laptop?
Ethernet cable to Thunderbolt, USB-USB, I assume not wireless Ethernet, something else

Data on a External HD goes by way of USB, reformat as GUID, then send it back?

I will be installing Photoshop and Lightroom...that would be after data?

Thanks
 
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Wired Network / Ethernet
I'm not expert, but the if you have a 100Mb or 1Gb wired / ethernet network at home then that's probably your best bet. That's assuming you have a wired hub/router/switch in the house. Some ISPs give one out: like a combo wifi access point and 4-port hub. Hook both up to the hub/whatever and copy via network. Not the fastest, but fast enough and EASY.

​

USB 3
If both PC and Mac have USB 3 then that might work out a little faster. I don't know of a way from running-PC to running-Mac, but if you can buy a USB 3 enclosure you can put your PC's hard drive in there, hook up the enclosure to the Mac, and copy.​

WiFi
WiFi might not be too bad if both machines have 802.11.n The n makes a difference.​


I mean, the ethernet one always works good enough for me. There are probably faster but it's "good enough" and I don't have to disassemble anything.
 
" combo wifi access point and 4-port hub"
Thanks, I didn't think of that, I would still need to buy a Thunderbolt to Gigabit adaptor for that scenario...so I couldn't run a direct line from the adaptor to the Laptop?
 
I am going to assume that your Windows is a Windows 7 laptop.

I would get an external USB3.0 HDD and copy the personal data from the Windows machine onto the HDD. I would then copy the data from the external HDD to the rMBP.

Just format the external HDD in exFAT as both Windows 7 and OS X can read and write to it. OS X does not include native read/write support for NTFS.
 
If I were to use the external HD exclusively for mac afterwards--I should go back to GUID?

something about exFAT not being 100% reliable for mac OS???

Does the Migration assistant help work around any incompatibility issues? Meaning, will it help with reading data files from the NTFS format?
 
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sslee said:
If I were to use the external HD exclusively for mac afterwards--I should go back to GUID?

something about exFAT not being 100% reliable for mac OS???

Does the Migration assistant help work around any incompatibility issues? Meaning, will it help with reading data files from the NTFS format?
Click to expand...

I've had no problem with exFAT working with my Mac. From what I understand, if you want to use it in a Time Machine capacity, you need to have it formatted in HFS+. Since I use the portable HDD on Windows, Linux, and OS X, I needed a format that all could read.
 
sslee said:
" combo wifi access point and 4-port hub"
Thanks, I didn't think of that, I would still need to buy a Thunderbolt to Gigabit adaptor for that scenario...so I couldn't run a direct line from the adaptor to the Laptop?
Click to expand...

Why do you need a Thunderbolt -> Gigabit adapter?

I thought the Retina MBP's all came with an ethernet port. And just about every PC I've seen manufactured since maybe 2002 has come with an ethernet port as well.

So
  1. MacBook = Ethernet Port -> 4PortHub.
  2. PC= Ethernet Port -> 4PortHub
  3. Share a folder on the PC
  4. Browse to that PC's folder with the Mac (via IP address or computer name)
  5. Copy files

Not THE fastest method, but cheapest and easiest assuming you have a hub of some sort. If you don't, then I guess one of the other methods might be easier.

I've done hundreds-of-gigabytes with this method.

But if you have an urge to buy a Thunderbolt adapter to use for some reason, then go ahead.
 
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karpich1 said:
Why do you need a Thunderbolt -> Gigabit adapter?

I thought the Retina MBP's all came with an ethernet port. And just about every PC I've seen manufactured since maybe 2002 has come with an ethernet port as well.
.
Click to expand...

No rMBP come with ethernet. The classic macbook pro does, but GigE is too thick a port to fit on the retina.
 
sslee said:
If I were to use the external HD exclusively for mac afterwards--I should go back to GUID?

something about exFAT not being 100% reliable for mac OS???

Does the Migration assistant help work around any incompatibility issues? Meaning, will it help with reading data files from the NTFS format?
Click to expand...



True, but you cant always just reformat, some people dont want to move or lose data, then move data a second time.
 
sslee said:
Perfect for me, some "Migration for Idiots" guides :D...funny I couldn't find the first 2 when I searched myself.

What connection did they use?
Click to expand...

The machines were on the home wireless network. If I recall it was slow, about as slow as transferring files directly wirelessly via a shared folder, but it seemed to be simpler to set up.

----------
onirocdarb said:
No rMBP come with ethernet. The classic macbook pro does, but GigE is too thick a port to fit on the retina.
Click to expand...

That, but more likely the fact copper ethernet is so old school, my kids wouldn't know what to do with an ethernet cable.... like they wouldn't know what a phone cable was :)

There are TB to ethernet adapters, if you must have one.
 
Yes, if you're going to use the network plenty then you want a TB-Ethernet adaptor anyway, so just use that.

For the quickest transfer, though, a few dollars will get you an external USB3 drive caddy -- put the drive from the old machine into that and plug it in. OSX can still read Windows drives even if it can't write to them depending on the format. Once you've transferred everything over then reformat the external drive and use it as a backup device.
 
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