I have been searching around the forum for discussions regarding external hard drives and most of what I am finding involve people who are doing a lot more with them than I need to do. All I want to do is get an inexpensive, portable drive to use to transfer documents from my current PC laptop to my new MBP and then to use for Time Machine backups.
Reading all the information I am finding about external hard drives is just managing to confuse me even more. I don't really think I need anything fast so I think a USB 2.0/3.0 drive will work for me. Also, I see that some come formatted for Mac, but I don't think I want that or I won't be able to get what I have on my laptop transferred over. I would just use a thumb drive to do it because that would work for my documents and photographs as I don't really have that many, but I have a lot of music that I have ripped onto my laptop that I want to be sure gets transferred. My husband and I actually have an external hard drive already but I don't know if it would work with my new Mac. Any suggestions/advice on the easiest way to get things transferred and start doing Time Machine backups on my new machine would be greatly appreciated!
Edit: Also need to add, I want to be 100% sure that I do whatever I need to do to get my iPhone backup transferred to my MBP so the first time I sync I don't delete my contacts, calendar, and music on my iPhone! Thanks!
Reading all the information I am finding about external hard drives is just managing to confuse me even more. I don't really think I need anything fast so I think a USB 2.0/3.0 drive will work for me. Also, I see that some come formatted for Mac, but I don't think I want that or I won't be able to get what I have on my laptop transferred over. I would just use a thumb drive to do it because that would work for my documents and photographs as I don't really have that many, but I have a lot of music that I have ripped onto my laptop that I want to be sure gets transferred. My husband and I actually have an external hard drive already but I don't know if it would work with my new Mac. Any suggestions/advice on the easiest way to get things transferred and start doing Time Machine backups on my new machine would be greatly appreciated!
Edit: Also need to add, I want to be 100% sure that I do whatever I need to do to get my iPhone backup transferred to my MBP so the first time I sync I don't delete my contacts, calendar, and music on my iPhone! Thanks!
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