Fastest way to transfer Windows files [old PC] to MacOS [MBP]

[UnifiedMelody]

I've decided my aging windows pc would mostly be archiving and dismantled soon to be a storage unit [or a NAS eventually] - i still use it for

Rn trying to transfer windows to mac. MacBookPro [esp the M4 Max] is mostly use for raw photo development as on my first impressions, LR, PS and DaVinci is buttery smooth and super snappy which is what i liked. However my painful process at the moment is trying to migrate all the RAW files over so I can clear out LR, PS, Davinci on my PC. so I can retire and then continue editing on Mac which in my opinion while it does fan up a little little bit and get a bit warm it's much better thermals than my current PC which is 6-7x slower and fans enjoy going to jet engine levels for no reason.

However the issue I usually run is when I reformat/reset my external SSD's to exFAT, the write to a SSD is painfully slow [10MB/sec] for nearly 400GB worth of raw photos which I'm migrating over to MacOS.

Is there a faster way to transfer from windows to PC from anyone's experiences. I've tried ethernet direct Windows to Mac and it's only 10MB/sec... 1Gbps connection supposedly [not]

Was also thinking export NTFS into formatted external SSD and then drop into APFS external drive and go from there (but my PC is at wits end, it is crashing a lot lol hence the fast moving required)

[i can't do dropbox/google drive/onecloud upload thanks to australia's very slow UL speeds... at most 5MB/s upload speed [40Mbps]]

any suggestions would be appreciated. This is my first macbook pro/macOS product fwiw so i am still on a slight learning curve (But i got used to the keyboard at least, its enjoyable and fun, coupled with the trackpad)

 

[Howard2k]

What is the storage medium in the PC? i.e., where the files currently reside? Is that SSD or HDD?

 

[UnifiedMelody]

What is the storage medium in the PC? i.e., where the files currently reside? Is that SSD or HDD?

most of them RAW photo files [TIFF and .NEF] are in SSD, thankfully. HDD mostly for archival storage of final stuff and back up dumping of all photos [I have a 8TB HDD and around 4-6TB worth of SSD's but so many module/units]

I might possibly plan a NAS soon [8-12TB should be sufficient] but still doing some research around it. Now i find i don't keep raw files as often [less than one year max] and only keep exported finals so i don't need as much storage as before

I know i can't just dump catalog [LR] over from Windows to Mac, hence manually moving them. plus most of the time i'm using a single preset i made so there isn't any extreme variation/color grading in the photos [currently]

 

[Howard2k]

Anything from the HDD is going to be dog slow, even if you have a 100Gb/s Ethernet connection at home. And smaller files won't transfer with the same speeds as larger files.

For the SSD from the PC, what if you just pull that out of the PC and put it directly into the external enclosure? Then you're just doing the copy job once.

 

[UnifiedMelody]

Anything from the HDD is going to be dog slow, even if you have a 100Gb/s Ethernet connection at home. And smaller files won't transfer with the same speeds as larger files.

For the SSD from the PC, what if you just pull that out of the PC and put it directly into the external enclosure? Then you're just doing the copy job once.

I'm probably going to try make custom NVMe [2TB 970 Evo Plus] into a NTFS drive [i know its read only, can't write] then drop into the APFS T7 2TB. and see if LR can still process it. If so then I'll most likely do this since it's mainly to 'get the raw files across'... i do have several external drives so can play around a bit and experiment.

any archival crap isn't an urgency to move. that can take its sweet time

 

[russell_314]

I've decided my aging windows pc would mostly be archiving and dismantled soon to be a storage unit [or a NAS eventually] - i still use it for

Rn trying to transfer windows to mac. MacBookPro [esp the M4 Max] is mostly use for raw photo development as on my first impressions, LR, PS and DaVinci is buttery smooth and super snappy which is what i liked. However my painful process at the moment is trying to migrate all the RAW files over so I can clear out LR, PS, Davinci on my PC. so I can retire and then continue editing on Mac which in my opinion while it does fan up a little little bit and get a bit warm it's much better thermals than my current PC which is 6-7x slower and fans enjoy going to jet engine levels for no reason.

However the issue I usually run is when I reformat/reset my external SSD's to exFAT, the write to a SSD is painfully slow [10MB/sec] for nearly 400GB worth of raw photos which I'm migrating over to MacOS.

Is there a faster way to transfer from windows to PC from anyone's experiences. I've tried ethernet direct Windows to Mac and it's only 10MB/sec... 1Gbps connection supposedly [not]

Was also thinking export NTFS into formatted external SSD and then drop into APFS external drive and go from there (but my PC is at wits end, it is crashing a lot lol hence the fast moving required)

[i can't do dropbox/google drive/onecloud upload thanks to australia's very slow UL speeds... at most 5MB/s upload speed [40Mbps]]

any suggestions would be appreciated. This is my first macbook pro/macOS product fwiw so i am still on a slight learning curve (But i got used to the keyboard at least, its enjoyable and fun, coupled with the trackpad)

I would just get a very fast external SSD find the files you want to transfer and then copy them over. Yes it’s not going to be instant but do it before you go to sleep

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Format an external drive (SSD or HDD) of sufficient size as ExFAT and dump all files you think you want to move to Mac to that drive. macOS can directly read ExFAT. Then just use that as an external drive with Mac when you need access to those files.

Or if you need access to all of those files on the new Mac, you can save them from Windows to ExFAT drive then copy them from ExFAT to Mac.

If these are crucial files to preserve, be sure you have a backup of them too (2 drives or repurpose the one inside that PC) and get one of them stored offsite. Or borrow/buy a disc burner and burn a few BDs to long-term store these photo files in a very slim package offsite.

 

[UnifiedMelody]

I would just get a very fast external SSD find the files you want to transfer and then copy them over. Yes it’s not going to be instant but do it before you go to sleep

Yea I have a T9 4TB on order at the moment, won't be arriving so quick [but its 499aud] to get my mbp from 1 to 4TB would be nearly 1500aud lol [and thats still not having 1 extra TB avail]. Speed wise I'll be fine even with base 1000MB/s which is fine, even though yes I'm losing out TB5 potential it's future headroom which i can grow into eventually...

So using a custom-made 970 Evo Plus 2TB on exFAT [i had the NVMe sitting in my drawer for 2 years, only just found it now... and a T7 2TB atm [currently on APFS]... The NVMe gets ridiculously hot in comparison to the brick SSD [T9] lol. Rn as an exFAT drive from my 870 Evo SSD [2TB internal] to the 970 Evo NVMe, I'm seeing around 50-75MB/s, not groundbreaking speeds but its a start to get things moving

kind of shamed its 'slower' transfer speed than my HDD [which gets 100-125Mb/s lol]

once the T9 4TB arrives I will use that more often as the main SSD attached to the MBP most of the time and the other two will serve as secondary SSD's for travel or short trips etc.

 

[UnifiedMelody]

Format an external drive (SSD or HDD) of sufficient size as ExFAT and dump all files you think you want to move to Mac to that drive. macOS can directly read ExFAT. Then just use that as an external drive with Mac when you need access to those files.

Or if you need access to all of those files on the new Mac, you can save them from Windows to ExFAT drive then copy them from ExFAT to Mac.

If these are crucial files to preserve, be sure you have a backup of them too (2 drives or repurpose the one inside that PC) and get one of them stored offsite. Or borrow/buy a disc burner and burn a few BDs to long-term store these photo files in a very slim package offsite.

Yea I have formatted a custom 970 Evo Plus NVMe to be exFAT for now, while the transfer speed isn't groundbreaking fast it's a start at least to help me move it across to. It's not my most ideal external storage because nvme's get ridiculosuly hot... even with a fan nearby on it.

[would like if i could see 300-500MB/s at least] ahaha but nope alas just gotta ride it out

ironically when i formatted the secondary SSD into exFAT through mac had no issues lol... everytime i reformat in windows it would clock off and disconnect somewhere in between [even if its directly reformatted to exFAT]!

learning a lot here lol

 

[Alameda]

Yea I have a T9 4TB on order at the moment, won't be arriving so quick [but its 499aud]. Speed wise I'll be fine even with base 1000MB/s which is fine, even though yes I'm losing out TB5 potential it's future headroom which i can grow into eventually...

So using a custom-made 970 Evo Plus 2TB on exFAT [i had the NVMe sitting in my drawer for 2 years, only just found it now... and a T7 2TB atm [currently on APFS]... The NVMe gets ridiculously hot in comparison to the brick SSD [T9] lol. Rn as an exFAT drive from my 870 Evo SSD [2TB internal] to the 970 Evo NVMe, I'm seeing around 50-75MB/s, not groundbreaking speeds but its a start to get things moving

kind of shamed its 'slower' transfer speed than my HDD [which gets 100-125Mb/s lol]

once the T9 4TB arrives I will use that more often as the main SSD attached to the MBP most of the time and the other two will serve as secondary SSD's for travel or short trips etc.

It's "only" 400 GB and you're only doing it once.
If you need to start the copy from the Windows box to the external drive and it takes an hour... so what? Just put up with it.
You can definitely use ExFat on an external drive to shuttle the files and folders from Windows to the Mac. But once you have the files on the Mac, it's better (faster) to reformat the external drive to the APFS and not use ExFat with your Mac.

Any USB 3.x is going to be on the order of 5 gb/s or faster, which is much faster than gigabit Ethernet. One thing I've learned is that, on the Mac, file copies are FAR faster when you copy folders. If you open a folder of, say, 500 items, select the 500 items and drag that to the Mac, it is very slow. So copy folders, not files.

 

[UnifiedMelody]

It's "only" 400 GB and you're only doing it once.
If you need to start the copy from the Windows box to the external drive and it takes an hour... so what? Just put up with it.
You can definitely use ExFat on an external drive to shuttle the files and folders from Windows to the Mac. But once you have the files on the Mac, it's better (faster) to reformat the external drive to the APFS and not use ExFat with your Mac.

Any USB 3.x is going to be on the order of 5 gb/s or faster, which is much faster than gigabit Ethernet. One thing I've learned is that, on the Mac, file copies are FAR faster when you copy folders. If you open a folder of, say, 500 items, select the 500 items and drag that to the Mac, it is very slow. So copy folders, not files.

yea that was what i was concluding too also. i tried ethernet and Wi-Fi transfer lol and its embarassing 9-10MB/s direct link Windows to MacBook Pro. Migration assistant won't work because my PC has no 'low-power adapter bluetooth' supposedly.

it's going up to 50-75MB/s now to an exFAT drive so I think that should suffice. Not the most desirable speed but at least it proved to still be better than the other two options. The issue was when i tried to format exFAT on windows, it was bringing a lot of issues... however when i did the same procedure on mac = absolutely all issues gone, the speed was faster [windows format was sitting at an insulting 1-5MB/s like srs]

Once dragging it to another SSD [APFS] on the mac both linked it will fly.

 

[cogzero]

Just bite the bullet and go the slow way. 400GB at 10MB/s will take around half a day.

It might be best to go in multiple batches of 50 to 100GB, starting with the more critical files.

 

[dodgywanker]

Consider 'airdrop' files between Mac & Windows using https://localsend.org Free, open source, cross platform. Move stuff over in batches but no cabling, internet connection or extra hardware required.
I just discovered this a few weeks ago & it works pretty good so far.

 

[Flyview]

Why is your exFAT NVMe SSD so slow? Do you have a cable and USB ports capable of USB 3.1 gen 2 speeds? That should be 10Gbps (gigabits per second) or about 1.25 GB/s (gigabytes per second), over 20x the speed you are seeing!

 

[IowaLynn]

Have you considered buying Paragon NTFS for Mac US$30 - I’ve used it for years having Mac and Windows machines.

Microsoft NTFS for Mac | Paragon Software

Boost Your Mac with Paragon File System Link. Read/write Microsoft NTFS files on your Mac for free.

www.paragon-software.com

 

[UnifiedMelody]

Why is your exFAT NVMe SSD so slow? Do you have a cable and USB ports capable of USB 3.1 gen 2 speeds? That should be 10Gbps (gigabits per second) or about 1.25 GB/s (gigabytes per second), over 20x the speed you are seeing!

Fixed it, my usb-c cable was semi faulty. as soon as i got a new one I'm seeing 500MB/s, not the 'best' but i'm happier than before. now to get everything productive out of pc so i can use it as an archiving tool

 

[UnifiedMelody]

Have you considered buying Paragon NTFS for Mac US$30 - I’ve used it for years having Mac and Windows machines.

Microsoft NTFS for Mac | Paragon Software

Boost Your Mac with Paragon File System Link. Read/write Microsoft NTFS files on your Mac for free.

www.paragon-software.com

was considering this I did see this... If I can just dump NTFS files into APFS and import via LR/Davinci I'll be more than fine. [if this worked, i would pay to do this in a heartbeat lol]. exFAT is so cringe for idk why, i've never seen it this bad even on USB 3.1, i know my CFexpress and SD cards are exFAT by nature but it only works fine for dumping files straight off into the source/workstation, but it's a pain to get files onto it.

 

[winxmac]

macOS can read and write on exFAT formatted drive but can only read on an NTFS formatted drive [unless you install a third party NTFS driver which is not really advisable]

 

[next_cube]

If your NTFS disks are encrypted with Bitlocker Mac OS can't read them.