How Easy or Hard is it to transfer Data...

[Stevi]

From my antiquated PC to my soon to arrive iMac? I was going to have the Apple store do it for me but I'm home sick with pneumonia of all things and it could be quite a while before I am well enough to go out.

Thanks,

Stevi

 

[RedCroissant]

From my antiquated PC to my soon to arrive iMac? I was going to have the Apple store do it for me but I'm home sick with pneumonia of all things and it could be quite a while before I am well enough to go out.

Thanks,

Stevi

It's pretty simple for the most part, but that also depends on how antiquated you PC is.

 

[Stevi]

It's pretty simple for the most part, but that also depends on how antiquated you PC is.

It was originally built in 2002 and has 3 hard drives. We maxed out the ram a few years ago I think to 4gb (i'd have to get out of bed to know for sure) it only has usb1 ports (as opposed to 2 or 3). I'm not sure what else is needed. It is connected to a home network (and the internet).

 

[itsamacthing]

Depending on how you define moving data... you might just go ahead and buy an external HD dock and plug the drives directly into your new iMac and move the data like that

 

[Fireproof!]

Depending on how you define moving data... you might just go ahead and buy an external HD dock and plug the drives directly into your new iMac and move the data like that

I would suggest this. Get an external HD dock with USB3 or Firewire 800 connections or something, mount the HD into the dock, and transfer the data. Pretty easy. Just takes time.

 

[mwc5k]

I just put my stuff on a USB flash drive, but I only had maybe 25 GB of files.

 

[DFWHD]

It was originally built in 2002 and has 3 hard drives. We maxed out the ram a few years ago I think to 4gb (i'd have to get out of bed to know for sure) it only has usb1 ports (as opposed to 2 or 3). I'm not sure what else is needed. It is connected to a home network (and the internet).

I just came from a similar situation. One of my two drives was large enough so I copied everything to it and them popped it out and placed it into a USB 3 shell and then copied over to the new mac. That or do one drive at a time. USB 3 shells or a dock as previously mentioned are the way to go. Let the copy process run overnight and you'll be good in the morning.

 

[Towelie1288]

pretty simple i also came from a pc i already had a external HDD usb3 and it just drag and drop from pc to hdd and drag and drop from hdd to imac
and its super fast on usb 3

good luck and enjoy your new Mac

 

[davidfinchley]

I decided to invest the £70 odd and buy Parellel Switch to Mac edition as I wanted my new 27" to be able to run both Mac OS and Windows at the same time. Having installed the software on both Mac and my PC laptop, I connected the two via the data cable supplied, pressed a couple of buttons and away it went with a full migration. It could not have been easier. Some people might not want to pay the cost of the software, but when you are dealing with a high end Mac costing over £2,700 and when you consider the time and aggrovation savings, it was a drop in the ocean really. I am very pleased I did it that way.

 

[AppleFan360]

pretty simple i also came from a pc i already had a external HDD usb3 and it just drag and drop from pc to hdd and drag and drop from hdd to imac
and its super fast on usb 3

good luck and enjoy your new Mac

This is pretty much the easiest way. Doesn't even need to be USB 3. Just find an external hard drive or USB stick somewhere and transfer the data from the PC to the drive, then back to the Mac.

 

[Stevi]

Thanks everyone for your replies.

This is going to be a big change for me as I change systems. Anyway the pneumonia is clouding my brains so if this question seems painfully obvious or stupid please remember I'm sick.

All the talk about using an external drive kicked my brain into gear. All my stuff is currently sitting as my backup on an 1 TB WD external HD. Can I move it directly from there to the new Mac?
Thanks,
Stevi

 

[Weaselboy]

Thanks everyone for your replies.

This is going to be a big change for me as I change systems. Anyway the pneumonia is clouding my brains so if this question seems painfully obvious or stupid please remember I'm sick.

All the talk about using an external drive kicked my brain into gear. All my stuff is currently sitting as my backup on an 1 TB WD external HD. Can I move it directly from there to the new Mac?
Thanks,
Stevi

If you have XP or later, you can use Apple's Windows Migration Assistant to move things over.

If you want to do it manually, here is an Apple support article that will walk you through it.

 

[Stevi]

If you have XP or later, you can use Apple's Windows Migration Assistant to move things over.

If you want to do it manually, here is an Apple support article that will walk you through it.

Awesome! I found the above mentioned articles and have read them. This makes loads of sense and I feel so much better about doing it myself. I have XP and my drives were cleaned in preparation for the migration. So it should be easy.