Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Just made the switch to mac(21.5" 2.5ghz i5)

G

gab2012

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 21, 2011
78
0
Just got sick of having to use my netbook at home with a large lcd in order to work. but I'm learning about macs and I had my wife yell at me since she claimed macs were useless and complicated. I proved her wrong as I pulled the imac out of the box, she fell in love with it and iMovie:D

Just a couple of quick questions, is the hardware inside this machine durable?(I got the 3 year apple care added just in case) wife wants hers:p

I have a bunch of external hard drives with files(photos and music) from my other windows machines, do I need to format them in a special way so they both work with windows and mac or is it only 1 system that the drive can work for?

So far I'm really loving my imac,its fast (Just click safari and its running in a ms compared to IE on my netbook which took like 10 seconds)
 
Last edited:
gab2012 said:
she claimed macs were useless and complicated.
Click to expand...

It just irritates me how some people either know nothing about Macs and just assume that they're too "weird" or different and thus pretend to hate them, or they assume that nothing has changed in nearly 30 years. No joke, I had a man ask me, "oh, isn't the problem with Macs that they can only run one app at a time?"

gab2012 said:
Just a couple of quick questions, is the hardware inside this machine durable?
Click to expand...

I have owned a working 1998 iMac G3 and 1999 iBook G3. Both still running on the original drive. Apple lasts.

gab2012 said:
I have a bunch of external hard drives with files(photos and music) from my other windows machines, do I need to format them in a special way so they both work with windows and mac or is it only 1 system that the drive can work for?
Click to expand...

MacOS will be able to read a Windows NTFS drive, but not write. If you want to share a drive you will have to reformat (which will destroy all of the data) to FAT or exFAT.

gab2012 said:
So far I'm really loving my imac,its fast (Just click safari and its running in a ms compared to IE on my netbook which took like 10 seconds)
Click to expand...

I hope you're using Lion. Using the finger gestures with the Magic Mouse or Magic Trackpad is like navigating a space ship. It just brings your computer to life!
 
I don't advocate the idea of using a non-fully-supported format. However, if you must go that route, I would recommend sticking with NTFS Mounter. It doesn't get any more simple and it's not a kludge like NTFS-3G.
 
Thats something I forgot to ask, should I get Lion? is it like installing windows?(deletes everything and starts with a blank HDD) or does it keep my apps and files? If its a major improvement I will buy it today.

As for the hard drive software, I have my wife's desktop, My hard drives aren't that big so I could dump them in the windows machine while I format them and pass up all of the info again?

Also whats software would you recommend to get these hard drives to write on both windows and macs?

Thanks, sorry for asking too many questions :eek:

Edit:

I think I read that if I format both to FAT I can use them on both PC and Mac? I have two drives, one 250gb usb drive which is almost full, and a WD portable 750gb drive which has around 100gigs used.
 
Last edited:
gab2012 said:
Thats something I forgot to ask, should I get Lion? is it like installing windows?(deletes everything and starts with a blank HDD) or does it keep my apps and files? If its a major improvement I will buy it today.
Click to expand...

If you just purchased your iMac, you can install Lion for free here. It's amazing, get it.

Forget everything you ever knew about computers. Windows forces your to struggle every day of your life, now enjoy freedom.

Installing Lion involves running an app. Just a regular app, basically. When your computer finishes installing, it starts up to your desktop and it seems like everything is just where you left them, including all of your settings!

gab2012 said:
Also whats software would you recommend to get these hard drives to write on both windows and macs?
Click to expand...

NTFS Mounter for the Mac.
 
I need to call apple, my serial number can't be found, faced the same issue when I called yesterday to register my apple care.

But if I can get it for free that is sweet :)
 
Last edited:
gab2012 said:
I need to call apple, my serial number can't be found, faced the same issue when I called yesterday to register my apple care.
Click to expand...

Click the  at the top left corner (called the Apple Menu) and click About This Mac... Now click the grey words that say Version 10.*** until it says your Serial Number.

gab2012 said:
But if I can get it for free that is sweet :)
Click to expand...

Yeah it would be.

gab2012 said:
I need to use windows because the kids are always visiting us and passing their pictures and videos to our external hard drives so me and my wife can sit back and watch them on our TV, and the kids just have windows laptops.
Click to expand...

Again, you can view things on NTFS drives natively on the mac, you just can't write. So you can watch the movies natively, but you can't add or alter them in any way. To do that, you'd simply need NTFS Mounter.
 
Let me chime in on this iMac lovefest:

I'm sitting in the business lounge of Munich International Airport with my trusty old '07 iMac. It has accompanied me on three different continents, survived airport security and unpaved backroads in the trunk of a car, and it has not once let me down (touch wood).

I carry it around like a laptop (in an iLugger bag), set up and make all the notebook users look like pansies. :p

So for durability, I would have to say it's pretty d--n good! (touch wood again).

I'm long overdue for a new MacPro, but my iMac isn't going anywhere until it conks out on me. It's a friend.

:apple: FTW
 
Edit:

Submitted my claim through here and it took my serial number and told me I would receive an email with a code soon. https://uptodate.apple.com/us/uptodate/macosx/

anyone know how long will this take?

also I just tried ntfs mounter and it works with my wd 750gig HDD. Kind of a process since I need to open the unlock application and enter my hard drive password in order to use it
 
Last edited:
Turns out that the date of purchase that shows up on their system is in may...I purchased this yesterday...

So I need to wait 7 business days to get my redemption code because the automated system fails to accept my serial number along with the state of Puerto Rico.
 
gab2012 said:
Kind of a process since I need to open the unlock application and enter my hard drive password in order to use it
Click to expand...

Oh lawd, the worst mistake new Mac-users make and that should be better explained by Apple.

OK. When you downloaded NTFS Mounter, it went into your Downloads folder. That white icon with a zipper is a zipped, or compressed, folder. Just uncompress it by opening it. The new file that appears next to it, the grey icon on a white piece of paper, is an icon of a Hard Drive.

This is a disk image. Let's pretend it's a CD-ROM. How do you install from a CD-ROM?

Step 1: put it in the drive! To do this, click to open the disk and it will verify then mount onto your desktop. Basically, it's in your CD-ROM drive now.

Step 2: install the application from the "CD-ROM" to the hard drive. To do this on Macs, you simply drag the Application to the Applications folder icon. They are normally in the same Finder window, so it involves no searching.

Step 3: Now that the application is on your hard drive, you no longer need the "CD-ROM". Eject it by right-clicking or control-clicking the icon of the disk mounted on your desktop (in this case called NTFS Mounter) and clicking Eject. Throw the ZIP and .dmg (disk image) file into the trash. You can empty the trash now.

Done.

Now to run the application, just click it in the Applications folder, of course.

As a note, always read Read Me files in such installers. They will offer crucial information in most cases and help prevent problems. Just click the Read Me file once to highlight it, then hit the space bar to view it without opening an application.

Thanks for bringing this up, I'll be sure to ad this one to my new blog now. Link below.
 
MrCheeto said:
Oh lawd, the worst mistake new Mac-users make and that should be better explained by Apple.

OK. When you downloaded NTFS Mounter, it went into your Downloads folder. That white icon with a zipper is a zipped, or compressed, folder. Just uncompress it by opening it. The new file that appears next to it, the grey icon on a white piece of paper, is an icon of a Hard Drive.

This is a disk image. Let's pretend it's a CD-ROM. How do you install from a CD-ROM?

Step 1: put it in the drive! To do this, click to open the disk and it will verify then mount onto your desktop. Basically, it's in your CD-ROM drive now.

Step 2: install the application from the "CD-ROM" to the hard drive. To do this on Macs, you simply drag the Application to the Applications folder icon. They are normally in the same Finder window, so it involves no searching.

Step 3: Now that the application is on your hard drive, you no longer need the "CD-ROM". Eject it by right-clicking or control-clicking the icon of the disk mounted on your desktop (in this case called NTFS Mounter) and clicking Eject. Throw the ZIP and .dmg (disk image) file into the trash. You can empty the trash now.

Done.

Now to run the application, just click it in the Applications folder, of course.

As a note, always read Read Me files in such installers. They will offer crucial information in most cases and help prevent problems. Just click the Read Me file once to highlight it, then hit the space bar to view it without opening an application.

Thanks for bringing this up, I'll be sure to ad this one to my new blog now. Link below.
Click to expand...

No prob :p, waiting on Lion code now
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back