PC -> Mac File Transfer

[MaskedPhantom]

Hello all,

I am the proud owner of a new low-end Macbook. Everything has been running smoothly, but I do have a question. Before getting this Macbook for my own use, I shared an HP desktop computer with my whole family. I have a lot of files that are very important to me on that computer [including my massive iTunes library]. That PC was split into several individual accounts for each user. So, my question is, how can I transfer just the stuff from my own account on that PC to this Macbook? Any help would be appreciated.

I remain a Macintosh faithful .

 

[pjarvi]

Windows stores each profile within its own folder under "C:\Documents and Settings\profilename". That's where you will find your My Documents folder, Desktop folder, and Favorites folder (IE bookmarks). You will need to turn on sharing for any folder you want to access from the Mac, so the easiest thing to do is to share the whole drive (C: ).

To enable sharing, open My Computer and right-click on the C: drive and choose "Sharing". Don't worry about any of the extra settings available, just turn on the sharing. Windows may try to warn you about turning on sharing, just click Yes/OK on whatever is needed to turn it on.

After sharing is turned on, goto to Start > Run... > type in CMD and click OK. In the command prompt window that appears, type in IPCONFIG and press enter. The IP Address of the computer should appear, write it down.

Now, from the Mac, click on the desktop to make the Finder the current application on the menu bar, click on Go > Connect to Server. Type in: SMB://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx where the xxx's are the IP address of the Windows computer. If you are prompted for a username and password, enter the username of your profile and your password for that username (if no password, just leave that blank). After connecting, a window should appear asking what you want to connect to, you should see whatever folder you shared as being available to connect to.

Once connected, the folder should appear mounted on the desktop with its own icon. Simply find the stuff you want to transfer and drag it over to where you want it.

If you need more detailed instructions, a Google search should provide plenty of tutorials for this. I believe Apple has a tutorial on their site as well.

P.S. You should turn off sharing when you're done on the Windows machine.

 

[benmoorhouse]

Perfect, I'll just hijack this thread as my topic is the same!

I've ordered an iMac and am preparing for its arrival in so many ways I never thought.

I also have a big iTunes library that I want to move onto the iMac but I want to do it without backing all my music and podcasts onto CD's and DVD's as iTunes insists on PC.

How can I get around this?

If I do the same as suggested above, where do I drag the files over to on the Mac? My ideal solution would be the standard iTunes backup but to my portable HD, so if that's possible I'd be hugely grateful.

The key thing is I want to keep the ratings, times listened etc data intact.