Recent Switcher - And I need some help!

[ferrisb]

I just placed my order for a Dual G5 2.0 last week, and while I'm waiting, I'd like to get some advice.

I've currently got an 80GB drive in my PC full of music that I'd like to install into the Mac. Can I just remove the drive from the PC, throw it into the Mac, and go on my way? Or will the Mac automatically format the drive on startup, causing me to lose all my music?

If it will format it, or this won't work, what's the best way to transfer all that info from the PC to the Mac so that I don't lose it?

My other questions are a little simpler. On the PC, if I press the "home" and "end" keys, the cursor moves to the beginning and end of the line. How do I do this in OSX? I've been using the G4 at my work a little bit, and all those keys do is move me from the top of the document and to the bottom. I do a lot of Flash Actionscripting, and I use these keys all the time on the PC to get around in the code without my mouse.

The last question is more of a survey. I like to name my computers and drives. I currently have Apu, Elmo, Disco_Stu, Milhouse, and Ralph. I'm thinking of going with Prof_Frink for the G5 (it'll be the smartest one of the bunch), but I'd like some other suggestions.

Thanks for the help, and please bear with me as I make the transition. I've been reading this board for a long time, and now I finally have a reason to post. Also, since I'm buying a mac, and the guy at work who did all his work on his Powerbook left us, I've become the unofficial "Mac Guy". We have a G4, but it doesn't get used other than for the occasional video job in Final Cut. But since I'm now MacGuy, I may need some help catching up a bit. Thanks again!

 

[BakedBeans]

if its just music then you cant have more than say ten gig..(and if you do...wow) thats 2-3 dvds... so i would just burn it to dvd...but i think there are programs that can do that type of thing

anyway...names....

you could just go 4 a new set of names.... star wars(obi wan, yoda)...harry potter( hagrid, weasley, snape)...pulp fiction... (vincent vega, jules winfield) you get the drift....

if simpsons is the preference then i would go with bumblebee man or chief wigum

 

[ferrisb]

I thought about burning discs, but my PC doesn't have a dvd burner, just a cd burner. Also, I've got around 50GB of music. (I'm a music whore, I know.)

Is it possible to just run a firewire cable or ethernet cable from one to the other? Can I mount my pc as a drive if I do that?

And thanks for the name suggestions - I'll add Yoda and Chewbacca to the list of possible names now. Maybe when I get it narrowed down to a few, I can get Arn to post it as a poll of the day or something.

 

[vasaz]

for scrolling to the start/end of a line, hold option (alt) and press up/down arrow keys. If it's just a one line field that you are editing (such as web browser url) you can just push up/down key.

 

[epiphany]

data transfer

Go to www.macwindows.com
They have excellent tutorials on transferring data between systems. An ethernet cross-over cable (cheap at Radio Shack, not so cheap at Best Buy), a browser, sharing, and it's done!

 

[Macmaniac]

Does your PC use Serial ATA? If it does not have SATA the drive won't even plug into your G5, try using the network idea from the last post if your PC has gigabit ethernet then the transfer should not take too long. One piece of advice would be to install itunes onto your PC and organize your music there, then when you transfer your music to the G5 all the tags should stay with them.

 

[musicpyrite]

you could just go 4 a new set of names.... star wars(obi wan, yoda)

That's what I do with my drives:
Mac hard drive-------------- The Force
iPod-------------------------- Yoda
External 10 GB HD---------- Obi-Wan
External 160 GB HD-------- Qui-Gon
Network--------------------- Darth Vader

All my other drives have normal names....

 

[ferrisb]

Thanks for the help so far. Sounds like the crossover cable is my best bet so far. Unfortunately, I can't try that for about another two weeks, but I'll remember it. I'll definately check that site out later.

Luckily, I have been using iTunes since the Windows version was first launched, so my tunes are pretty well organized so far.

 

[robbieduncan]

Thanks for the help so far. Sounds like the crossover cable is my best bet so far. Unfortunately, I can't try that for about another two weeks, but I'll remember it. I'll definately check that site out later.

Luckily, I have been using iTunes since the Windows version was first launched, so my tunes are pretty well organized so far.

You probably don't need a crossover cable, a standard ethernet cable should be find. Macs have shipped with auto-sensing ethernet ports for a while so you can just plug then into another machine and the port does the crossover for you.