Switching From A MacBook Pro Back To A Dell?

[Big Tav]

Hi Everyone,

This might not be the most popular topic but how hard is it to switch back from a Macbook Pro back to a Dell?

We are running two different operation systems in the house and it's me that has to look after everything as my other half isn't computer savvy at all. She is running the MacBookPro and an iPhone XS Max.

I am looking to switch her computer back to a Dell laptop like my work computer and a Samsung Phone just to make everything easier (and way cheaper!)

I am having to back up 2 machines, buy two copies office 365, using Photos etc and she doesn't really like the Mack book Pro she has either.

It would make my life way easier if everything was just running on Windows and Android.

I have a 512gb 2017 MacBook Pro 13 and 2TB External Drive. So I have some backed up files on my External drive from my old (previous MacBook) like about a 500Gb iPhoto Library and about 500Gb of just other files.

How would I even copy this stuff across to a Windows format?

Would I need to give my computer to someone who has a Mac running both Operating Systems and they could copy it from one format to the other or something? Then transfer it onto my Windows External drive?

How would I get all my photos transferred out of Apple Photos into jpeg files for my Dell to read them?

Hopefully someone can offer some advice!

Thanks

 

[BrianBaughn]

The Mac's Photos app has an export function so that's easy. If you know where all the documents are (they are where the user saved them) then copying them isn't an issue. You didn't mention any files that would have to be changed from a Mac format to a "Windows format" so you don't have to think about that unless you've left out some info.

The issue is what external drive(s) you have, what size they are, what is on them, how much free and used space is on each and how the drives are formatted. Answer all of that and a procedure can be derived.

 

[Expos of 1969]

Hi Everyone,

This might not be the most popular topic but how hard is it to switch back from a Macbook Pro back to a Dell?

We are running two different operation systems in the house and it's me that has to look after everything as my other half isn't computer savvy at all. She is running the MacBookPro and an iPhone XS Max.

I am looking to switch her computer back to a Dell laptop like my work computer and a Samsung Phone just to make everything easier (and way cheaper!)

I am having to back up 2 machines, buy two copies office 365, using Photos etc and she doesn't really like the Mack book Pro she has either.

It would make my life way easier if everything was just running on Windows and Android.

I have a 512gb 2017 MacBook Pro 13 and 2TB External Drive. So I have some backed up files on my External drive from my old (previous MacBook) like about a 500Gb iPhoto Library and about 500Gb of just other files.

How would I even copy this stuff across to a Windows format?

Would I need to give my computer to someone who has a Mac running both Operating Systems and they could copy it from one format to the other or something? Then transfer it onto my Windows External drive?

How would I get all my photos transferred out of Apple Photos into jpeg files for my Dell to read them?

Hopefully someone can offer some advice!

Thanks

After having used Apple products since 1998 I am almost finished transitioning to other companies. No more iPhone (enjoy my Samsung Galaxy s10e), no more Apple Music (have long used Spotify Premium as well), no more iCloud and once my 2013 MacBook Pro dies no more Apple hardware. In order to have a cloud backup I uploaded my photos to Google Photos (original not compressed so I pay for the Google storage). Do you really have 500GB of photos? I also exported them to a hard drive.

I saved files (very few compared to you) to an external drive. I don't yet have my MacBookPro replacement (which won't be an Apple product) so I can't offer advice on the transfer of things to Dell.

You must have work colleagues or friends with some tech ability to assist you? Important to keep the wife or girlfriend happy 😎 but as you are in Australia I think getting away from the obscene Apple prices in your country will also keep you happy.

 

[Big Tav]

The Mac's Photos app has an export function so that's easy. If you know where all the documents are (they are where the user saved them) then copying them isn't an issue. You didn't mention any files that would have to be changed from a Mac format to a "Windows format" so you don't have to think about that unless you've left out some info.

The issue is what external drive(s) you have, what size they are, what is on them, how much free and used space is on each and how the drives are formatted. Answer all of that and a procedure can be derived.

Hi, thanks for the reply. I have 2 External drives. One for my Macbook and one for my Dell laptop. Both are 2TB.

I know you are saying photos are easy and can be exported but how can my Macbook export my library into a Windows format that can be read on my Windows External drive?
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After having used Apple products since 1998 I am almost finished transitioning to other companies. No more iPhone (enjoy my Samsung Galaxy s10e), no more Apple Music (have long used Spotify Premium as well), no more iCloud and once my 2013 MacBook Pro dies no more Apple hardware. In order to have a cloud backup I uploaded my photos to Google Photos (original not compressed so I pay for the Google storage). Do you really have 500GB of photos? I also exported them to a hard drive.

I saved files (very few compared to you) to an external drive. I don't yet have my MacBookPro replacement (which won't be an Apple product) so I can't offer advice on the transfer of things to Dell.

You must have work colleagues or friends with some tech ability to assist you? Important to keep the wife or girlfriend happy 😎 but as you are in Australia I think getting away from the obscene Apple prices in your country will also keep you happy.

Hi Mate, I am an Aussie but living in Scotland actually.

Yeah I do have 500GB of photos and videos. The I have been using iphoto for a fair while like over a 15 year period. I filled up my first hard drive on my original Macbook Pro 2010. and then exported the library, then filled it again!

I have iCloud for my Wife but I think it's only 200Gb.

I just don't know how to get my photos off the latest macbook and my external drive and then back on to my Windows one. I am sure iTunes is going to be a pain too as my entire music library was imported into that from my CD collection about 5 years ago.

None of my work colleagues have Macs. iPhones yes. Macs no. The Apple Store in Edinburgh will be useless too! Lol

 

[hobowankenobi]

For truly cross-platform external drives, you have several options. Some include buying third party software to access a non-native format. One of the few free and easy options would be to format your externals ExFAT. To be clear, that means wiping the drive, so you need some place to backup or move your data before formatting.

ExFAT is likely a bit slower than a native boot format (either HFS+ or NTFS), and there is some chance it is a less robust file format, with a nominally higher chance of error/failure.

For anybody that has never reformatted an external drive to ExFAT, I would suggest a practice run and testing. Format a test drive (USB stick or whatever is handy) and then copy some test data on it. Try in both a Mac and Win box, being sure it mounts as expected and you can both add and delete as expected (read and write).

One other option would be to use a file share. Either your own (like a NAS) or a cloud service like DropBox, OneDrive, Google Drive, Mega, etc. Pretty much all are cross platform and don't suffer any issues sharing files between platforms.

 

[lagisibuk]

what is your HDD backup format???
you external hardisk can access using windows? IF YES, just copy your file from old mac to external hdd and then from external copy again to new laptop (windows).

or if your old macbook is die, you need to buy enclosure to read your old SSD and then using your 2017 macbook read all file and backup into external hdd (again)